Sam Gruber to lecture about Synagogue Architecture in America at the Museum at Eldridge Street (Eldridge Street Synagogue) on Sunday, October 5, 2008

Sam Gruber to lecture about Synagogue Architecture in America at the Museum at Eldridge Street (Eldridge Street Synagogue) on Sunday, October 5, 2008

I will be in New York City to speak about Synagogue Architecture in America at the Museum at Eldridge Street (Eldridge Street Synagogue) on Sunday, October 5, 2008. The lectures is part of the NEH-funded series “Academic Angles” created to help the Museum place the story of the Eldridge Street Synagogue and its 20-year restoration into a broader cultural, religious and architectural context. My topic will combine two subjects - synagogue art & architecture and historic preservation. My subtitle is The Choices We Make: The Historic Preservation of American Synagogues. within the confines of a 50-minute lecture, I will describe the major trends of American synagogue architecture from the 18th through the early 20th centuries, comparing those buildings which survive with the historical record of what has been lost. I'll address the issues of how the often selective (and even accidental) nature of historic preservation in America shapes the popular narrative of American Jewish History just as much as history itself determines our decisions about what to save, and how to save it.

Many of these ideas have been refined in the past year as part of a project funded in part by a research grant from the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation in memory of the late Richard Blinder. I am grateful to the foundation for its support.

Regardless of what I will say and how I say it, I encourage you to come if you have not seen the Eldridge Street Synagogue in its restored glory. The lecture will be in the sanctuary. I will also be showing many projected images. Come early to tour the building, which is open all day (Warning: during the lecture a screen will obscure a full view of the opulent Ark wall).

For a full schedule of events of the go the Museum website.