Mordechai Ben Yoseph, or Max Yosephovich as he was called in Russian, would have been 100

 ears old today. He dreamt that we would dwell here together on this land - the land of

Israel - with its light and its history.He dreamt we would go paint here together.

His wish hadn’t ever fulfilled.

An exhibition of my father was shown in Tel Aviv in 1973. It was just after the Yom Kippur war,

at the Tzvi Noam gallery,and took place a year after my father’s passing.

It has been 40 years since that exhibition. I was then a newcomer immigrant, and today I’m

aveteran one with over 50 solo shows behind me. As years went by, I came to appreciate and

love my father’s work more and more.

The humanity and clarity of his works are close to my heart, and I find much to converse with them.

“A nickel coin, but s true one” was the self-descriptive phrase of Russian painter Artur Fonvizin.

I find this very true regarding Mordechai Reichwerger as well - a son of Rabbis who,

at the age of 13, left his family home (during Ukraine’s Great Hunger period) and

sought the life of painting - a truly degraded lifestyle in the eyes of his religious ancestors.

Mordechai was expelled from the painting academy, being ironically considered "a son of a vicar".

His brother, on the other hand, terminated his life in the 1930’s at a labor camp since he was a

considered a "Zionist".

My mother, father, and brother arrived in Israel in 1972. Four months later, my father passed away.

He was 59.

A Girl with wool hat

Country Viow, 1960s

Garik (Zvi) at three years old

Garik as soldier like our father and Jan at age ye...

Grandfather Max with Ilana, Kiev, 1971s

Grandfather Yosef and Grandmother Lea, Rechel, Man...

Grandmather Hava Mother of Sofia (Sonia). Mother o...

Jan & Papa Max 3

Jan, 1950s

Jan - pioneer, 1951s

Jan and his father Max, 1954-55

Landscape in the Black sea

Lenin on a skatch for a solemn postcard

Max Reichwerger and a freind by a giant Painting t...

Near the house, Kiev.1960s

New Neighborhood, Kiev, 1960s

Papa

Portait of Grandfather, 1946

Rural woman, 1937

Sofia, Jan and Max Reicwerger

Still life, 1950s

Still life, 1972s

Still life with a kitchen towel

Sunset on Kiev's River, 1960s

Viow from the window, Kiev, 1950s

Wintery Yard near our house in Kiev

Wonderfull Morning in the Village, the thirties

Young Max, 1930s