Vibrant lithograph by Israeli master JOSSI STERN. on paper mounted to board. Sefardic Rabbi studying with son Torah. 23 x 21 framed 13.5 x 19.5 Hungary, b. 1923, d. 1992 Jossi (Yossi) Stern, son of David and Katerina, was born in the Bakon Hills of Hungary, in 1923. He was already drawing when at the age of ten he moved with his family from the Bakon Hill region to the considerably more cosmopolitan Budapest. Recognizing the looming threat of Hitler and the pending Nazi invasion of Hungary, in 1940, at the age of seventeen, the young artist made his way to Palestine aboard the Sakaria, an old ship heavily crowded with 2,300 other refugees. Before reaching the shores of Palestine, then under the British Mandate, the British Navy intercepted the ship and declared Stern and all those aboard illegal immigrants. Stern was sent to a prison camp where he remained incarcerated by the British for six months. In 1943, having spent a few years doing agricultural work, Stern was encouraged by close friends who recognized his artistic talent to enroll in the prestigious Bezalel School of the Arts in Jerusalem. An outstanding student, he eventually became a highly respected teacher of Graphic Arts at Bezalel. Stern is recognized in Israel as having been one of the country's premier artists. His drawings are exhibited and appear in many publications and museums worldwide. Stern was the recipient of numerous awards including the Jerusalem Medal as well as both the UNESCO and Herzl Prize. He was included in the exhibition New Bezalel Artists' House, Jerusalem Tel Aviv Museum, along with Artists: Ludwig Wolpert, Joseph Budko, Gershon Knispel, Gershon Avigdor Arikha, Maryan, Jacob Steinhardt, Ruth Schloss, Mordecai Ardon, Naftali Bezem. He studied art at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, the Royal Academy of Art in London and on his own in Paris. He was Professor of Graphic Arts at the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, a position he held for more than twenty years.