“Let Our Camp Be Pure”: The Views and Personality of Mordechai Narkiss, “The First Hebrew Curator,” Through His Critiques of Writers on Jewish Art in the 1920s–1950s

Abstract Mordechai Narkiss (1897–1957), the first and long-serving curator of the Bezalel Museum in Jerusalem, was a pioneering scholar in Jewish art history. His significant contributions to the field are epitomized by his insightful critiques, written in Hebrew, of the leading scholars in his era. Narkiss’s rigorous reviews, reinforced by his deep immersion in Jewish tradition and extensive knowledge of the visual arts across various cultures, adeptly identified errors, unfounded assumptions, and methodological shortcomings. He underscored the importance of a solid foundation in both Judaism and art history. This article explores six of Narkiss’s critical reviews of seminal works in the field: Karl Schwarz , Die Juden in der Kunst (1928), Cecil Roth , The Casale Pilgrim (1929), Ernst Cohn-Wiener , Die jüdische Kunst (1929), Rachel Wischnitzer , Symbole und Gestalten der Jüdischen Kunst (1935), Franz Landsberger , Einführung in die Jüdische Kunst (1935), and Jacob Pinkerfeld , Synagogues of Italy (1954). It elucidates the complexities and debates within Jewish art historiography, highlighting Narkiss’s pivotal role in both critiquing and shaping scholarly discourse and emphasizing the ongoing relevance of meticulous research in Jewish art history .