Painter, sculptor and writer of Lithuanian Jewish origin.
Born in 1867 December 23 Varniai, in a religious Jewish family. As a child, his parents sent him to a yeshiva in Vilnius, where he encountered the Zionist movement for the first time. However, he quickly dropped out of school, broke off relations with his parents, and decided to study painting and sculpture - first in Vilnius (1882-1887), creating paintings, then in Warsaw (1888-1889), where he preferred sculptures, reliefs, and lithographs. His concept of art for the Jewish national idea and propaganda was presented in the article "Mastery" in the Hebrew magazine Hazfira and formed the main principles of his later works.
A year later, Boris Šacs decided to change the environment once again and in 1889 moved to Paris, where he continued his studies at the Académie Cormon. There, he had close contact with Vilnius sculptor Markas Antokolskis, whom he met during his studies in Vilnius. in 1895 the twists and turns of life led the young artist to Bulgaria, where, upon receiving the invitation of the Bulgarian Prince Ferdinand I, Boris Šacs became the sculptor of the ruler's court and founded the Royal Academy of Arts. Work in Bulgaria did not go unnoticed. 1900 he was awarded a gold medal for the sculpture Bust of an Elderly Woman.
in 1903 Boris Shatz met Theodor Herzl, whose Zionist ideas strongly influenced the artist. Two years later, during the Zionist Congress, he proposed the idea of establishing a school of Jewish arts and crafts, and he partially realized this project in 1906, establishing the first art center in Jerusalem, later named Bezalel. Since then, the activity of the center has become one of the most important activities of Boris Šats. He organized exhibitions of his students' works in Europe and the USA, collected funds for the maintenance of the center. There were plans to establish the Bezalel Museum, but in 1929 art center Bezalel was forced to stop its activities due to financial difficulties. However, the founder and nurturer of the center, B. Shacas, did not give up. In 1932, hoping to find funds to renew the center's activities, he went to the USA, but it was his last trip - during it, the artist died unexpectedly. His body was brought back to Jerusalem and buried on the Mount of Olives.
