JIM LICARETZ WINS JUDAICA ART MEDAL AWARD

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V28 2025 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 28, Number 51, 2025, Article 28

Jim Licaretz won the Mel Wacks Judaica Art Medal Award for his innovative medal Autoritratto di Fantasia at XXXVIII FIDEM Munich. Here is the press release. -Garrett

Jim Licaretz's innovative medal Autoritratto di Fantasia not only won the coveted Gran Prix award at the XXXVIII FIDEM MÜNICH 2025 (Fédération Internationale de la Médaille d'Art), but has additionally won the Mel Wacks Judaica Art Medal award. Wacks congratulated Licaretz on his "well executed, exceptionally imaginative self portrait," depicting the medallist thinking about three of his recent medals, two of which depict Jewish subjects – conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein and British neurologist/author Oliver Sacks. Information about acquiring the Autoritratto di Fantasia medal, the Leonard Bernstein medal or the Oliver Sacks medal is available from Licaretz by emailing jimlicaretz@gmail.com or calling (310) 686-0920. Jim Licaretz worked at the U.S. Mint as a Sculptor-Engraver from September 1986 to March 1989, and then he returned as a Medallic Sculptor in late 2006, working there until his retirement in 2016. In 2008, Jim Licaretz was the recipient of the American Numismatic Association's prestigious Numismatic Art Award for Excellence in Medallic Sculpture, and he won the American Medallic Sculptors Association's 2023 American Medal of the Year Award for his medal honoring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (with all profits going to Ukrainian charities).

Mel Wacks founded the Jewish-American Hall of Fame in 1969, and has coordinated its annual art medals ever since. Today, it is America's longest continuing art medal series. Jim Licaretz created the 2005 JAHF medal honoring World War II Flying Ace Robert "Rosie" Rosenthal, and Jim has hand-cast Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals starting in 2024. All of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame medals can be viewed at www.amuseum.org/jahf.

The Mel Wacks Judaica Art Medal Award was first presented to Otakar Dušek at the 2018 XXXV FIDEM Art Medal Congress in Ottawa. Other winners have been Ewa Olszewska-Borys (2021) and Hanna Jelonek (2023).