Mendele Mojcher Sforim (born as Shalom Yaakov Abramovich; 1835-1917), alongside Yitzchok Leib Peretz and Sholem Aleichem, is considered a classic of Jewish Yiddish literature (see about the writer: https://sztetl.org.pl/pl/biogramy/3755-mendele-mojcher-sforim). His novels and short stories were hugely popular, among the most famous being "Podróże Bieniamina Trzeciego" [The Travels of Bieniamin the Third], which he began with a great praise of the language of Eastern European Jews: "And I, Mendele Mojcher-Sforim, whose aim has always been to serve his people, his brothers, to the best of my strength and ability, cannot help but say: 'Before the Jewish writers, to whom I do not live up to their heels, have time to sleep and write a book about Benjamin's travels in Hebrew, I will try in the meantime to describe it in summary form in simple Jewish language. [...] I feel them already flogging me from above with the words: "Wake up, Mendele! Get up and get out from behind the cooker! Go, get a full armful of fragrant plants from Benjamin's garden. Use them to make a tasty dish for your brothers. The kind of food they like'. And I went out, with the help of God, from behind the cooker, and prepared this delicious dish which I now place before you. Taste it, Ladies and Gentlemen, and may it be to your health" (https://wolnelektury.pl/katalog/lektura/podroze-beniamina-trzeciego.html, accessed 8.11.2021).
It is possible that this portrait of Mendele Mojcher Sforim by Pacanowski was created in connection with a competition for portraits of the classics of Jewish literature announced in 1946 by the Jewish Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts (ŻTKSP) (adjudicated in 1947). The jury, comprising Professor Józef Sack MP (presidium of the Central Committee of Polish Jews), Henryk Szner M.A. (Department of Culture and Propaganda of the Central Committee of Jewish People's Party (CKŻP), Józef Sandel (president of ŻTKSP), and Zofia Rozenstrauch (secretary of ŻTKSP), did not award the first prize. Two second prizes of PLN 7000 were awarded to Henryk Hechtkopf and Szmul Wajnsztok for the portrait of Sholem Aleichem. Two third prizes of PLN 5,000 were awarded to Bolesław Pacanowski for metalwork portraying Chaim Nachman Bialik and Mendele Mojcher Sforim (R. Piątkowska, Jewish Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts / Di yidishe gezelshaft tsu farshpreytn kunst) - An Attempt at the Continuation of Jewish Artistic Life in Post-war Poland, 1946–1949, in: Under the Red Banner: Yiddish Culture in the Communist Countries in the Post-war Era, Wiesbaden, 2008, p. 84).
Renata Piątkowska
