Leo Kahn

1894 - 1983

Born in 1894 in Bruchsal, Germany. Leo Kahn served in the German army in 1914. Later he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe between 1919-1920 under the tutelage of Albert Hueinsen. In his early career Kahn travelled to Berlin (where he met and befriended Max Liebermann), to Holland, and France in search of artistic inspiration. In 1926 he was commissioned for the decoration of an important synagogue in Bruchsal.

Leo Kahn exhibited in Karlsruhe, Munich, Ulm, Zurich, and Paris. In 1928, Kahn lived in the south of France where he befriended the important Fauve artist André Derain. He then moved to Paris where he maintained a studio until 1934. Kahn emigrated to Israel in 1936, settled in Ramat Gan and founded Israel's first textile printing factory.

In 1960, he moved to Safed's Artist Colony. He is primarily remembered as a landscape, still life and portrait artist, and the influence of Paul Cézanne is deeply felt in his work.

Awards:

1950 Venice Biennale

1957 Dizengoff Prize

1982 Worthy of the City of Ramat Gan

Jerusalem Hills Landscape. Late 1930s Oil on Canvas

Tree Judea Late 1930s. Oil on Board

Rural Landscape 1940s Oil on Canvas | Gifted by Mrs A. Bohannan

Historical Context

The Jewish Synagogue at Bruchsal Baden-Württemberg , Germany.

Although Bruchsal’s documented Jewish history began in 1288, it was not until after the Thirty Years’ War that Jews began to flourish there. Bruchsal’s original prayer room was located in the home of Jacob Suessel, a community leader from 1704 until 1750.

The community established a synagogue in Bruschal in1802, a district rabbinate in 1827 and a new synagogue, with an organ, in 1881. Jews not only owned many businesses including in the tobacco and hops industries but also they helped found a museum and library. By 1933

Bruchsal’s Jews maintained a Cemetery, a Mikveh and seven charity and welfare associations.

In 1936, Bruchsal’s 40 Jewish schoolchildren were segregated from their Christian peers by the National Socialist authorities. On Pogrom Night known as Kristallnacht, the synagogue was burned down, Jewish homes and businesses were attacked, windows were smashed, and furniture and merchandise were either damaged or looted; in Bruchsal, Jewish men were arrested that night and sent to Dachau.

The synagogue’s ruins were later dismantled at the Jewish community’s expense. Seventy-six Bruchsal Jews emigrated, 30 relocated within Germany and one committed suicide in August 1938.

On October 22, 1940, the last 79 Jews were deported to Gurs. Only four Jewish women, all of whom were married to Christians, remained in Bruchsal. At least 93 local Jews perished in the Shoah (Holocaust)

Later in the 1950s a fire station was built on the former synagogue site (78 Friedrichtstrasse) and a plaque was unveiled there in 1966, followed by another in October 2000. One of the six pillars from the entrance to Bruchsal’s former synagogue has been moved to the Obergrombach Jewish cemetery.