Ukraine: More Recent Books of Note

Ukraine: More Recent Books of Note

Sergey Kravtsov of the Center for Jewish Art has sent some more titles of significant new publications about Jewish heritage in Ukraine. I Invite others to send me news of publications which I will post. Apparently librarians are tuning in to this blog, and this is a good way to promote otherwise little-known and hard-to-find new books and articles. Review copies can also be sent to:

Samuel Gruber, editor
ISJM
P.O. Box 201
118 Julian Place
Syracuse, NY 13210

Sergey's recommended titles are:

-- Boris Khaimovich, The Work Our Hands to Glorify. Murals of Beit Tfila Benyamin Synagogue in Czernowitz (Kiev: Spirit and Letter Publishers, 2008), ISBN 978-966-378-080-1. It is an important monograph on naive murals by an anonymous artist in a Hasidic synagogue of Chernitvtsi, the capital of Bukovina. The book includes text in English and Russian, as well as numerous color illustrations, photographs of preserved synagogue murals in Ukraine and Rumania. Author's analysis of the decorative program of Beit Tfila Benyamin is based on decades of Khaimovich's work in the region.

(Sam's note: Boris's work should also be a valiable contribution to those who are studying American synagogue decoration, especially the zodiac and other decorative systems I have reported on previously).

-- Victor Proskuryakov, Bohdan Hoy, Kul'turolohiya yevreys'koho teatru v konteksti chasu, dii i arkhitektury [Cultural Study of Jewish Theatre in Ukraine in Context of Time, Action and Architecture] (Lviv: National University "Lviv Polytechnica" Publishers, 2007), ISBN 978-966-553-620-8. The book gives a rich material on buildings of Jewish theatres in Ukraine, both rent and designed for this purpose. Published in Ukrainian, with black and white figures.

-- Żanna Komar, Trzecie miasto Galicji. Stanisławów i jego architektura w okresie autonomii galickiej [The Third City in Galicia. Stanisławów and Its Architecture during Galician Autonomy] (Krakow: Międzynarodowe Centrum Kultury Publishers, 2008), ISBN 978-83-89273-52-9. This interesting book gives a chapter on the Progressive Synagogue of Stanisławów, designed by an outstanding Jewish architect Wilhelm Stiassny. Author publishes an alternative design of the same synagogue by local and Vienna-trained architect Maksymilian Schloss, and gives its story as seen by its historiographer Leon Streit, and by local press. Published in Polish, with rich illustrations, wonderful photographs, beautiful layout. The project was sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland.

(Sam's note: We should expect more publications on the work of the Viennese Stiassny - one of the most active and respected Jewish architect and civic leader (and Zionist) of his day. A paper on his work was presented at the Lviv conference).