Rembrandt’s Blessing by Tami Lehman-Wilzig and illustrated by Anita Barghigiani; Minneapolis, Minnesota: Kar-Ben Publishing; © 2025; ISBN 9798765-620663; 32 pages, $19.99. Publication date: September 9, 2025.
SAN DIEGO – Written for children 5 through 9, Rembrandt’s Blessing tells the story of the Dutch Master’s love affair with Bible stories and by extension with Amsterdam Jews, whom he had pose for him.
In particular, he was friendly with Rabbi Menashe Ben Israel. Author Tami Lehman-Wilzig, some of whose earlier books have been reviewed in this publication, imagines that their friendship was solidified when the rabbi invited Rembrandt to his home to share a Shabbat dinner. The artist watched as the rabbi blessed his children and was motivated to paint “Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph” showing Jacob in his death bed cupping his hands over the heads of Ephraim and Menashe.
Illustrator Barghigiani adroitly pictures the way people dressed in 17th Century Amsterdam. This book’s appendix shows three other Rembrandt paintings: a self-portrait, an etching of a man believed to be the rabbi, and “Moses Showing the Tablets of the Law to the People,” in which Moshe Rabenu is pictured with red hair, similar to that of Rembrandt’s. There are also photographs of the building in which Rembrandt lived and worked, and of the interior of his art studio.
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World