They say art imitates life, and artist Binyomin Allen can attest to this in at least one respect: Perfect results mean staying true to the original

Photos: Elchanan Kotler

We’ve all seen pictures of Rav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv ztz”l. But consider the hand-drawn portrait of the gadol produced by Beitar Illit artist Binyomin Allen.

The fingers perched on the furrowed brow. The deep-set eyes, focused like lasers. The white wisps of beard and peyos. The rumples in the black felt yarmulke.

Although any of the many photographs of Rav Elyashiv can be said to preserve a true image of him — does the camera lie? — somehow Binyomin Allen’s eye sees more.

“A lot of times people say ‘you’ve captured their spirit,’ ” says Allen, 40. “There’s a synergy, I guess you could say, something that results in a total greater than the sum of its parts. An artist has to pay attention to klal and prat.”

Hands Down

Allen moved to Beitar from Monsey six years ago and got married eight months later. He had been learning at Ohr Somayach, davening in the Skver shtetl, and casting about for a means of earning a steady livelihood. His talents clearly lay in art, but he was struggling to make it pay.

“I was mamash ready to throw in the towel on this thing,” Binyomin recalls.

And then a friend from Passaic called Binyomin’s father to propose a business partnership. This friend (we’ll call him “Leib,” as he prefers to remain anonymous) had known Binyomin from their time together at Ohr Somayach and was well aware of the young man’s talents.

“He was a classic starving artist, sitting in a shul lobby drawing people’s portraits for $5,” Leib recalls.

Leib commissioned Binyomin to draw a portrait of Yad Ezrah founder Rav Asher Freund ztz”l, for a friend. One idea led to another, and Leib and Binyomin soon inked a deal to produce hand-drawn portraits of gedolei Yisrael, to be sold over a website called simply Gedolim Portraits. Leib would run the website and handle all the orders and new commissions. Binyomin in turn produced 114 portraits over the course of three years and still receives inquiries for new commissions from visitors to the website.

“He had the chush in business, and I had the chush in art, so it was a good shidduch,” says Binyomin of his partnership with Leib.

Binyomin was able to pay the rent with the earnings from his portraits and eventually to make the move to Eretz Yisrael and assume the role of a chassidish yungerman, helping support his household. Since then he has been able to capitalize on his prior experience in graphic design, manuscript illumination, digital animation, and also embark on an entirely new direction: safrus.

“The umanus side of safrus is the hardest part for most people taking it up, but for me it was actually the easier part,” Binyomin says. “For me the challenge has been in learning the vast body of halachah associated with it, but I had a little bit of an advantage with the technical skill — the ‘chush in der hant,’ as they say.

“It’s much more of a steady parnassah, for sure, and it’s also klei kodesh — which means whether or not I’m getting paid down here, I’m still earning sechar.”