(b Galatz [now Galati], Romania, 13 Nov 1893; d Caesarea, Israel, 1974). Israeli painter and scene designer of Romanian birth. He went to Jerusalem in 1912 where he studied at the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts, painting such naive works as the Houses of Tel Aviv (1912; Jerusalem, Israel Mus.). The following year he travelled to Paris and after visiting Italy returned to Romania in 1916. He went in 1920 to New York, where his work was noticed by Alfred Stieglitz, and with his support Rubin had his first one-man show at the Anderson Gallery that year. In 1922 he established his studio in Tel Aviv and two years later was appointed chairman of the Association of Painters and Sculptors of Palestine. A collection of woodcuts entitled the God Seekers was published in 1923 and he began designing scenery for theatres. In 1931 and again in 1948 he provided décor for the Habimah and Ohel theatres in Tel Aviv. Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s his painting retained a naive style reminiscent of the Douanier Rousseau, as in such works as My Family (1925; Tel Aviv Mus. A.), though Rubin’s paintings were not fantastic but depicted the landscape and life of Palestine.