Description

Telling each other stories is a wonderful task! For stories reveal something about the various aspects of life. From that background, story traditions have emerged: both religious and profane. One particular series of stories emerged in the eighteenth century in the Hasidic Jewish community, which became known as Hasidic Legends. In World War II, these stories gained new topicality with the founding of the illegal publishing house The Blue Barge by four friends.

One of the projects of this publishing house was the publication of these legends, provided with printings by the Groningen printer and artist Hendrik Nicolas Werkman, with commentary by Rev. August Henkels. By sending this work around to friends and soulmates, they hoped to encourage and inspire them. This work is now among the top of the Dutch art canon.

This publication Dancing over a Crystal Bridge brings this work to the attention of a wider audience once again. It contains the integral text of these legends, combined with Werkman's printings and an up-to-date explanation and interpretation by the actor, Jan Henk Hamoen. That the well-known Frisian writer and poet Eppie Dam has joined this project and written a poem for each legend, makes this publication downright unique.