(2010)
Ilya Schor (1904-1961) and Resia Schor (1910-2006).
Born in what is now Poland, Ilya Schor left that country in 1937 to study art in Paris. He and his wife Resia fled Paris in May 1940, a month ahead of the German occupation, then made their way circuitously to New York in December 1941. His artwork drew heavily on Jewish folk tradition. Schor’s footstone is inscribed with Hebrew characters. As David MacIntyre explains, the first line gives his formal name — for instance, the name by which he would have been called by the rabbi during a service to read from the weekly Torah portion: Israel (ישראל) ben Naftali (נפחלי), or “Israel, son of Naftali.” Resia was also born in Poland. She met Ilya while they were both studying at the Warsaw Academy of Fine Arts. They married in Paris in 1938 and managed to escape that city, and Nazi-controlled Europe, before it was too late. Schor devoted her artistic life to jewelry and Judaica after her husband died. The New York Philharmonic commissioned her to create a mezuzah as a valedictory gift to Leonard Bernstein in 1969. She lived at 6 Anthony Street.
¶ Last updated on 15 October 2017.