Exhibition and Catalogue: Architect Bertrand Goldberg

Chicago, IL. Marina City. Bertrand Goldberg, architect. In the forefront you can see the statue of Hyam Solomon. Photo: Samuel Gruber

FIRST COMPREHENSIVE RETROSPECTIVE OF ARCHITECT
BERTRAND GOLDBERG TO OPEN AT THE ART INSTITUTE

I am pleased to learn of a major retrospective of the architecture of Bertrand Goldberg in Chicago this fall. Goldberg was one of America's most innovative architects of the 20th century, and one of the few full-blooded pre-WW II Jewish modernists born in the United States. (Louis Kahn, for example, a very different sort of architect was born in Estonia).

The following text courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, which holds the Goldberg archives.)

Bertrand Goldberg: Architecture of Invention Features More Than 100 Works With Companion Photography Exhibition Inside Marina City

On View Only in Chicago September 17, 2011-January 15, 2012

The Art Institute of Chicago has organized a landmark exhibition exploring the work of Bertrand Goldberg (1913-1997), one of the most innovative modern American architects. On view from September 17, 2011, through January 15, 2012, in the Modern Wing's Architecture and Design Galleries (283-285), Bertrand Goldberg: Architecture of Invention is the first comprehensive retrospective of the architect's work, featuring more than 100 original drawings, models, and photographs, as well as significant examples of his rarely-shown graphic and furniture design. Long recognized for his seminal contributions to the built environment of Chicago, most notably his groundbreaking design for Marina City (1959-67), this exhibition showcases his progressive vision, dramatic architectural forms, and inventive engineering with a wide range of built and experimental projects. As a tribute to Goldberg's career, the Art Institute has specially commissioned a stunning installation by John Ronan Architects and graphic design firm Studio Blue.

Born in 1913 in Chicago, Goldberg began studying architecture in 1930 at Harvard College. In 1932, he moved to Germany to take courses at the Bauhaus in Dessau, before relocating to Berlin to apprentice in the office of architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. After his return to the United States in 1933, Goldberg worked for Chicago modernist George Fred Keck while studying engineering at the Armour Institute of Technology (now the Illinois Institute of Technology). Goldberg established his own firm in 1937 with a range of innovative work in housing and industrial design before devoting his practice to large-scale urban projects. His architectural achievements were recognized with numerous professional awards: in 1966, Goldberg was elected to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects, and in 1985 he was awarded the Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. During his lifetime, his work served as a touchstone for a generation of international architects and critics including Reyner Banham, the Japanese Metabolist group, and members of the British architectural collective, Archigram. Today, Goldberg's pioneering cross-disciplinary approach resonates with the diverse practices of contemporary architects and designers.

Bertrand Goldberg: Architecture of Invention draws on the important holdings of the Art Institute's Bertrand Goldberg Collection and Archive, which includes more than 30,000 drawings and models spanning the architect's career from the 1930s to the 1990s. This rich archival collection was given to the Art Institute in 2002 by the Goldberg family, and includes such seminal projects as Marina City, River City (1972-89), and the Health Sciences Center in Stony Brook, New York (1965-76). This work is complemented by early student Bauhaus drawings borrowed from the Harvard Art Museums and furniture from the Goldberg family's private collection, which makes its public debut in this exhibition.

The exhibition is organized thematically, demonstrating how Goldberg's work mirrored the changing priorities of American culture at large, beginning with his early interest in prefabrication and low-cost housing, his projects for middle class leisure culture in the 1950s, his expanded engagement with new cultural programs throughout the 1960s, and the large-scale projects for hospitals and urban planning in his later practice. Many of Goldberg's early projects experimented with new materials and manufacturing processes, including prefabricated plywood structures and designs for mobile medical facilities for the United States government during World War II. As his work grew in scale, Goldberg explored new building technologies to realize his distinctive designs, from the daring structures of the Marina City towers and Raymond Hilliard Center (1963-66), to the groundbreaking cantilever of his Prentice Women's Hospital (1969-74). He worked tirelessly to redefine conventional building and urban typologies and pioneered some of the first mixed-use developments in the United States at a time when American cities were facing serious problems of population and commercial development. The university and hospital buildings of his mature career demonstrate his interest in improving the quality of education and health care through new spatial configurations designed to function as close-knit "villages" promoting healing and social exchange.

From his experimental roots at the Bauhaus to his visionary designs for urbanism, Bertrand Goldberg's 50-year-long career reflects a remarkable engagement with issues central to his time developed through a unique approach to structure and form that defied architectural convention. His steadfast commitment to innovation across a multitude of disciplines, including architecture, urban planning, and graphic and industrial design, mirrors the fluid exchange that occurs between these fields today, as practitioners venture beyond the confines of their specializations to provide solutions that transform our social and built environment.

Bertrand Goldberg: Architecture of Invention is accompanied by a photography exhibition, Inside Marina City: A Project by Iker Gil and Andreas E.G. Larson . In this exhibition, visitors are offered the rare opportunity to see inside the apartments of Marina City with more than 30 images that explore the relationship between Goldberg's rigorous modular framework for the building and the informal development of these interior spaces by residents throughout its history. Bertrand Goldberg: Architecture of Invention is accompanied by a handsome, fully illustrated, 192-page catalogue designed by Studio Blue. The book, edited by Zoë Ryan, Chair and John H. Bryan Curator of Architecture and Design at the Art Institute of Chicago, features 140 color and 75 black-and-white illustrations, and scholarly essays written by Ryan; Alison Fisher, the Harold and Margot Schiff Assistant Curator of Architecture at the Art Institute; Elizabeth Smith, Executive Director, Curatorial Affairs at the Art Gallery of Ontario; and Sarah Whiting, dean of the Rice University School of Architecture. The catalogue, published by the Art Institute and distributed by Yale University Press, will be available beginning October 3, 2011, at the Art Institute's Museum Shop for $60. Bertrand Goldberg: Architecture of Invention is organized by the Art Institute of Chicago and curated by Zoë Ryan, Chair and John H. Bryan Curator of Architecture and Design, and Alison Fisher, the Harold and Margot Schiff Assistant Curator of Architecture, with guest curator Elizabeth Smith, Executive Director, Curatorial Affairs, Art Gallery of Ontario. The exhibition and its publication are made possible by the generous support of the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the Albert Pick, Jr. Fund, the Architecture & Design Society at the Art Institute of Chicago, and by anonymous donations. Additional support is provided by the Exhibitions Trust: Goldman Sachs, Kenneth and Anne Griffin, Thomas and Margot Pritzker, the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Foundation, Donna and Howard Stone, and Melinda and Paul Sullivan. Inside Marina City is made possible by the generous support of the Architecture & Design Society. Additional sponsorship is provided by The Print Lab. MUSEUM HOURS 10:30 am-5:00 pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 10:30 am-8:00 pm Thursday 10:30 am-5:00 pm Saturday, Sunday Museum free to Illinois residents on first and second Wednesdays of every month. Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day. ADMISSION Adults $18.00 Includes all special exhibitions Children 14 and over, students, and seniors $12.00 Includes all special exhibitions Chicago residents receive a $2.00 discount with proof of residency Children under 14 always free Members always free City of Chicago residents with Chicago Public Library cards can borrow a "Museum Passport" card from any library branch for free general admission to the nine members of Museums in the Park, including the Art Institute of Chicago

Synagogues in Advertisements

Synagogues in Advertisements
by Samuel D. Gruber

New York, NY. Congregation Shearith Israel, Brunner and Tryon architects.
Architectural League of New York Annual Exhibition Catalog (1897)

When I see advertisements in old architecture catalogs and magazines ads touting recently constructed synagogues, I often wonder about the long disconnect between synagogue architecture and its acknowledgment by architectural historians. Until quite recently synagogue architecture was virtually absent from any mainstream teaching and writing in the field.

In years of study in the 1970s and 1980s at prestigious universities I remember only encountering one or two synagogues in the curricula of dozenS of art and architecture classes. These included, of course, the ancient synagogue at Dura-Europos and Frank Lloyd Wright's Beth Sholom synagogue in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania. And even those buildings got short shrift. Why was this? Is it because synagogue architecture did not measure up in the architectural canon? Or does this - or did it - reflect an inherent bias against synagogues - in the teaching of architectural history?

The truth probably lies somewhere in between. There are plenty of bad - or just derivative - synagogues. But there have been many innovative and beautiful synagogue designs, often created by the leading architects of the time. Often, it seems, architects have been less reluctant to take on synagogue work than critics and historians have been willing to write about those works. Leading architects such as William Strickland and Gottfried Semper in the 19th century, and scores of important 20th century architects designed synagogues. But through the early 1990s there were only a few books - in any language - written on the topic of synagogue architecture (this has now changed). A particularly galling example to me of neglect is the failure to mention Gottfried Semper's influential Dresden synagogue in the long entry on the architect in the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Architects - no mention even in the appended list of the architect's works! There are many other such examples of neglect.

What now surprises me is that synagogue architecture was hardly unknown. It was not a secret guarded by the Jewish community, or somehow shunned by embarrassed architects. Important new synagogue buildings were often illustrated in popular magazines and newspapers in the 19th century. By the 20th century they begin to appear with some regularity in building ads in the trade magazines. These are ads aimed at professionals, and represented architects, engineers, contractors and material suppliers boasting of their accomplishments in the search for new work.

Chicago, Illinois. Temple Isaiah, Alfred Alschuler, architect, 1924.

Ad for R. Guastavino Tile from Architectural Forum, April 1925.

Houston, Texas. Former Beth Israel, Joseph Finger, arch (1932). Ad from Pencil Points (Feb. 1933)

I include here three such ads that I have recently stumbled across in old architecture magazines. Two of them are for buildings that I have previously mentioned in this blog - New York's Congregation Shearith Israel and Chicago's Temple Isaiah (now Isaiah/KAM) . The Chicago example is relevant in that it emphasizes the role of Guastavino vaulting in the the making of impressive domed synagogues. It also gives more information about the use of a Guastavino material - Akoustolith - for the interior construction of the sanctuary. Akoustolith is a light plaster like materials used to give the illusion of heavy stone work. As its name suggests, it is also intended to improve acoustics.

Such ads are not cataloged and therefore their discovery is usually accidental. These ads span the period of the 1890s through the early 1930s - very good years for synagogue building in America. I invite my readers to alert me to more such public references to synagogue design and construction.

USA: Haym Salomon (& friends) Monument in Chicago

USA: Haym Salomon (& friends) Monument in Chicago
by Samuel D. Gruber

[updated Jan. 9, 2016]

all photos by Samuel D. Gruber


(ISJM) Continuing the theme of Jewish Revolutionary War heroes and their monuments and markers, mention must be made of the large sculptural group of George Washington and his two financial advisers and go-getters: Robert Morris and Haym Salomon. Historians differ on the exact role and relationship between the English-born Morris and the Polish-born Salomon (born in or near Lezno in 1740). Did Salomon do Morris's bidding, were they equal partners in securing funds for the new United States, or did Morris follow Salomon's lead? Here, in this monumental grouping in downtown Chicago, along Wacker Drive beside the Chicago River between State & Wabash, they are given equal billing next to their Supreme Commander - George Washington.

Polish-born Salomon has been dubbed “the financier of the Revolution,” and especially elevated by American Jews as a emblem of essential Jewish qualities - brains, loyalty and self-sacrifice. This statue was erected in 1941 - and though it was not commissioned by Jews - its installation provided important validation for Jewish Americans on the eve of World War II. The figures are literally presented as larger than life. The dimensions of the bronze figures are approximately 11 x 12 x 4 ft.; base: approx. 6 x 15 x 5 ft. Salomon's virtues were later celebrated in the then-popular (now largely forgotten) historical novel by Howard Fast, Haym Salomon, Son of Liberty, published in 1944, which animates the figures on the statue.

Again, quoting my (highly unoriginal) notes in my report for the US Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad on foreign born heroes of the American Revolution, "After [Salomon's] escape from a British prison in New York he worked tirelessly to raise money for the army and the Congress. Salomon negotiated many loans for the Colonies from France and Holland, but never took a commission for himself. The Revolutionary leaders' diaries testify "that when money was needed for the Revolutionary War, you went to Haym Salomon." Salomon died in 1785, probably as a result of illness contracted during his imprisonment and the subsequent strain of his work.

Salomon was honored by a U.S. Commemorative stamp in 1975 in the “Contributors to the Cause" series. The stamp is inscribed “Haym Salomon, financial hero.” On the back of the stamp is printed “Financial Hero - Businessman and broker Haym Salomon was responsible for raising most of the money needed to finance the American Revolution and later to save the new nation from collapse.”


According to the Inventory of American Art (where one can read more about the statue), "Chicago lawyer Barnet Hodes commissioned the sculpture in the 1930s to pay tribute to these patriots. He formed The Patriotic Foundation and raised the necessary 50,000 dollars. When Taft died in 1936 after completing only a small study model, his associates at the Midway Studios were given a new contract, and three of them, Nellie Walker, Mary Webster, and Leonard Crunelle, each enlarged one of the figures."

The inscription on the statue reads:

Symbol of American Tolerance and Unity and of the Cooperation of People of All Races and Creeds in the Upbuilding of the United States. / This monument designed by Lorado Taft and completed / by Leonard Crunelle was presented to the city of / Chicago by the Patriotic Foundation of Chicago (followed by list of names) Dedicated on the 150th Anniversary of the Ratification of the American Bill of Rights / December 15, 1941. On plaque on middle step of base in inscribed: Rededicated by American Mason Heritage Council October 6th 1962.  On the front of the base: Robert Morris . George Washington . Haym Salomon / The government of the United States / which gives to bigotry no sanction to the persecution / no assistance requires only that they who live under/its protection should demean themselves as good citizens / in giving it on all occasions their effectual support / President George Washington 1790.

The use of Washington's phrase "gives to bigotry no sanction," ties this monument in with the contemporary efforts to make the Touro Synagogue in Newport a National Shrine to religious tolerance, a project of the Roosevelt administration, and one that takes on new life this summer (2009) with the pending opening of the new visitor's center at Touro that is explicitly devoted to presenting this theme (see my earlier post).

To my knowledge there is no monument or marker to Haym Solomon in Poland. Now that democracy and liberty have taken hold there, perhaps this is the time to remember Solomon's contribution to liberty on his home soil. I think Polish and American national hero General Kosciuszko would agree. It would also foster in Poland the idea of "to bigotry no sanction."

To read more about the contested history of Haym Saloman, especially among American Jews themselves, see chapter 5 of Beth S. Wenger's History Lessons: The Creation of American Jewish Heritage (Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2010), "Sculpting an American Jewish Hero: The Myths and Monuments of Haym Salomon,", pp 179-209.

USA: Chicago's Spertus Institute Shuts it New Museum Doors (Mostly)

USA: Chicago's Spertus Institute Shuts its New Musuem Doors (Mostly)and Scales Back Other Activities
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) The Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, housed in a shiny new building on Michigan Avenue (you can read my review of the building here) has long had an identity problem. Now, it has a serious financial problem, too. This situation - no doubt exacerbated by a series of curatorial and public relations missteps by the Spertus Museum since its opening - has led the Institute's new leader to the drastic move of virtually closing down the building in order to save it.

The situation, which mirrors similar crises at other Jewish and Arts institutions throughout the country, is one of the most extreme measures yet taken by any American Jewish cultural institution. I have previously written about problems at the Touro Synagogue Foundation and at Hebrew Union College.

An article in the business section of the ChicagoReader.com details the situations, which involve serious staff cutbacks and other cost saving measures. I have been following the situation at the Spertus for several years. It was clear before the creation of the new facility that the Spertus was struggling to asset itself as the leading Jewish cultural force in Chicago, and the leading Jewish cultural institution in the Midwest. But the institution has been conflicted, for as it desperately needs conventional Jewish community financial support and participation, it has on many occasions risked the support by distancing and even antagonizing its base constituency. It is hard to be traditional and contemporary at the same time. Somehow that Spertus has wanted to be THE Jewish institution but it has sent ambivalent message about its "Jewishness." In New York, the Jewish Museum learned long ago that for every "Too Jewish" exhibition, there needs to be one about "Chagall and the Jewish Theater." To my mind, the new Spertus tried to challenge its base too soon, and instead drove many of them away.

I still believe that the Spertus has the potential to be to Chicago a combination of New York's Jewish Museum, the Jewish History Center and the 92nd Street Y. But as the institution has learned in the two years since its new building has opened, that one can't be all those things at once and overnight. While much blame can be laid on the national economic crises and drop in endowment values and charitable giving to all cultural institutions, The Spertus was already on shaky ground long before the financial quake, since many of its most effective programs are not lucrative ones. The Spertus pioneered distance learning in Jewish education, but distance learning is exactly NOT the kind of activity to fill, support and fund an expensive new building. Nor is the Asher Library, one of the great research resources housed at the Spertus, a money maker.

I admire Howard Sulkin, who helped build the Spertus and lay its course. Howard is a visionary and an idealist. But it looks like Hal Lewis, who has taken over the helm at the Spertus, is going to have to be much more of a pragmatist. He has a long career of moving from one Jewish organization to another. Will he be able to move the Spertus along in the right direction - or any direction in order to survive?

Pending better financial times, the Spertus cuts its hours to two and a half days a month.

A Museum in Sleep Mode

By Deanna Isaacs

July 2, 2009

The Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies issued some stunning news last week: in response to financial difficulties blamed on the economic downturn, the Spertus—which consists of a college, a museum, and a library—is making operational cuts so drastic they’ll practically shut down portions of the glossy, Krueck & Sexton-designed building that opened less than two years ago. As of July 1 the Joyce and Avrum Gray & Family Children’s Center will be open only two Sundays per month. And by mid-August the Spertus Museum, which is located on the top two floors of the ten-story building, houses an extensive collection of Judaica, and offers ambitious gallery programming, will have its hours reduced to the same two short Sundays plus a single monthly Thursday evening.

Read the entire article here.



More stories about the Spertus can be read here:

CHICAGO. The battle for Spertus.

CHICAGO. The Spertus Museum has laid off half its employees, Dr. Hal M. Lewis, the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies' new president and CEO, confirms

Czech Republic: US First Lady Michelle Obama in Prague's Jewish Quarter

Michelle Obama, Leo Pavlat and Micheala Sidenberg at Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague; Michelle Obama at Tomb of Rabbi Loew; Michelle Obama and Prague Jewish leaders at Altneushul. Photos: Prague Jewish Museum

Michelle Obama in Prague's Old Jewish Quarter

By Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) We know that US First Lady Michelle Obama has a cousin who is a rabbi in Chicago, and is no stranger at Chicago's Temple Isaiah-KAM, located right across the street from the Obama's Hyde Park House. But now Mrs. Obama has added some history to her Jewish Studies curriculum by visiting Prague's Jewish quarter, and spending time at the Pinkas Synagogue and Altneushul, and at the Old Jewish Cemetery. Read the Prague Jewish Museum press release here.

I am a big fan of Michelle Obama, and not just because we are both Princeton alumni. I just think she smart, cool, elegant, beautiful and seems to know how to have fun, too. My admiration grew this week as Michelle took the time on the presidential European tour to visit some of the landmarks of Prague’s Jewish quarter. Her interest was probably a politically smart move, but I think her interest is real, and her understanding is deep enough to know that these sites – though very old – resonate with meaning and still carry great relevance today. Indeed, every generation can retell the story of Prague Jewish monuments and their history and learn new lessons. For the most part the Prague Jewish Museum and the Czech Jewish community have done a good job doing this. But in this recession, visitorship to the Museum has been down. I hope Mrs. Obama’s visit stirs new interest.

Congratulations to my colleagues in Prague - especially Prague Jewish Museum Director Leo Pavlat who was Michelle's guide, -but also to Chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic Jiří Daníček, and Executive Director of the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic Tomáš Kraus, whose hard work and dedication for almost 20 years laid the foundation for the "Czech Jewish Miracle," that has seen the revival of Jewish life, and also an amazing organizational commitment to the protection and preservation of Jewish sites throughout all of the Czech Republic (I had the pleasure of being in the Czech Republic a few weeks ago and seeing some of the newest achievements, and I will be writing about them soon).

Mrs. Obama visited the 16th-century Pinkus Synagogue built up against the old cemetery. It is an important example of the mix of Gothic and Renaissance styles, but today is mostly celebrated as an extremely effective and moving memorial to the approximately 78,000 Czech Jews sent to their deaths in the Holocaust. This monument – with the inscribed names and dates of birth and death of the victims, was first created in the 1950s as one of the earliest Holocaust memorials. Its form – the long lists of names - has been copied in many subsequent memorial monuments (including Maya Lin’s Vietnam Memorial in Washington, DC), not far from the Obama’s new residence. But the names were destroyed and the memorial was closed from 1968 until the Velvet Revolution in 1989. One of the first acts of new President and former dissident Vaclav Havel was to promise the memorial’s renewal – a task carried out between 1992 and 1995. I don’t know if Mrs. Obama was told all this, but the Pinkas is now a monument to Jewish life in the Prague Ghetto, a Memorial to the Holocaust and a monument to contemporary democratic ideals. The building was damaged again in the floods that hit Prague in 2003. It was quickly restored with help of local and international donors (including the Jewish heritage Program of the World Monuments Fund).

Mrs Obama spent time in the upstairs exhibitions at the Pinkas Synagogue, where copies of artworks of the child victims of Terezin and Auschwitz are on view. I am sure that she will with her many lessons – though no doubt she is already intensely aware of them – about the preciousness of children, the madness of bigotry, and power of art.

Mrs. Obama then visited the Old Jewish cemetery. She stopped at the grave of Rabbi Loew, the MaHaRaL, the most famous gravestone in the cemetery. This year marks the 400th anniversary of the death of the Rabbi Loew, and a major exhibition about his life, work and times will open in Prague this coming August (more on this later).

I hope that Mrs. Obama was also shown the elaborate gravestone of Hendl, the wife of Jewish financier (and first Jew raised to the nobility) Jacob Bashevi, from 1628. This is the only elaborate sarcophagus style tombstone for a woman in the entire Old Jewish Cemetery. Hendl was honored (as was Michele) for being the wife of a famous leader (but she may have been honored in her own right for her learning and charitable deeds). The epitaph states in part:

“…The gracious Hendl, daughter of Ebrl Gerorim, may the memory of the just be blessed, wife of the head and noble leader of his generation, k’m’r’ Jacob, son of k’m’r Abrahamb(at)’ Sche(eba), may the memory of the just be blessed. And Jacob set up this memorial I sorrow / and all the people cried and lamented / over this noble lady, our leader / buried and hidden here / gone is her glory, gone her magnificence / as the voice of the crowds in the city of the faithful / we all follow her paths / Alas! for the pious, the model of humility / virtue, chastity and purity / she left this world as pure as when she entered it / hastening to fulfill the commandments, the lesser and the greater / and ever stood in the front rank / hastening morning and evening to prayers / and her heart was turned towards God in faith / in awe, in pious modesty, with clear speech / in the order and according to the commands of Rabbi Hemenun / commandments for a light and learning for a torch / her hand stretched out, her right hand grasping firmly / …(translation from Milada Vilimjova, The Prague Ghetto (Prague: Aventinum, 1990), English edition translated by Iris Urwin, 1993), p. 178.

Perhaps Mrs. Obama was also shown the grave of Rivka, daughter of Meir Tikotin, who died in the early 1600s. She is known as the first Jewish woman author in Prague. Her works (known only in fragments) on infant and child care, and her handbook for midwives and young mothers, might resonate with Michelle in her role as “First Mom”

Mrs Obama ended her visit to the Jewish Quarter with a visit and presentation ceremony at the Altneushul, the Jewish treasure of Prague. Needless to say, the group photo was taken in the main sanctuary, with Czech Jewish leaders lined up along the north wall. As this was a visit, it was OK for Mrs. Obama to view the space, though of course no woman can enter here for prayers. I wonder if Michelle was shown the little “listening window” visible in the photo to the upper left.. It’s the window from the women’s annex.

There are many inscriptions on the walls of the Altneushul, mostly abbreviations of well known passage from scripture. I hope Mrs. Obama was also shown the abbreviation recalling Psalm 34:15: “Shun evil and do good.” This may already be the Obamas’ motto. If not, it should be.

Obama's Chicago Jewish Neighborhood

Obama's Chicago Jewish Neighborhood
by Samuel D. Gruber

On election day I wrote about presidents and synagogues, but at the time I didn't realize that then candidate and now president-elect lives in a former Jewish Day School, and lives immediately across the street from one of my favorite synagogues, Temple Isaiah - K.A.M. in Chicago, the quintessential Byzantine Revival synagogue designed by Chicago Jewish architect Alfred Alschuler in 1924. I featured this synagogue in my 2003 book (American Synagogues: A Century of Architecture and Jewish Community), but I never realized when I stood facing and photographing the facade that I had my back to the Obama home. I'm thinking that since the synagogue has a chimney disguised as a minaret, maybe that's where the story of Barack being a Muslim started. But its not the Muslim call to prayer one hears on Greenwood Ave., and certainly now not "Barack Who?," but rather the Baruch hu.

Charles B. Bernstein and Stuart L. Cohen have researched the history of the Hyde Park house which could become the Chicago White House (unless they sell when they move to DC, as many speculate they will), and presented their findings in the Chicago Jewish News. They write that " Indeed, the title history of the Obama house shows it has a rich Jewish history, one that encompasses both of Chicago's rival communities, the Reform Hyde Park German Jews and the Orthodox West Side Russian Jews." The house was built around 1908, and was bought by the Hungary-born Max Goldstine, its first Jewish owner in 1919. By the 1940s, a small but active group of Orthodox Jews were living in Hyde Park in 1947 they established the Hebrew Theological College (a yeshiva) in the former Goldstine House. In the late 1940s, the house was also the home of the South Side Jewish Day School. When Hyde Park's Orthodox population dwindled, the Yeshiva sold the property to the Hyde Park Lutheran Church in 1954.

Click here for the full and highly detailed story

Another story ran in the Forward about the affect of the Obama election congregation KAM-Isaiah Israel, which has found itself in the middle of a high-security zone. Marissa Brostoff writes that the congregation seems to be taking it all in stride - they have long been familiar with the Obamas for many years. Most congregants find that the excitement of Obama's victory far outweigh the security hassles. The following account of Temple Isaiah is adapted from American Synagogues:

Temple Isaiah dedicated in 1924 was inspired by the 6th-century Byzantine churches of San Vitale in Ravenna and Hagia Sofia in Istanbul. The octagonal plan synagogue is topped by a low tile dome. According to the architect, “We have not designed a Byzantine building but have endeavored to produce in concrete, stone, brick and steel, the mental picture developed by the study of this style modified by its contemporary influences and co-ordinated with the proper spirit and functioning of modern Jewish synagogues.”

Alschuler maintained, in much the manner of Arnold Brunner, that his style was more truthful to early synagogue architecture than other forms. There is some basis for this claim, as there were synagogues throughout the Byzantine Empire. Alschuler wrote of how he incorporated motifs of “fragments form an ancient Hebrew Temple recently unearth in Palestine.”

Alschuler was somewhat disingenuous, however, as no known central plan synagogues like Temple Isaiah had ever been found. The inclusion of a tall thin minaret-like tower next to the main sanctuary to mask the facility’s tall chimney is a particularly unusual, albeit picturesque, addition. One critic, obviously unfamiliar with Jewish tradition, but full of love for the exotic, wrote:

"It is a beauty and a joy, surrounded by a spacious lawn, trees and a dwelling house environment. Its low, flat dome and horizontal lines are delightfully accentuated by the tall slender chimney, reminiscent of a minaret from which the faint, intoned voice of the musessin would complete the picture of beauty. It is one of those structures that we return to, always eager to get our feel of its beauty of form and color."

Others found the mosque analogy puzzling, and even offensive. But preoccupation with the mosque detracts from the real elegance Alschuler’s geometric solution – an octagonal space surmounted by a high dome supported on vaults that spring from eight massive free standing piers. There is a semicircular balcony included to increase seating in close proximity to the bimah and Ark. The supporting piers are close to the walls to keep the sanctuary space uncluttered. The dome was made of Guastavino tile, like that of Rodeph Shalom in Pittsburgh. The tile was both structural, but also covered wall areas to improve acoustics. The use of Guastavino tiles allows other attractive details, such as the sinuous stairs the twist up to the balcony from either side of the vestibule.

Overall, the building maintains two levels of decoration. The first derives solely from the careful mix of materials and combination of soft earthy colors in the tile and brick. The seconds is an extensive overlay of explicit Jewish symbols, which crescendo as one progresses through the building. The stylized Decalogue is set over the main entrance, and a more traditional Decalogue sits within the arch above the Ark, designed as a large Syrian arch – a motif known from Byzantine Palestine. In the ornate vestibule there are Emblems of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. The Star of David of prominently depicted in inlaid brick in each of the four great pendentives of the interior vault and in a large roundel at the apex of the dome. The six-pointed star also stands out in a roundel at the apex of the architectural composition of the Ark wall. Stars are embedded throughout the building, including on the impost blocks set above ornate capitals in the Byzantine manner. Large freestanding menorahs flank the Ark.

Perhaps the most remarkable decorative element in Temple Isaiah is not architectural. It is a large figurative stained glass window representing Moses. This tall image of the Prophet holding the tablets of the law is set in the balcony level, and is not easily visible form the sanctuary below. The depiction of figures, even of Moses, was still unusual in synagogue art, but by the 1920s not entirely uncommon in Reform Temple.

For those visitors to the Chicago’s south Side who cannot pass the congregation KAM – Isaiah Israel security cordon, there are still other opportunities to visit historic and architectural distinctive synagogues. I’ll be writing about two of these soon – one designed by Dankmar Adler and the other by Alschuler. Both are now churches, and are well-maintained and welcoming to visitors.

Photos: Congregation KAM - Isaiah Israel, Samuel D. Gruber