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.