In commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah), Miriam Friedmann Morris of Pomona, New York , will speak about “From Chess Masters to Clydesdales—Holocaust Survivor David Friedmann’s Art Journey” on Monday, April 19 at 1 p.m. in The Robert A. Scott Student Center (Alumni Lounges, SC 157-158) under the auspices of the the Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Hillel of Ramapo College.

David Friedmann (1893-1980) was a Holocaust survivor who found a new purpose in life in fighting anti-Semitism and racial hatred through painting the horrors he had witnessed. An accomplished painter renowned for his portraits drawn from life and a leading Berlin press artist of the 1920’s, he was banned from his profession after the Nazis came to power in 1933. Later, his artwork was looted and his first family was murdered. David painted for his life in Auschwitz. After immigrating to America in the 1950’s, his skills brought him a new career painting the iconic Budweiser Clydesdales and happy folks selling beer on two-story tall billboards.