Portrait of the Month
Pinchas Schumacher
This month we are featuring a beautiful portrait of Pinchas Shumacher. Pinchas did not survive the Holocaust, but we know about him because his granddaughter, Estera Ajzen, survived and kept her grandfather's memory alive. We were drawn to the unique shapes the artist discovered while observing the striking contrast between the white beard and the shadow from which he emerges.
Students around the world have drawn Pinchas' portrait and reflected on the experience of remembering through art:
"It felt nice to take time with a person who is no longer with us. It would be terrible to just forget about them, so this felt good and made me feel very happy."
—Jake L.
"It felt like I was creating a connection and the more you look at the photo it reveals more."
—Carmen L.
"[I will remember] looking into the eyes of this man and knowing his story, and everything he went through."
—Caleb A.
Read Pinchas’s story below and click here to view past Portrait of the Month selections
About the subject
Pinchas Schumacher was Zayde, the Yiddish word for grandfather, to Estera Ajzen. He was patriarch of a Jewish family that lived in the city of Chelm, Poland. After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Estera Azjen and her family fled to the Soviet zone. In January 1940, they were deported to a labor camp in the most northern part of European Russia. They were released in April, 1941. Ester and her family moved to Gorky, where she met a Soviet Jewish soldier from the Ukraine. They were married and settled in Poland after the war, later moving to the U.S. in 1956. Honor Pinchas by viewing more portraits of him.
About the workshop
This portrait was created at the Calkins Road Middle School in Stephanie Warchol’s Art Class.