Visiting a show of political posters called "Decades of Dissent" at Los Angeles' Skirball Cultural Center incited me to ask: In Jewish life what is the impact of a few well-chosen words?
Walking through a gallery of issue-oriented posters from the 60's to the 80's, many with carefully crafted slogans--several designed by Jewish artists-- had brought to mind our history with complex concepts expressed in just a few words.
With just six words, The Sh'ma is at the center of Jewish life. As if burned into our consciousness, even if we do not read Hebrew, many can still close their eyes and see the words laid out on a page.
With just four words--Mah nishtanah ha'lilah ha'zeh--why is this night different-- Passover and the seder march ahead to the tune of a question.
And connecting me to two posters in show, were just two words from Exodus, "Lo Tirtzach," "You shall not murder." The posters, displayed side by side--each an entry in the American lexicon of anti-war slogans: "War is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things," and "Make Love Not War" -- represented a graphic form of commentary on this prime commandment.
According to Carol Wells, founder and executive director of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, who helped research and locate images for the show, the creator of the "War is Not Healthy" design was Lorraine Schneider, a Jewish activist, artist and mother.--who had grown up in the BoyleHeights neighborhood of Los Angeles.
In 1965, Schneider had submitted her design--originally much smaller than the poster-- to a contest at New York's Pratt Institute. The piece did not win; instead, once posterized it has lived on for generations in dorm rooms and homes around the world. Reproductions are sold through Another Mother for Peace; the organization Schneider donated the design to in 1967.
After seeing the poster hanging on the wall, I shut my eyes, and for a moment could still see the child-like flower--and the words branching out: "War is Not Healthy..." It's Viet Nam War era message, a mix of understatement and euphemism, continued to illustrate both our indifference to the war footage we see on the news, and to the Torah's commandment prohibiting wanton destruction: "Lo tashchit," "you must not destroy."
As to the second poster, "Make Love Not War," who has not smiled, or even smirked upon seeing this slogan on a van bumper sticker? Yet printed on a poster, facing me down with all its psychedelic greenery, I felt compelled to contemplate its intent. Could it be playing off the verse in Ecclesiastes: There is "A time to love and a time to hate"? The poster asks: When will it be the time to love?
According to the Skirball, this slogan first reached us via cultural critic and folklorist Gershon Legman who claimed that he invented the phrase. In 1965, two Chicago activists, Penelope and Franklin Rosemont were the first to print the slogan on a button. Later that year, a photograph of Diane Newell Meyer, a senior at the University of Oregon, who had pinned the phrase on her sweater at an antiwar demonstration, appeared in the New York Times, beginning the phrase's climb to fame.
As to the creator of the poster, it is credited to an artist named Weisser. Nobody can identify the artist's first name, or background. But the poster was printed in the mid sixties at a shop in the heart of the Fairfax district-- an area which to this day remains a Jewish neighborhood.
Does the message of these two posters continue to resonate?
"'Make Love Not War' speaks to a whole new generation," said Wells, who recently discussed the poster with students at the OtisCollege or Art and Design in Los Angeles. "They chose this poster over several others," she recalled.
Speaking of "The War is Not Healthy" poster, Wells related a story of a friend who puts the poster up in their front yard, only to have it repeatedly torn down.
"It continues to really push people's buttons," she said.
Edmon J. Rodman has written about making his own matzah for JTA, Jewish love music for the Jerusalem Post, yiddisheh legerdemain for the Los Angeles Jewish Journal, a Bernie Madoff Halloween mask for the Forward, and what really gets stuck in the La Brea Tar Pits for the Los Angeles Times. He has edited several Jewish population studies, and is one of the founders of the Movable Minyan, an over twenty-year-old chavura-size, independent congregation. He once designed a pop-up seder plate.In 2011 Rodman received a First Place Simon Rockower Award for "Excellence in Feature Writing" from the American Jewish Press Association."
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locate images for the show, the creator of the "War is Not Healthy" design was Lorraine Schneider, a Jewish activist, artist and mother.--who had grown up in the BoyleHeights neighborhood of Los Angeles.
According to the Skirball, this slogan first reached us via cultural critic and folklorist Gershon Legman who claimed that he invented the phrase. In 1965, two Chicago activists, Penelope and Franklin Rosemont were the first to print the slogan on a button. Later that year, a photograph of Diane Newell Meyer, a senior at the University of Oregon, who had pinned the phrase on her sweater at an antiwar demonstration, appeared in the New York Times, beginning the phrase's climb to fame.
