Review: Rembrandt's Blessing
Rembrandt's Blessing
by Tami Lehman-Wilzig, illustrated by Anita Barghigiani
Kar-Ben Publishing (imprint of Lerner), 2025
Rembrandt's Blessing is a historical nonfiction picture book that explores Rembrandt’s friendship with Rabbi Menashe Ben Israel during their overlapping time in Amsterdam. After making some money with his art, Rembrandt bought a home in the Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam. He learned that many of the Jews who lived here had come from Portugal and Spain, and they looked like People of the Book to Rembrandt! When the neighborhood children caught wind of Rembrandt’s biblical costumes, they begged to come over and play with them. One youngster brought along his uncle, who turned out to be Rabbi Menashe Ben Israel! While Ben Israel offered to help Rembrandt get the small details correct in his biblical paintings, he asked for a favor to be repaid in the future. That favor turned out to be illustrating his book. The pair spent a Shabbat night together, and during this time Rembrandt noticed the beautiful blessing Ben Israel gave the children. Soon after, Ben Israel left for London. Not knowing what to paint next, Rembrandt remembered the beautiful moment of the Blessing of the Children. This became his Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph.
The story is a unique one in that it’s a detailed, semi-fictionalized account of a friendship that truly did happen in real life. Lehman-Wilzig's text is very inviting and readers will become invested in the story of these two men. The text is aimed at elementary school students and the vocabulary and the accompanying art do work together to make this understandable to this young audience. The illustrations by Anita Barghigiani are done with bright jewel colors that catch the reader's eye. The illustrations of Rembrandt’s work are extremely similar to the actual paintings. The images depict the nuances of the text and highlight the important themes within. The book also features back matter on the historical nature of the story. This text is brief, but is written on the same reading level that the story is, making it accessible to the readers as well; not just to the adult they may be reading it with. This back matter also includes photographs and images of the original works by Rembrandt.
This story highlights a friendship between a highly religious Jewish man, Rabbi Menashe Ben Israel, and a non-Jew, Rembrandt. Rembrandt is respectful of his neighbors and their beliefs, and even immerses himself in the culture when he spends Shabbat with the Rabbi and his family. Without Judaism, so many works of art would not exist to thai day, art that is still central to Jews and non-Jews, alike. Because of this, I feel this book is an excellent title to recommend to anyone interested in art and painters. It’ll be easily understood by anyone, regardless of religion. While it may not necessarily represent a slice of life for a Jew today, this text represents a wonderful point of view on what Jewish life may have looked like many years ago, in a place many don’t ordinarily associate with a large Jewish population. Overall, this is a wonderful semi-historical story for children with a keen interest in history and/or art.
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