White Crucifixion, Chagall

The painting shows Jesus crucified at the center and emphasizes his Jewish identity with various symbols:
The Tallit covering him (traditional shawl), the headscarf, and three figures, like angels floating from Sheol, observing this sad spectacle, speaking with a Haham (rabbi). A notable element is the Jewish lamp (the temple menorah) with seven branches, signifying the presence of the Lord, which Chagall has placed at Christ's feet. To the left and right, devastated towns, burned synagogues, and refugees fleeing by boat.
In the 1930s, this work was not without controversy, as it drew a parallel between the torment of Jesus and that of the Jewish people, at a time when the persecution of Jews was increasing, just three years before the Shoah (שואה), or the Nazi Holocaust, which began at the end of summer in 1941.