Synagogues

The article examines the interwar period in the life and work of two architects, Usher Chiter (1899–1967) and Elyukim Maltz (1898–1973), both graduates of the Odessa School of Architecture.During that time the architects were doing work for the Mendele Moicher Sforim All-Ukrainian Museum of Jewish Proletarian Culture in Odessa. Based on documents and visual materials from a number of museums and archives located in Ukraine, Russia and Israel, as well as on private collections (including those of families of architects from Moscow, where Chiter and Maltz moved in the late 1920s),the author attempts to trace and reconstruct the two architects’ research expeditions across the former Pale of Jewish Settlement. A total of seven field trips were conducted in Podolia and the Soviet part of Volhynia – with the aim of collecting materials and exhibition items for the museum and of making nature drawings and watercolors showing Jewish sites, such as synagogues, cemeteries and residential buildings. This empirical approach exemplifies the method of preserving and representing disintegrating Jewish shtetls, commonly practised during the interwar period. The work of both architects is viewed through the prism of musealization of Jewish heritage in the early Soviet period which was closely connected to the formation of state ideology and its transition from «building of the national identity» to class paradigm and atheistic upbringing.

The aspect of gematria in the architecture of Judaism is dealt with in detail in the author's doctoral thesis written under the supervision of Professor Małgorzata Chorowska. The doctoral thesis was defended in 2016 at the Faculty of Architecture of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology. A monograph was also issued on its basis .

Le monument mis au jour en 1976 dans la cour du palais de justice de Rouen est le plus important vestige archéologique de la présence juive médiévale sur le territoire de la France actuelle. C’est la « butte témoin » d’une présence millénaire que les expulsions médiévales vont presque réduire à néant. En effet, la France, dans un mouvement de rejet qui a touché la plupart des pays de l’Europe occidentale, a banni les juifs au Moyen Âge. Dans le domaine royal, ces expulsions seront le fait de Philippe Auguste en 1182, de Philippe le Bel en 1306 et de Charles VI en
1394. Échappent à ce processus quelques enclaves régionales comme le Comtat Venaissin (alors sous l’autorité du pape) et l’Alsace (rattachée à la France en 1648). En Angleterre, les juifs arrivés avec Guillaume le Conquérant sont expulsés en 1290 par Édouard Ier. En Espagne, la dernière des expulsions est concomitante de la prise de Grenade en 1492, qui clôt le processus de la Reconquista. Dans le comté de Provence, rattaché au royaume de France en 1487, l’expulsion a finalement lieu en 1501. Cette présence juive a laissé des traces innombrables dans la toponymie, mais aussi
dans les archives écrites, tant latines qu’hébraïques. Pour autant, comme fait de civilisation, le judaïsme serait presque oublié en France sans les découvertes régulières de vestiges archéologiques qui se sont multipliées depuis les années 1990 avec le développement de l’archéologie préventive.

In this article I shall examine Oriental-style synagogues built in Austria-Hungary during the second half of the nineteenth century in the context of the architectural and cultural history of Hapsburg lands, putting forward three theses: (1) Oriental styles fit in well with aniconic, anti- material concepts in Judaism; (2) Oriental modes also neatly match with certain ideas about Hungarian national identity – a common denominator between Hungarian and Jewish identity; (3) there is an important correlation between the idea of light cladding of the surface in some Moorish-style synagogues and the subsequent output of the Secession and some other Art nouveau movements in Central Europe

Jerusalem and Other Holy Places as Foci of Multireligious and Ideological Confrontation brings together the papers that were read at an international conference at the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem in May 2018. The contributions to this volume develop a multi-disciplinary perspective on holy places and their development, rhetorical force, and oft-contested nature. Through a particular focus on Jerusalem, this volume demonstrates the variety in the study of holy places, as well as the flexibility of geographic and historical aspects of holiness.

סדרה של תמונות שצולמו - ככל הנראה - כדי לתעד את ההריסה הזדונית בידי הנאצים ועוזריהם של בית הכנסת הגדול והמפואר שנבנה בעיר בעלזא על ידי אבי השלשלת כ"ק מרן מהר"ש זי"ע ונהרס בתקופת המלחמה העולמית השניה

Analysis of a series of photographs of the systematic and deliberate destruction of the famous Belz Synagogue by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War 2

The article analyses the character and contents of the periodical "Beit Ha-Knesset" (= the Synagogue), published under the initiative of the Great Synagogue of Tel Aviv in the years 1946-1948 – practically, the only periodical in Eretz-Israel solely dedicated to the extensive and varied world of synagogues worldwide: history, architecture, liturgy, customs, Torah reading and prayer, rites, memorial pieces about synagogues lost, and more.
The periodical, published in the three years before the establishment of the state of Israel, is the perfect manifestation of the world of orthodox nationality, which was shaped in those years and had tried to introduce to the synagogue world contents accommodating and serving the national life being formed in Eretz Israel.
The article describes the institutions and personalities behind the production of the periodical throughout the three years, and the various contents included in it, which can be divided into three categories: the world of Tel Aviv synagogues (of which the Great Synagogue - the publisher – was first and foremost); general reports and discussions, focusing on synagogues throughout Eretz Israel and aimed for the non-Tel Avivi readers; and extensive discussions of varied issues relating to the synagogue world in the Jewish society, from ancient times to the destruction of hundreds of synagogues during the Holocaust.
The analysis of those contents highlights the manner in which the founders and producers of the periodical saw the role of the synagogue in the Israeli society.  In this context one should examine their relation to issues such as the place of women in the synagogue, the role of children and youth in it, and other topics.
Towards conclusion, the article examines the surprising absence of similar periodicals in the twentieth century, and does this fact reflect the special character of Eretz-Israeli synagogues - which is rather different than that of communities abroad.

This article examines how public prayer was conducted at the Hebrew university in 1917-1948, and the changes that took place regarding that issue throughout this period: From the early years, when no organizied prayer took place at the university, through the official dedication of a Torah scroll in one of the laboratories on mount scopus, and up to the institutionalization - although partial - of public prayer at the university in light of requsts by the religious student body.
מאמר זה בוחן את האופן שבו התנהלה התפילה בציבור באוניברסיטה העברית בשנים 1917–1948 ואת השינויים שהתחוללו בעניין זה לאורך התקופה: מן השנים הראשונות, שבהן ככל הנראה לא נערכה באוניברסיטה כל תפילה מאורגנת, עד שהוכנס ספר תורה באופן רשמי לאחת המעבדות המדעיות שפעלו בהר הצופים, ועד מיסוד התפילה באוניברסיטה – אם גם באופן חלקי – לנוכח דרישת חברי הסתדרות הסטודנטים הדתיים 'יבנה'.
הסוגיה נבחנת לאור מעמדה הלאומי הייחודי של האוניברסיטה בתודעה הציבורית, הפירושים הלאומיים והדתיים שהוצעו להקמתה ולפעילותה, והפיכתם של בתי כנסת רבים בכל רחבי הארץ באותן שנים לאתרים בעלי אופי לאומי מובהק, ששימשו לא רק לתפילה או ללימוד תורה, אלא נשאו משמעויות אידאולוגיות ולאומיות מגוונות.
בחינת הדברים מעלה כי למרות החשיבות שאפשר היה להעניק לתפילה בציבור (או להקמתו של בית כנסת) באוניברסיטה, ולמרות הצורך במקום תפילה שישמש את הסטודנטים הדתיים, העדיפו קברניטי האוניברסיטה, מסיבות אידאולוגיות ומעשיות, שלא להקים באוניברסיטה בית תפילה רשמי, ולאפשר תפילה בציבור רק באופן רשמי למחצה ומשתמע.
בחלקו האחרון של המאמר המחבר סוקר את ההתפתחויות שחלו בעניין זה עם מעבר האוניברסיטה לגבעת רם בשנות החמישים, ואת השינויים שהובילו להקמת בית הכנסת האוניברסיטאי הרשמי בקמפוס החדש של האוניברסיטה.

סדרה נוספת של תמונות שצולמו - ככל הנראה - כדי לתעד את ההריסה הזדונית בידי הנאצים ועוזריהם של בית הכנסת הגדול והמפואר שנבנה בעיר בעלזא על ידי אבי השלשלת כ"ק מרן מהר"ש זי"ע ונהרס בתקופת המלחמה העולמית השניה 

Analysis of a series of photographs of the systematic and deliberate destruction of the famous Great Belz Synagogue by the Nazis and their collaborators during World War 2

Many scholars view the choral synagogues in the Russian Empire as Reform synagogues, influenced by the German Reform movement. This article analyzes the features characteristic of Reform synagogues in central and Western Europe, and demonstrates that only a small number of these features were implemented in the choral synagogues of Russia. The article describes the history, architecture, and reception of choral synagogues in different geographical areas of the Russian Empire, from the first maskilic synagogues of the 1820s-1840s to the revolution of 1917. The majority of changes, this article argues, introduced in choral synagogues were of an aesthetic nature. The changes concerned decorum, not the religious meaning or essence of the prayer service. The initial wave of choral synagogues were established by maskilim, and modernized Jews became a catalyst for the adoption of the choral rite by other groups. Eventually, the choral synagogue became the "sectorial" synagogue of the modernized elite. It did not have special religious significance, but it did offer social prestige and architectural prominence.

The article investigates the semantics of the leonine reliefs on the Torah ark of 1522/23 of the synagogue built by Jewish exiles from Catalonia in Rome by permission of Pope Leo X. The proposed interpretation of the lion is derived from the messianic symbolism of the lions in the Bible, Jewish iconography, and Christian Renaissance culture in Rome during Leo’s pontificate.

The study deals with liturgical texts from the Cairo Geniza that contain vestiges of the ancient Palestinian rite and later revisions, some of which can be attributed to the influence of authorities who were loyal to the Babylonian tradition. The case in point concerns the Shabbat evening prayer service. A fragmentary query to Abraham Maimonides (AM) describes recitation of the אשר כילה formula and a liturgical poem (מעריב), מזמור שיר אזמרה. The text was written by Yedutun, cantor of the Palestinian Congregation of Fustat in the early 13th century. Its analysis demonstrates that it was sent to AM shortly after he assumed leadership and was intended to convince him of the validity of the synagogue's custom.
The אשר כילה variant (known from Saadiah Gaon's Siddur) was popular in both Palestinian and Babylonian congregations. Some authorities rejected its recitation; others emended the text. Maimonides objected to the formula but gave instructions not to coerce congregants to abandon it, since it did not involve a thematic change in the benediction and coercion would cause dissension. He nevertheless suggested a revision, similar to one found in a Geniza fragment. In one section of his Mishne Torah he ruled that modification of the text of a benediction that had been fixed by the sages invalidated the blessing but elsewhere that it did not disqualify it, if the prescribed opening בא"י אמ"ה and the theme were preserved. Later authorities debated whether the two rulings reflected a change of mind or different circumstances.
After Maimonides' death, AM and R. Joseph Rosh ha-Seder completely rejected the אשר כילה formula and claimed that it involved a thematic deviation in the benediction. AM cited two baraitot on modifications of the texts of benedictions, one unknown from other sources. The two indicate that the conflicting rulings in Mishne Torah reflect different circumstances rather than the master's revision. In his 1215/6 responsum to Yemen AM informed his correspondents that he had abolished the practice to recite אשר כילה in Fustat (or Egypt) shortly after having assumed leadership. He referred to an earlier responsum which probably was the missing reply to the Geniza query written by Yedutun.
Yedutun's query alludes to other variants of the traditional liturgy. A fragment of the Palestinian Congregation of Fustat's prayer book (Seder Fustat B) from the early 13th century, for Passover weekdays, here edited, and other sources confirm that the text of the מעריב ערבים benediction began without the words אשר בדברו. A baraita in BT Berakhot 12a appears to attest this practice.
Fragments of Seder Fustat B for the Shabbat evening service, here edited, preserve liturgical formulations and practices, which have not been identified elsewhere, such as 'רְצינו במנוחתנו (rather than רְצה במנוחתנו). Some of these appear to be vestiges of the old Palestinian rite. These fragments also preserve the complete text of the liturgical poem מזמור שיר אזמרה, which is edited here as well.
The recitation of the וַיכֻלו verses on Friday evening in the Palestinian liturgical practice is discussed in the concluding section.

Cantor Yossele Rosenblatt was offered an opportunity that would make any performer swoon: a star role in the ground-breaking film The Jazz Singer (1927). Yet Rosenblatt refused this artistic opportunity of a lifetime. This paper contextualizes Rosenblatt’s baffling decision, by exploring one possible relationship between the arts and law; in this case—the art of storytelling and the Jewish legal system. The study demonstrates where the two pursuits tread separate, unlinked paths to a common end. This vector is refracted through the lens of liturgical performances outside the religious synagogue service; specifically the propriety of cantorial concerts featuring prayers from the High Holy Days. This issue is addressed in legal writing and in storytelling, each modality using its own tools to tackle the trend. It is noted that legal systems without effective enforcement mechanisms—such as Jewish law in the late modern period—could use arts as compensatory media for achieving societal order. More significantly, however, arts and law are not umbilically connected; each cultural creation independently strives to fashion society.

Este libro aborda el estudio de la Arquitectura y Decoración de dos sinagogas medievales: la de Córdoba y la del Tránsito (Toledo), los dos exponentes más destacados del legado artístico hispano-judío que conserva hoy el Patrimonio Nacional.
Esta obra está dividida en dos partes: la primera, dedicada a la Sinagoga de Córdoba, y la segunda, a la del Tránsito. De ambas se aborda el análisis de la decoración y epigrafía que corre por sus muros, utilizando un tipo de interpretación que ya se ha usado para el análisis de edificios islámicos.
Esta corriente de estudio considera que la epigrafía era elegida y compuesta específicamente para cada lugar, aportando un sentido simbólico al espacio y al resto de la decoración. En el caso de la Sinagoga de Córdoba, epigrafía y decoración componen un programa simbólico que busca transmitir un discurso basado en la promesa divina de redención del pueblo de Israel y en otros elementos que forman parte de este imaginario, como la esperanza en la llegada del Mesías y en la reconstrucción del Templo en Jerusalén. En cambio, el programa simbólico de la Sinagoga del Tránsito se centra principalmente en el libro del Génesis y, en concreto, en la separación del cielo y de la tierra, representados en la sinagoga mediante el artesonado decorado con estrellas y el friso con decoración vegetal que recorre toda la sala de oración. Este programa decorativo transmite al espectador la grandeza de Dios como creador.

This book is dedicated to the study of the archaeological and architectural remains of the Medieval Synagogue found in the Spanish town of Hijar (Aragon). Throughout 2017, several archaeological studies were conducted in and around the church, which is dedicated to San Antonio Abad, better known as San Anton.

The archaeological studies of the church has yielded interesting and internationally relevant results, that this publication seek to present. The findings are important because they contribute new literature to the field. Until now, there has been no material record of the conservation of the church. Secondly, it is vital due to the rarity of the church. The synagogue of Hijar is one of six Spanish synagogues from medieval times that has survived almost intact to this day. There are documented indications of many others, but there is no material evidence that allow the recognition of the buildings or even parts of them.

This research is a case study of the Ramban Synagogue in Jerusalem's Greek colony. The research was conducted in 2014 and refers to the communal development process in the synagogue between the years 2000-2014. In light of this unique experience, the research sheds light on the role of the Israeli Urban synagogue.
This qualitative research is based on seventeen in depth interviews and on the synagogue's archival material. The majority of the interviewees hold managerial positions in the synagogue, and most of them experienced the entire process, from beginning to end.
This research has found that in the past two decades the synagogue rabbi, Rabbi Benjamin Lau, led the synagogue to strengthen its communal character. As a result of this process the synagogue's demand amongst young families increased multi-fold. Simultaneously, the synagogue became more accepting towards various circles excluded in the past.
As in the past, the synagogue's main role remains religious, i.e. facilitating worship and religious study.  In addition to the religious role, this research discusses five other roles reflected by the members of the Ramban synagogue:
• Synagogue is home to a vibrant community thanks to the mandatory routine religious duties preformed in an orthodox synagogue.
• Synagogue is open to diverse participants, including all genders, ages and Jewish religious beliefs.
• Synagogue is an agent of change amongst Jewish Orthodoxy, and promotes the ideology of its members in the national sphere.
• Synagogue functions as a local welfare agency, promoting the welfare of local residents.
• Synagogue recognizes there is religious significance to the State of Israel and the Israeli nation, and shapes much of the religious activity accordingly.

Author: Shmuel Safrai
Publisher: CBE International

Today, public worship can take place in a synagogue only if at least ten adult Jewish males are present. Women do not qualify as part of this quorum. Furthermore, women are separated from men within the synagogue: women worship in an e z r a t n a s h i m , a balcony or section with a divider located beside or behind the men's section. Things were considerably different in Jesus' day.

This article explores the synagogues which emerged during the time between the Old and New Testaments and continued to be used into the first century AD. What happened in those nearly 400 years that changed how and where the Jews gathered for worship and ceremony? How did Greco-Roman influence impact worship, freedoms, and the spread of Jewish teachings?
Is there evidence that Jews were worshiping in distant synagogues during the Second Temple period before the Romans finally destroyed the Jerusalem Temple in 70 AD?

Jewish Religious Architecture explores ways that Jews have expressed their tradition in brick and mortar and wood, in stone and word and spirit. This volume stretches from the biblical Tabernacle to Roman Jerusalem, synagogues spanning two millenia and on to contemporary Judaism. Social historians, cultural historians, art historians and philologists have come together here to present this extraordinary architectural tradition. The multidisciplinary approach employed in Jewish Religious Architecture reveals deep continuities over time, together with the distinctly local— sometimes in surprising ways.

T he p hys ica l a nd s ym bolic embodiment of the autonomous Jewish community in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the building of a synagogue, which defined and represented the community both in the eyes of its own members and in its relations with the outside world. This chapter will discuss how the symbolic connection between the synagogue and the community underwent significant changes after the annexation of the commonwealth's eastern areas by the Russian empire. Notwithstanding its diminishing centrality, the synagogue was one of the institutions that performed community functions after the abolition of the autonomous kahal in Russia, and its role in community government varied in different regions of the empire. Since Russian law recognized the synagogue and its congregation as legal bodies, they could serve as a basis for the construction of a new, modern, and secular Jewish community at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The article talks about the life and works of an outstanding St. Petersburg architect Yakob Gevirtz (1879-1942), whose heritage to a great extent is connected to the edifices erected for the needs of the Jewish community. Gevirtz’s original style, created under the influence of the Moderne epoch, is analysed in the context of the all-European discourse on the national forms of Jewish architecture.
Котляр Евгений. Меж Классикой и Востоком: Яков Гевирц и поиски национальной формы в еврейской архитектуре начала XX в. // Параллели. Русско-еврейский историко-литературный и библиографический альманах. – М.: Дом еврейской книги, 2015. – № 13-14. – С. 253-292.
Kotlyar, Eugeny. “Between Classics and the East: Yakob Gevirtz and search for a national form of Jewish architecture of the early 20th c.” in Parallels. Russian-Jewish historical-literary and bibliographical almanac. – Moscow: House of Jewish Book, 2015. – # 13-14. – pp. 253-292. (in Russian).

The study of ancient Judaism has enjoyed a steep rise in interest and publications in recent decades. However, much of this study has focused on the ideas and beliefs represented in ancient texts, with only limited study regarding the daily lives and material culture of Jewish individuals and their communities. The nascent institution of the synagogue formed an increasingly important venue for communal gathering and daily or weekly practice. This collection of essays is intended to bring together a broad spectrum of new archaeological and textual data with various emergent theories and interpretive methods in order to address the need to understand the place of the synagogue in the daily and weekly procedures, community frameworks, and theological structures in which Judaeans, Galileans, and Jewish people in the Diaspora lived and gathered. The interdisciplinary studies will be of great significance for anyone studying ancient Jewish belief, practice, and community formation.