A Semiotic Study of Judaism (non- Zionism) in Modern Art

The goal of this research is to discover the symbols of Jewish people in visual arts, especially in painting. Marc Chagall, Jewish artist of the zoth century who has a personal and imaginary style. The content of his works draws on the folkloric stories, myths and symbols of Judaism which appears repeatedly in the paintings of this artist. The painting, “Me and Village”, is one his paintings in which Jewish symbols and signs appear either clearly or secretly. The hidden meanings beyond the forms and signs of this work have precisely been analyzed regarding the two explicit and implicit aspects. Some symbols such as the Moon, cow, David's star, and other religious and non- religious Jewish signs have been analyzed semiotically. The findings shows that the image of the Moon crescent, David's ring, cow, olive branches have been used for the sake of the signs and marks of Judaism, but there are some other signs in the work such as cross and church as well. The interpreters by analyzing the content and discovering the relationship between the Jewish and non- Jewish signs have come to this result that the Jewish signs outnumber and dominate on the other signs.