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"The Power of Imagery: Herb Ascherman photographs area rabbis" was a photo essay that appeared in four issues of the Cleveland Jewish News in February 2008. Renowned Cleveland photographer Herbert Ascherman has graciously provided us with this series of images of many of Cleveland's rabbis.  He introduced his essay as follows:

"One of the most enduring memories of my childhood is the mental picture I carry of the great Abba Hillel Silver, thundering from the pulpit on Saturday mornings as we sat huddled in our seats in the main sanctuary of  “Silver's” Temple. I knew I would never see the Face of God, but I also knew that if I did, it would look like Abba Hillel.
 
Years later when the Silver Library was established, I would visit it almost weekly to marvel at the magnificent picture of Rabbi Silver taken by the Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh, one of the two greatest portrait photographers of the 20th Century. [view the picture] Interestingly enough, his son Rabbi Daniel Jeremy Silver, had his official portrait done by the other great portraitist, the Jewish American photographer Arnold Newman.
 
Such is the power of imagery that leaves the viewer with an indelible memory.
 
In this series of twenty rabbis, I have tried to produce images that will be as dramatic, and enduring, as those I grew up admiring."


Added November, 2008

The Power of Imagery:
Herb Ascherman photographs area rabbis

To view an enlarged image, with the rabbi's commentary, click on his or her image on this page.

To view all the photos, one per page, click here.

To continue click on Next.

 
click for larger image
Moshe Adler
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Moshe Berger
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Richard A. Block
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Eric Bram z"l
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Frederick A. Eisenberg
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Matthew J. Eisenberg
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Estelle Gottman-Mills
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Stephen Grundfast
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Michael Hecht
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Alan Lettofsky
click for larger image
David A. Lipper
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Michael A. Oppenheimer
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Daniel A. Roberts
click for larger image
Steve Segar
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Rona Shapiro
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Joshua Hoffer Skoff
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Susan B. Stone
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Yakov Travis
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David S. Zlatin

These images appeared in four issues of the Cleveland Jewish News. CJN's online archives display the text from all 19 rabbis and nine small images:

  - February 7,
  - February 14,
  - February 21, and
  -
February 28, 2008.


 

In 2021 Herb Ascherman
 contributed another portrait,
of Rabbi Daniel Jeremy Silver,
taken in 1979

See this portrait
 

 

About Herbert Ascherman

Herbert Ascherman Jr. has been creating fine art portraiture for more than 30 years, specializing in stunning black and white and the resurgent art of platinum photography.

Internationally recognized for his photographs of people in creative, commercial, and social settings, his work has been exhibited and commercially published throughout the US and in Europe, Japan and India.

He can be reached through his website www.ascherman.net


Do not link to or copy these images or the larger images they link to.
Permission for their use must be obtained from Herbert Ascherman.
You may, however, link to this website or to any of its pages.
 

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