Magazine Cover “The Zionist Idea״
Designer: Emma Dessau Goitein
Modena, Italy, 1906
Must Know
The Zionist Idea (L’Idea Sionista) was a Zionist monthly magazine that was published in Modena from 1901 to 1910. Its founder and editor was Prof. Carlo Conigliani, a prominent Zionist leader in Italy.
Carlo Conigliani was an Italian professor, jurist and political economist from Modena, Italy. he was very interested in Jewish communal affairs and was part of the governing board of the Jewish community of Modena. In 1901 he founded ‘The Zionist Idea’ in order to express ideas about Zionsim across Italy. Through his efforts to spread and popularise the Zionist movement he is seen as one of the most important Zionist figures within Italy. Conigliani himself edited the ‘The Zionist Idea’ up to his death in December 1901.
More Info
Emma Dessau Goitein was born to a Jewish family in Karlsruhe in 1877. her Rabbi father practiced neo-orthodox Judaism and has profoundly influenced her as a woman as well as an artist and her choice of artistic Jewish themes. An Italian painter and activist, Goitein identified most importantly as a Jew, believing in Theodor hertz’s Zionism that strengthening and uniting the Jewish identity was most important and believe in the establishment of a Jewish state.
While designing this cover Goitein’s best interests were for the cover to appeal to the wider public. As an artist she had previous experience depicting women as she often drew female faces and bodies as sensual and proud.
