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President’s Day provided an opportunity for Duvi Honig, CEO of the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce in the United States, to remember his late friend, artist Morris Katz, and one of his most significant projects: The Presidential Collection.
The collection features portraits of U.S. presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush, who left office in 2009—just a year before Katz’s passing.
Katz, born in Poland in 1932, was originally a carpenter. After surviving the Holocaust, he immigrated to the U.S. in 1949. “He studied painting in Germany under some of the greatest teachers,” Honig recalled. “But when he arrived in America, he still worked as a carpenter. At one point, his bosses told him he had to work on Saturdays. He replied, ‘I didn’t survive the Holocaust to work on Shabbat.’ That was when he turned to painting full-time.”
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Throughout his prolific career, Katz completed hundreds of thousands of paintings, working in an " instant art style," often finishing pieces in under 30 seconds. His extraordinary speed and talent earned him the nickname the "Einstein of the Arts."
His Presidential Collection, valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, was inspired by the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Stricken by the news, Katz painted Kennedy’s portrait within minutes of hearing about his death. That moment set him on a mission to paint every U.S. president before and after Kennedy.
“He saw Kennedy’s assassination as an attack on American democracy and on the new life he had built in the U.S.,” Honig explained. “Someone once offered him $50,000—a huge sum at the time—for his Kennedy portrait, but he refused. He said, ‘I won’t sell it for any amount. This painting represents my freedom.’”
Honig is determined to preserve Katz’s legacy and the values he stood for. “Katz painted the presidents so future generations would understand democracy, the Holocaust, gratitude and the role a U.S. president can play in supporting Israel—especially today,” he said. “It’s important to recognize what President Trump has done for Israel. Today, Americans curse their leaders—someone even shot at Trump. Katz’s values stand in stark contrast to that. We need to keep his message alive.”