Zber

Fiszel Zylberberg, most commonly known as Zber (23 June 1909 – 26 October 1942) was a Jewish artist, best known for his work in wood-engraving. Zber was said to be a young artist who was a genius of the graphic arts, his style was described as having a "lyricism drawn from life itself." His pieces are now held in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, the Tel-Aviv Museum, the Museum of Modern art in Haifa, the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and in many other art museums.

Described as a ‘poet of his generation’, Zber's artwork included nature, and workers doing their trade. His artwork was viewed as authentic and true to reality.

Zber's career was quickly accelerating and he was becoming increasingly renowned as a young protégée, when the Nazis invaded France in 1940. Zber was captured while working in Paris and was sent to the Auschwitz extermination camp, where he was murdered. Although his career was short-lived, Zber's artwork left an indelible mark that speaks to the life and conditions of early 20th-century Europe, with great historical relevance.

Although most of his creations were destroyed by the Nazis, 39 of his woodcuts (plates) were found after the liberation of Paris, and are now housed in the Safed Museum of the Printing Art in Israel. An album of Zber's surviving woodcuts was published in 1971. In 2007, the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme in Paris exhibited a collection of Zber's oil paintings that he completed while in the French internment camp Beaune-la-Rolande.