After splitting one of its โshouldersโ, Tevat Paul continued traveling to NYC, Montreal and back to Berlinโpartly broken, nevertheless successful.ย
At home, Tevat Paul had to spend several days at the sculptor’s atelier in Berlin Kreuzbergโthe place of its creationโfor a very special treatment, Kintsugi, thoughtfully prepared to both heal and refine its fracture. With the Kintsugi technique, gold is used to attach the broken parts by creating a gold connection that highlights the blemish.
A Traveling Tombstone โTevat Paulโ jeweled with a golden scar, Sculptor: Robert Schmidt-Matt.
It was my cousin Michelle, a social worker in Lynn, Massachusetts, who introduced me to the Kintsugi method, and I am very grateful to her for this truly wonderful idea for the restoration of Tevat Paul. Michelleโs idea of using the traditional Japanese art of pottery restoration, combined with talent, care and love, turned in the sculptor’s hands into a golden scar on the stone.
Since then, our hexahedral โtraveling heroโ, Tevat Paul, is whole again, jeweled with a golden scar.
A Traveling Tombstone โTevat Paulโ jeweled with a golden scar, Sculptor: Robert Schmidt-Matt.
Invite our Traveling Exhibition @CONTACT ๐ฉ to your institution and
Paul A. Levineโs life ended, as he might have predicted, in contradiction. A devoted Hegelian, he summed up his worldview in two words โ โresponsible irresponsibility.โ He wished them engraved on his tombstone, but instead rests in a collective grave, his name misspelled, his individuality absorbed into anonymity.
Skillfully reducing a two-historian request to a one-historian response by casually brushing aside the fact that the initiativeโs request was about two historians, not merely one, the Uppsala University’s answer refers to a โpurely organizational decision.โ Consequently, additional questions arise on acknowledgment and neglect in the case of Paul A. Levine…
Skillfully reducing a two-historian request to a one-historian response by casually brushing aside the fact that the initiativeโs request was about two historians, not merely one, the Uppsala University’s answer refers to a โpurely organizational decision.โ Consequently, additional questions arise on acknowledgment and neglect in the case of Paul A. Levine…
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โ the sculpture No. 1 in the series A Traveling Tombstone
โTevat Paulโ; Sculptor: Robert Schmidt-Matt. Material: Diabas, 10 x 10 x 12 cm. Engraved: โResponsible irresponsibility – Paul A. Levineโ. Photo credits: Ronen Khazin.
The sculpture bears the Hebrew name Tevat Paul (ืชืืืช ืคืื โ Ark Paul) and is a memorial stone that can be placed anywhere, consisting of two inseparable parts.
โTevat Paulโ; Sculptor: Robert Schmidt-Matt. Material: Diabas, 10 x 10 x 12 cm. Engraved: โResponsible irresponsibility – Paul A. Levineโ. Photo credits: Ronen Khazin.
In this way, the Jewish culture of remembrance is linked, which enables a separation of location-specificity: indeed, if a homeland can travel as a concept, then a tombstone can, under certain circumstances, also travel.
In Spring 2022, the traveling tombstone Tevat Paul was on its way traveling; and it had an interesting route to explore and people to meet.
A Traveling Tombstone Tevat Paul on board. March, 2022.
Our goal is to present the Traveling Tombstone series as a piece of art and a concept in different places, to visit our partners, to find new friends and further support.
Invite our Traveling Exhibition @CONTACT ๐ฉ to your institution and
Skillfully reducing a two-historian request to a one-historian response by casually brushing aside the fact that the initiativeโs request was about two historians, not merely one, the Uppsala University’s answer refers to a โpurely organizational decision.โ Consequently, additional questions arise on acknowledgment and neglect in the case of Paul A. Levine…
“Imagine the mentality of, and education-provided level of information available to, the thugs and hooligans who desecrated the image of Simone Veil, the French Holocaust survivor who graced us all with her enduring strength and human dignity. There can no longer be any doubt that the situation for Jews and all other minority populations inโฆ
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Visiting Professor Frank Chalk, Department of History Concordia University, Montreal QC, Canada
โโฆthereยดs a not inconsiderable Canadian connection in both my personal and professional lifeโฆโ โ Paul A. Levine, Summer 2018.
After special trip to New York โ Levineโs city of birth โ Tevat Paul moved further, hexagonally dissecting the expanses of the โheavenly oceanโ on the small Embraer aircraft, direction Montreal, to meet Professor Frank Chalk at Concordia University.
Professor of History and Research Director at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Concordia University, Prof. Dr. Frank Chalk was Paul Levineโs mentor and colleague for several decades. On the tenth floor of the Library Building, seated in his History Department office, overlooking Montreal Downtown West from a birdโs eye view, Professor Chalk shared his memories of meetings with Paul Levine.
A Traveling Tombstone โTevat Paulโ meets Prof. Dr. Frank Chalk, Department of History Concordia University, Montreal QC, Canada. Series: โZweisamโ; Sculptor: Robert Schmidt-Matt. Material: Diabas, 10 x 10 x 12 cm. Engraved: โRESPONSIBLE IRRESPONSIBILITY – Paul A. Levineโ.
โOver the years, we have met and exchanged ideas several times starting with my visit to Uppsala University in the late 1990s to participate in a teacher training program, followed by discussions during a training program for mid-level foreign affairs officials organized by the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation in Poland in 2012, and, most recently, at the Armenian Government conference on genocide prevention in Yerevan in April 2016โฆ”.
“Dr. Levine is one of those rare research scholars who thinks deeply and seriously about what we teach and how we teach it. In publication after publication and talk after talk, he probes what changes happen in the classroom when we teach about the Shoah in different nations and cultural contexts, how the recent emphasis on the memory of the Holocaust affects the facts we emphasize or ignore, and what lessons the Holocaust might teach us that would inform our responses to identity politics….” โ Chalk, Frank, 2016.
A Traveling Tombstone โTevat Paulโ visited Prof. Dr. Frank Chalk, Department of History Concordia University, Montreal QC, Canada. Series: โZweisamโ; Sculptor: Robert Schmidt-Matt. Material: Diabas, 10 x 10 x 12 cm. Engraved: โRESPONSIBLE IRRESPONSIBILITY – Paul A. Levineโ.
Professor Chalk asked detailed questions about both the Tevat Paul project and the Initiative itself, showing high interest and great participation, expressing the warmest wishes for success.
Thanks for the cookies, Professor Chalk, and for the heartfelt welcome.
With the beginning of summer 2022, the very first journey of the Traveling Tombstone Tevat Paul was nearing its successful conclusion. The way forward takes us back home, to Berlin. Just as wars finally end with negotiations, so travels end with the way home. And the first journey that has come to an end clears the way for the next oneโฆ Maybe Sweden or Israel? England, Hungary? โ Who knows…
Do you too feel connected to Professor Paul A. Levine and his work, and would you like to meet Tevat Paul, a Traveling Tombstone dedicated to the star-historian as well?
Drop me a note ๐ฉ @CONTACT and let us schedule a meeting.
– The only book of its kind in Arabic; Also published in Turkish and Persian. The book “Tell Ye Your Children”, written for children, is telling stories about children and is addressed primarily to adults…
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In May 2022, Tevat Paul visited a few places in and near New York City connected to Levine’s life-story.
In 1956, the second son of four children, Paul A. Levine was born in New York City; he later admitted some “…dim memories from painfully musty Brighton Beach/Brooklyn apartments… …thinking and feeling Grandpa Levine, who took care of me and always brought fresh borscht to NJ.” (Levine, 2019.)
A Traveling Tombstone โTevat Paulโ in New York; series: โZweisamโ; Sculptor: Robert Schmidt-Matt. Material: Diabas, 10 x 10 x 12 cm. Engraved: โResponsible irresponsibility โ Paul A. Levineโ. 2022.
It was 1964 or early 1965, in Emerson NJ, when two Jewish-American boys โ Paul and Ric โ on their daily walk to school and back walked along the Main Street, passed by the Armenian nursing home every day. Nearby, 500 meters east, on Elmwood Drive, was the home of their family. Paul was then a seven-year-old child and did not understand that he was observing Armenians who survived the genocide [1].
Emerson Elementary School, Emerson NJ“Main [St] led into Linwood and our school was on our left as we walked up Main [St]“Emerson NJ, 2022.Tevat Paul โ A Traveling Tombstone in Emerson NJ. “… I walked to Linwood School from our small house about 500 meters from the Nursing Home. Every day we passed what we called, โThe Armenian Old Peopleยดs Homeโ. That was all I knew about it. …What I remember most are the hands of some of the old people sitting in the garden. I remember looking hard at their gloves, and often seeing clearly that there were fingers missing. To a young boy, they should have been there. But they were not, and this I canยดt forget.” โ Levine, 2019.
In 2019, Levine was the narrator of the film “The American Samaritans”, the film that reports about him traveling in the US, working for the project about the Armenian Genocide. [2]
Tevat Paul in Brooklyn NYTevat Paul in Brooklyn NYTevat Paul in New York CityA Traveling Tombstone Tevat Paul in New YorkIn Rutgers UniversityJewish Student CenterTevat Paul visits Rutgers University on a rainy dayTevat Paul visiting Rutgers university, New Brunswick, NJ.
"1994- 1996: Rutgers University, Department of History, adjunct lecturer. Taught courses in history of the Holocaust, history methods and modern European history. 1994- 1996: Rutgers University, Director, The Raoul Wallenberg Professorship in Human Rights. Responsibilities included fundraising, development of Holocaust educational outreach programs for teachers, organizing public lectures and academic conferences, etc. 1992- 1993: Rutgers University, Department of History-- Visiting Lecturer & Fellow, The Raoul Wallenberg Professorship in Human Rights" โ Levine's Academic Employment and Positions. From CV, March, 2019.
"...I have known Dr. Levine's work since ... when he held the Raoul Wallenberg Professorship in Human Rights at Rutgers University."โ Frank Chalk, 2016.
“Dr. Levine is well known and highly respected by scholars studying the Shoah and the history of genocide for his pioneering scientific research on Raoul Wallenberg’s role in Hungary; for his great achievement in co-authoring the most widely circulated and extensively translated popular history of the Holocaust, Tell Ye Your Children; and for his effective and energetic role as a public intellectual confronting the themes of rescue and by-standing during the Holocaust….” โ Chalk, Frank, 2016.
On my way to the Montreal Institute for Genocide & Human Rights Studies, Concordia University, to meet Professor Frank Chalk, I’ll talk to you soon..
Invite our traveling exhibition ๐ฉ @CONTACT to your institution and
In his powerful final speech delivered directly from the congress floor (RJC, in 2018), historian Paul A. Levine addressed issues of internationalization of the Holocaust education, ignorance in education and leadership of the US…
โI will soon be in Boston for a documentary film about the Armenian Genocide that I ฬve been asked to participate in.โ โ Paul A. Levine, correspondence, April 2019.
“โฆ our visit to the Boston Public Library was of even more personal interest to me because of Irwin [Hoffman][1].โ โ Paul A. Levine, correspondence, April 2019.
A Traveling Tombstone โTevat Paulโ, series: โZweisamโ; Sculptor: Robert Schmidt-Matt. Material: Diabas, 10 x 10 x 12 cm. Engraved: โResponsible irresponsibility – Paul A. Levineโ.
Visiting Boston & Cambridge MA
As easily as Tevat Paul turned all its six diabas-facets towards the United States, not needing a visa as such, it once again attracted much attention from the authorities on both sides, crossing the next border in a mesmerizing flight over the lakes of New England.
The Tevat Paul sculpture, accompanied by the author of these lines, has arrived at its destination: on a sunny dayโฆ
Paul Levine arrived in Boston in September 2019, on his last business trip to the United States. On that trip for the last time, he should have met his relatives living in the area[2]…
โฆQuite unique was, that in Bostonโas was discovered several years agoโa part of my own family has been found, the โlost family tribeโ, the branch of the family disconnected since World War II. Being on the road with the Tevat Paul project, currently on the North American continent, I received an invaluable gift for Pesach Sameach: the opportunity to meet my โlostโ family. And so, I did!
My grandmotherโs niece, Ninotchka, born in Lviv in 1939, who survived WW2 as a child (in her book I will later learn the history of her parents and siblings during and after the war), and her mishpucha shared with me family warmth, and a memorable Pesach Seder evening, which I was fortunate to be a part of. Our gathering was not only imbued with love of family, but it also became a source of new ideas and meetings in connection with the project.
The meeting with historian Omer Bartov, in Cambridge MA, was truly the icing on the cake of my trip to Boston.
Tevat Paul – A Traveling Tombstone – visiting Boston and Cambridge MA, 2022.
I express heartfelt thanks to everyone who made these two significant meetings possible, and with deep gratitude provide several photographs capturing some historical moments.
Do you too feel connected to Professor Paul A. Levine and his work, and would you like to meet Tevat Paul, a Traveling Tombstone dedicated to the star-historian as well?
Drop me a note ๐ฉ @CONTACT and let us schedule a meeting.
Footnotes: [1] The American painter Irwin D. Hoffman, who was related to Paul A. Levine, sent, as some believe, to General Israel Orphans Home for Girls in Jerusalem "a violin each year and bequeathed money for an auditorium in his mom's name and the Trustees of the Public Library of the City of Bostonโฆ" "My mother gave me several of his [Hoffman] etchings... which are achingly beautifulโฆโ โ From Levineโs correspondence, April 2019, Paul A. Levine Library. [2] Meeting the president of Latvia Vikes-Freibergas at the release of the Latvian translation of โTell Ye Your Childrenโ, in 2001, and giving his talk in a magnificent room in Riga, Levine spoke about his grandfather and grandfatherโs brothers departing Riga and arriving on the Chelsea Boston docks. โ Levine, P. A., notes summer 2018.
“…thereยดs a not inconsiderable Canadian connection in both my personal and professional life…” โ Paul A. Levine, Summer 2018.
A Traveling Tombstone โTevat Paulโ in Toronto; series: โZweisamโ; Sculptor: Robert Schmidt-Matt. Material: Diabas, 10 x 10 x 12 cm. Engraved: โResponsible irresponsibility โ Paul A. Levineโ. Photo credits: Amir Gavriely. 2022.
The first stop on this unique journey of A Traveling Tombstone Tevat Paul is Toronto, Canada, a country that, according to historian Paul A. Levine, was of great importance in his life.
๐ A Traveling Tombstone Tevat Paul made its first city tour, posing in a number of prominent and lesser-known urban locations. This sculpture is a project in collaboration with sculptor Robert Schmidt-Matt and the initiative โPaul A. Levine Libraryโ.
Here, in downtown Toronto, a long-awaited meeting with activists of the initiative Nataly Khazin and Amir Gavriely took place recently.
Israeli-Canadian photographer Amir Gavriely captured some moments of our meeting and also his impressions of meeting the sculpture Tevat Paul live, perfectly fitting it into the architectural context of the North American metropolis. An important detail: we owe this wonderful and meaningful name of the sculpture to Amir, who suggested the name Tevat Paul. Indeed, what a great idea!
Now then: see & admire Tevat Paul in Toronto.
CN TowerArt Gallery of Ontario โ extension designed by Frank GehryTwo Large Forms โ by Henry Moore, at Grange Park, TorontoTevat Paul โ A Traveling Tombstone in Canada. Photo credits: Amir Gavriely. Two Large Forms โ by Henry Moore, at Grange Park, TorontoRobarts Library, University of TorontoArt Gallery of Ontario โ extension designed by Frank GehryA Traveling Tombstone Tevat Paul in Canada. Photo credits: Amir Gavriely. At Hart House, University of Toronto Student CentreLittle Free Library, Huron Street, TorontoAt Hart House, University of Toronto Student CentreA Traveling Tombstone Tevat Paul in Canada. Photo credits: Amir Gavriely. Amir & Elena; Tevat Paul – A Traveling Tombstone in Toronto.Unionville, just north of TorontoOntario College of Art & Design University.A Traveling Tombstone Tevat Paul in Canada. Photo credits: Amir Gavriely. a natural stone (Diabas) sculpture commemorating Holocaust historian Paul A. Levine, with his epitaph carved into it: โResponsible Irresponsibility. Paul A. Levineโ.A Traveling Tombstone Tevat Paul in Canada. Photo credits: Amir Gavriely.
See A Traveling Tombstone Tevat Paul โ few more impressions
On my way to Boston and Cambridge, I’ll talk to you soon.
The first week of May 2023, the Traveling Tombstone, Tevat Paul, visited Amsterdam and The Hague, Netherlands. It was a wonderful short excursion during which the first sculpture of the series posed in a few places, and for a good reason: preparations for an exhibition later this year. A few shots also expose a goldenโฆ
“If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces.” โ Shane Koyczan Although in our case we had to collect pieces not of the heart, but of sculpture, the muse was most supportive this time as well. As you may remember, Tevat Paul performed spectacularly in its journey across the North American continent inโฆ
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Along with sculptor Robert Schmidt-Matt, we are launching the Traveling Tombstone project, a natural stone sculpture series commemorating the Holocaust historian Paul A. Levine, with his epitaph carved into it:
“RESPONSIBLE IRRESPONSIBILITY. PAUL A. LEVINE“
Tevat Paul โ A Traveling Tombstone series. Diabas 10 x 10 x 12. Sculptor: Robert Schmidt-Matt.
โ Because the burial site for historian Paul A. Levine is a collective grave at the edge of the cemetery road.
In the last six years of his life the prominent Holocaust historian Paul A. Levine lived and researched in Berlin. Here, in Berlin, he wanted to be buried and known; Levine wished a tombstone for his last resting place. For an inscription on it he left his wording, an afterglow in the form of the oxymoron
โRESPONSIBLE IRRESPONSIBILITYโ,
but for unknown reasons his wish was denied.
This thoughtlessness had irreversible consequences and precluded any possibility of fulfilling Professor Levineโs will to erect a tombstone with his personally prepared words. His idea of an individual tombstone was thus destroyed.
How do we respond to such Irretrievable Destructionโ When the place of burial is collective โ where, then, is Levineโs own graveโ In which culture of remembrance do we find the grounds that make it possible to separate localityโ
๐ก A Traveling Tombstone sculpture series is both an artistic challenge and a pragmatic attempt to find a solution, after two years of dealing with these thorny questions. The answer seemed self-evident – we transform a senseless act into a meaningful memorial: a Traveling Tombstone!
PILPAUL
TEVAT PAUL
BEYAHAD LO NI-PAUL
A Traveling Tombstone Series โ The Idea
Inspired by Daniel Boyarin from his book โA Traveling Homelandโ(Boyarin, 2015), the answer was found: if a homeland can travel as a concept, then, under certain circumstances, a monument/tombstone could travel as well.
Based on these considerations, but above all to fulfill the last wish of the Jewish-American-Swedish historian, the idea of A Traveling Tombstone was created. On the one hand, the new concept should illuminate the idea of the monument from a different perspective. Moreover, the memory of Paul A. Levine would be carved in stone, as he wished, with his own last words.
Sculptor
The search for a solution brought together the Initiative and Robert Schmidt-Matt, an artist working in Kreuzberg, Berlin. A special detail – the core idea in all his works – is the integrity of the parts and their simultaneous inseparability. His way of dealing with contradiction was highly convincing when his sculptures, full of dialectics, appeared before the observer. Through the inseparability and simultaneous integrity of the opposing parts in the Berlin sculptorโs art, the most important basic law of dialectics, the essence of dialectic contradiction, becomes visible: the unity and the struggle of opposites, which is obviously also hidden in Levineโs message.
โRESPONSIBLE IRRESPONSIBILITYโ
It is a seemingly irrational message that might want to give us the basic idea about life and history: The history of mankind, like life itself, is anything but rational – both are full of contradictions.
Dedicated to the Holocaust historian in 2021, Tevat Paul is the fives sculpture from the existing series Zweisam by the Berlin artist. It is the sculpture No. 1 that opens the proposed new series, A Traveling Tombstone, in memory of Paul A. Levine.
Our goal
We aim to present the Traveling Tombstone series as a piece of art and a concept in different places, to visit our partners, to find new friends and further support.
Invite our traveling exhibitionto your institution ( CONTACT ) and