Mark Howard Podwal (June 8, 1945 – September 13, 2024) was an American artist, author, filmmaker and physician.

[2] One of his uncles was refused entry to the United States due to a misdiagnosed illness, and was later killed in the Holocaust.

[2] Podwal attended Queens College and the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, and became a dermatologist.

[2] Beyond his works on paper, Podwal's artistry has been employed in an array of diverse projects, including the design of a series of decorative plates for the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Passover Plate, Zodiac Platter (Met Bestseller), and Life Cycle (Met Bestseller).

His work has been animated for public television in A Passover Seder with Elie Wiesel (Time Warner), engraved on a Congressional Gold Medal presented by President Reagan to Elie Wiesel, and woven into an Aubusson tapestry that adorned the ark in the main sanctuary of Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New York.

Moreover, he designed sixteen kiln cast glass panels for the United Jewish Appeal Federation Headquarters in New York.

Podwal collaborated with Academy Award-winning filmmaker Allan Miller on the documentary House of Life: The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, narrated by Claire Bloom.

In conjunction with the Anti-Defamation League, Podwal began The Jerusalem Sky Project, a program that fosters tolerance and awareness by bringing together young children from the Jewish, Islamic, and Christian communities.

Regarding Jerusalem Sky, renowned children's author Maurice Sendak wrote, "All the earned and admiring praise – wondrous, luminous, magical – cannot catch the fierce bite, healthy spirit, and sheer joyousness of this superb book."

In 2014, the Terezin Ghetto Museum exhibited Podwal's cycle All This Has Come Upon Us, a series of 42 paintings and drawings created especially for that venue.

In 2015, Mark Podwal was commissioned to design new textiles for the restored synagogue in the Czech city of Brno.

In 2016, Glitterati Inc. published a 374-page monograph on his work, Reimagined: 45 Years of Jewish Art.

Podwal's recent publications include his illustrations for Elie Wiesel's The Tale of a Niggun and Heinrich Heine's poems Hebrew Melodies, and his own A Collage of Customs and A Jewish Bestiary.

Published in collaboration with the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center to commemorate the eightieth anniversary of the killings, An Atlas of Jewish Space, includes 139 of Podwal's images with a text by Holocaust scholar Robert Jan van Pelt.

He continued to pursue a parallel career as a physician and served on the faculty of New York University Grossman School of Medicine as Adjunct Associate Professor of Dermatology.

[2] Podwal died of cancer at his home in Harrison, New York, on September 13, 2024, at the age of 79.

Text by Francine Prose[8] 1999: Society of Illustrators Silver Medal 1999: Aesop Prize and Aesop Accolades American Folklore Society 2003: Doctor of Humane Letters Honoris Causa, Hebrew College, Newton Centre, MA 2009: Smithsonian Notable Book for Children 2010: New York University Grossman School of Medicine Alumnus Award Medicine in the Humanities 2011: Foundation for Jewish Culture Achievement Award 2012: Victoria and Albert Museum Print of the Month 2019: Gratias Agit Award Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Czech Republic) 2009: HOUSE OF LIFE: The Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague (Produced by Mark Podwal and Allan Miller) 2013: My Synagogue is in Prague: Picturing Mark Podwal (Produced by Czech Television) 2015: ALL THIS HAS COME UPON US: Mark Podwal's Art for Terezin (Produced by Czech Television)

Amherst: Yiddish Book Center 2021: A Collage of Customs: Iconic Jewish Woodcuts Revised for the Twenty-First Century.

Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press 2021: A Jewish Bestiary: Fabulous Creatures from Hebraic Legend and Lore.

New Haven: Yale University Press 2012: Yoffie, Alan S. Sharing the Journey: The Haggadah for the Contemporary Family.

New York: Schocken Books 2021: Van Pelt, Robert Jan. How Beautiful Are Your Tents Jacob: An Atlas of Jewish Space.

South Hadley: Mount Holyoke College Art Museum 1997: Wiesel, Elie.