In a forward to one of the first compilations of the cartoons of Yaakov Kirschen, Teddy Kollek, then the long-serving mayor of Jerusalem, expressed the hope of many Israelis and friends of Israel around the world that the “Dry Bones’ pen would never run dry.”
Sadly, that happened this week when the cartoonist died on April 14 at the age of 87. But the legacy he leaves behind is one that deserves to be long remembered in the annals of the Jewish state.
For Americans who cared about Israel in the decades before the Internet revolutionized the news business, few people were as influential as Kirschen, whose daily cartoons in The Jerusalem Post and the paper’s weekly international edition then provided the only English-language Israel-based news source.
Premiering in 1973, just two years after he made aliyah from the United States, “Dry Bones” soon became an institution. More than just a commentator who drew pictures, Kirschen and his humorous insights both reflected common-sense wisdom about Israel’s conflict and the frustrations of daily life in the Jewish state.
Editorial cartooning is something of a lost art in the 21st century, with increasingly fewer of them having daily or weekly platforms. Once a mainstay of journalism, cartoonists like the 19th-century’s Thomas Nast or the mid-20th-century’s Herb Block had a major impact on the political life of the United States. Kirschen’s down-to-earth needling of public figures, especially Americans who wished to bully Israel into making dangerous concessions, epitomized Jerusalem’s refusal to bow to foreign diktats.
His memorable 1979 panel depicting a satirical plan of then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin for American withdrawal from “occupied territories,” in which the United States would be reduced to a mini-state existing behind the “1763 partition lines,” was widely applauded by friends of Israel.
It also prompted a response from then-U.S. President Jimmy Carter with him humorously replying that such a scheme “would make my job much easier!”
Right up until his last years when he was a much-loved daily presence on the JNS website, “Dry Bones” kept swinging away at the hypocrisies and foolishness of modern life and Israel’s foes. Few others, whether writers or artists, were able to capture so well the spirit of modern-day Israel and its dilemmas.
He cannot be replaced, but the body of work that he leaves behind is a testament to his indefatigable energy and wit.
May his memory be for a blessing.
