Contemporary witnesses

Jehuda Bacon, visual artist and professor emeritus of visual arts, is a Prague emigrant who arrived in Palestine at the age of sixteen. He first came in contact with Kestenberg on the recommendation of the Czech educator and humanist Premysl Pitter, Kestenberg's friend from his time in Prague. Bacon soon came to esteem Kestenberg as an older friend and as a mentor. He also developed a friendly relationship with Kestenberg's daughter, Ruth Kestenberg-Gladstein, for whose daughter Rachel he was a babysitter..

Bacon, who did not take a musical path, had from the start another perspective on the musician, music educator and music policymaker. As a friend of the family, he experienced "Prof. Kestenberg" not only among his students, as an integral member of that educational circle, but also as a fellow émigré and friend.

Kestenberg's circle of friends in Palestine included the publisher Max Brod, the historian Hugo Bergmann and the philosophers of religion Martin Buber and Gershom Sholem. As a youth in Prague, Bacon had already been introduced to this circle. Now he renewed these acquaintanceships - not least thanks to Kestenberg's daughter, Ruth.

The religious and cultural philosophical themes discussed in these circles, e.g. the spiritual roots of Judaism, would be of major significance for Bacon's subsequent artistic development.