ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the socio-historical context in which Yiddish children's book art arose as a separate art form, and introduces the debate about a Jewish national art and its concern with the place of traditional folk iconography. The programmatic discussion of what Yiddish children's book art should look like that was conducted by the Kultur-Lige's artists can be shown to mirror the debate about the nature of modern Yiddish literature which took place amongst Yiddishist writers and literary critics. The chapter looks at some of the book art produced by two of the protagonists in the ideological debate about modern Jewish art, namely Joseph Chaikov and Issachar Ber Ryback. The chapter considers the art of translation' and the mutual influence of Russian and Yiddish artists on one another, discusses the illustrations for Rudyard Kipling's The Elephant's Child' and Samuil Marshak's Yesterday and Today. It discusses illustrations for the four books, namely, Temerl, Maysesfar kleyninke kinderlekh, Elfandl and Nekhtn un haynt.
