[vc_row bg_type=”image” bg_image=”3205″ bg_image_size=”full” padding_top_multiplier=”custom” padding_bottom_multiplier=”custom” columns_gap=”none” padding_top=”30px” padding_bottom=”40px”][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1439265420690{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column css=”.vc_custom_1548645408110{margin-bottom: 0px !important;}”][vc_column_text]Back to Category<\/a><\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text] [\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]Mayer Kirshenblatt left Poland for Canada in 1934. Fifty-six years later, at age 73 Mayer began to paint his childhood memories of prewar life in Opatow. Before Second World War Opatow (or Apt in Yiddish) had 10 thousand inhabitants, more than half of them Jewish. Nowadays, little is remembered of the shtetl character of the town and of its Jewish population wiped out entirely by the Holocaust.<\/p>\n When in the summer of 2007 91 year old Mayer came to Opatow and organized a public showing of the images he paints, he was welcomed with incredible enthusiasm. The town officials were astounded by the reaction of the crowd, as no event had ever attracted so many people, who simply could not get enough of Mayer\u2019s stories about a lost Jewish world. Today, there are no Jews living in Opatow and there are hardly any signs of its Jewish heritage. Read more below.[\/vc_column_text]Paint What You Remember<\/h3>\n