"A. Raymond Katz is, very likely, the most genuinely Jewish of all contemporary American artists....He recreates the intuitions and conceptions and insights and moral convictions of the Jewish heritage into symbols that transcend time and place yet are meaningful to all people everywhere."

"In his latest work, The Mishna, he becomes perhaps closer than ever before to the heart of Judaism: the essence of its learning and religious poetry. That Mr. Katz chose The Mishna for his latest work is an indication of the depth of his Jewish understanding. What other Jewish artist in America today would have chosen so noble a theme?"

"As in many of his works, Raymond Katz makes use of Hebrew letters and words. He is surely the most creative imagination in these fields. But he is more than that. He is word- and letter-intoxicated with the Jewish spirit. That spirit has been interpreted verbally by the Tannaim in The Mishna. And Mr. Katz, as far as I know, for the first time, has interpreted it graphically in these magnificent woodcuts. Foretelling the future is a risky thing, but one hazards the prediction that Raymond Katz's Mishna will give spiritual sustenance and delight to generations of Jewa to come." --Excepted from the Commentary by Charles Angoff, November, 1964.





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