December 2016 Portrait of the Month – Jakob Frenkiel

Memory Project portrait of Jakub Frankiel

Jakob Frenkiel

This month we are featuring Jakob Frenkiel in honor of his birthday, December 3rd, 1929. This portrait of Jakob was created by a woman named Susan at a community workshop in Brooklyn, NY. We were struck by the way the light and shadow communicate a powerful and beautiful image without the face having defined features.

This striking portrait evoked a poignant moment from one of the first Memory Project exhibits. At the Holocaust Museum Houston, a woman approached Roz Jacobs, the artist behind The Memory Project exhibit paintings. This woman had lost family in the Holocaust. She said she’d spent a lot of time looking at one of the paintings which, like this portrait of Jakob, showed a family painted in black and white, without distinct features in their faces. She said she was comforted by it because in it she could imagine the faces of her own family members whose photos had been lost.

Workshop participants around the world have also connected to Jakob:

“Jakob Frenkiel, the boy who was determined and full of courage. He was stubborn yet loving, and never gave up.”
-India O., Boca Raton, Florida

“It felt very special to be able to recreate a photograph of someone who has been through so much, and give them tribute”
-Isa T., Wellington, Florida