Symposium: The Art of Being Jewish in the City

This will surely be a day of interesting discussion...unfortunately the schedule doesn't go into more detail about specific topics.

THE ART OF BEING JEWISH IN THE CITY

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Edward H. Rosen Hillel Center
Temple University (Philadelphia)
1441 Norris (corner of N. 15th Street)
Philadelphia, PA 19122

A day-long symposium exploring arts-led urban development and the role that Jews play in envisioning new forms of urban life. Free and open to the public.

Temple University's Feinstein Center for American Jewish History brings together scholars and urban practitioners to consider the public and private forces that shape urban art and culture. The culminating event of two years of programming on "Jews and the American City," this symposium invites the public to join in conversation with some of the most important urban thinkers today. How are Jews imagining, funding, and creating urban arts and culture for the future?

SCHEDULE

9:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Registration and breakfast 9:30 a.m. - 9:45 a.m. Opening Remarks, Lila Corwin Berman, Director of the Feinstein Center and Murray Friedman Professor of American Jewish History, Temple University 9:45 a.m. - 11:45 a.m. Jewish Centers of Urban Arts and Culture Elise Bernhardt, President and CEO, Foundation for Jewish Culture Rachel Chanoff, Founder and Director, THE OFFICE performing arts + film, and Artistic Director, Celebrate Brooklyn! Daniel Belasco, Henry J. Leir Associate Curator, The Jewish Museum of New York Dan Friedman, Arts and Culture Editor, the Forward Dan Schifrin, Director of Public Programs and Writer-in-Residence, Contemporary Jewish Museum Julia Foulkes, Associate Professor of History, The New School, and author of To the City: Urban Photographs of the New Deal (2010) MODERATORS: Warren Hoffman, Director of Arts and Cultural Programming, the Gershman Y, and Josh Perelman, Chief Curator and Director of Exhibitions and Collections, National Museum of American Jewish Histor 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.   Private Funds and Public Urban Missions Andrew Eisenstein, Managing Director of Ironstone Strategic Capital Partners and real estate developer Jeremy Nowak, President, William Penn Foundation, and former CEO, The Reinvestment Fund Zannah Mass, Director, Brooklyn Creative Lab, and former Cultural Affairs Director, Two Trees Management Company, and General Manager, St. Ann's Warehouse Michael Royce, Executive Director, New York Foundation for the Arts Sharon Zukin, Professor of Sociology, Brooklyn College and City University Graduate Center, and author of Naked City: The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places (2010) MODERATOR: Bryant Simon, Professor of History, Temple Universit 3:15 p.m. - 5:15 p.m.   Visions of a City and Its Public Meaning Cara Schneider, Media Relations Director, Greater Philadelphia Tourism Marketing Corporation Alan Greenberger, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development and Director of Commerce, City of Philadelphia Mark Oppenheimer, Author of the Beliefs column for the New York Times, and Director, Yale Journalism Initiative Jane Golden, Executive Director, Mural Arts Program MODERATORS: Carolyn Adams, Professor of Geography and Urban Studies, Temple University, and Beth Wenger, Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

For a full program and to register, visit:

http://www.temple.edu/feinsteinctr/symposium/index.html

Remembering My Mother, Artist Shirley Moskowitz

Refugees (1942) by Shirley Moskowitz. Marble. Collection of the National Museum of Jewish History

Remembering My Mother, Shirley Moskowitz
by Samuel Gruber

It is hard for me to accept that it has been four years this weekend since my mother, artist Shirley Moskowitz, died in Santa Monica, California at the age of 86.

I've written about some of her art on this blog before, and though Jewish themes were not a major preoccupation in her work, I thought I would remember her on this Jewish Art and Monuments Blog by posting a few of her explicitly Jewish works, many of which will be unknown to her friends and even family members. Several of Shirley's earliest works - or at least those that survive - are of Jewish subjects, reflecting a strong Jewish presence in her life, especially through the Susnitskys, her mother's extended Texan-Jewish family. Her first published drawing is of her Hebrew teacher, submitted to the Jewish youth magazine Young Israel when she was fifteen.

"Undecided about what to draw, I thought of my first Hebrew teacher who has since passed away,"
First published drawing by Shirley Moskowitz, Young Israel (1935).

One of her first large works of sculpture is a marble carving (above) from 1942 of two tired seated figures called "Refugees." If there was any doubt as to the subject of this work, it was made clear when she donated it to the Museum of American Jewish History (now the National Museum of American Jewish History).

Later, in the early 1960s she carved a series of Jewish figures that are essentially nostalgic, and these look back to her childhood memories of attending religious services at her grandfather's synagogue in Brenham, Texas and perhaps again to her Hebrew teacher. Three works - Der Chazin, The Rabbi and Olenu were carved during a period when she most involved with a Jewish community, but in a thoroughly modern way. My family moved into its second suburban home in 1959, a new split-level house in a new housing development outside of Philadelphia. We three children were soon all attending afternoon Hebrew school twice a week and "Junior Congregation" on Saturdays at the Norristown Jewish Community Center, in nearby Norristown, Pa.

Der Chazin (1961) by Shirley Moskowitz. Cherry wood carving. Private Collection.

The Rabbi (1962) by Shirley Moskowitz. Cherry wood carving. Private Collection.

Olenu (1963) by Shirley Moskowitz. Walnut wood carving.

These three sculptures were carved during her Wednesday night carving group that met at the studio of Hans Huneke in Norristown, and they reflect Shirley's then acute awareness of Jewish tradition, but seen through a nostalgic lens. Though I never heard her talk about it, these works might also be as much about a lost Jewish Europe as about a lost Jewish Texas. All her carving companions at Hans's studio were acutely aware of what had happened in Europe. Artist Steffi Greenbaum was a refugee from Berlin. Hans was a non-Jewish anti-Nazi Socialist from Germany and his wife Dini was Jewish. Bernard and Ruth Petlock were also sometime part of the group, and Bernie was born in Bialystok. Another good friend of this group was local artist and Holocaust scholar Mary Costanza.

After 1963, however, Shirley moved away from these themes and subsequently most of her carving centered on groups of figures, usually with children, representing families. This theme more clearly reflected the suburban world around her, where streets, sidewalks and backyards always seemed full of us babyboom kids.

Bar Mitzvah (ca. 1960). Lino-block or woodcut print by Shirley Moskowitz.

About the same time Shirley was making her "Jewish" carving she also tried made a few collages and several lino-block prints based on Jewish holidays and celebrations. I think the prints were primarily made to have a ready source of gifts for the seemingly-never ending births, weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs of the 1960s.

Most of Shirley's work during these years was based on her travels, especially long family trips to Europe in 1959, 1962, 1966 and then a three-year stay in Italy from 1970-1973. She tended to sketch and paint landscape and city scenes outside but often work these into collages and, especially after 1970, prints. Though we often visited Jewish sites on our travels, she only sketched a few. One of her favorite pen and ink works is a beautiful view of the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague done when we spent the summer in Czechoslovakia in 1966. She later made fine print from this. She also turned a little sketch of the Western Wall (Kotel) in Jerusalem made on a visit to Israel with her mother and aunt in 1971 into a lino-block print, shown here. Later, when two of her three children were involved in the world of Jewish monuments and travel, she made a few more works as I have previously shown.

Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague (1966). Sepia and ink drawing by Shirley Moskowitz.

Western Wall '71 (1971). Lino-cut print by Shirley Moskowitz (artist's proof).

In sum, my mother was more an "Artist who was Jewish" than a "Jewish Artist." She would not reject the title but would insist - correctly - that while her Jewish work was important to her, it is not representative in quantity or quality of her artistic output as whole. She was, however, as Rabbi Laura Geller stated in her eulogy four years ago, a woman of valor in the Jewish tradition.

For more about Shirley Moskowitz click here.

Conference: "Jews & the American City: Planning, Developing, and Imagining Urban Space and Jewish Space,"

Conference: "Jews & the American City: Planning, Developing, and Imagining Urban Space and Jewish Space," Temple University, November 11, 2010

New York, NY. The former Froward Building,one of the first "Jewish" skyscrapers.

Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2005.

In the past half century American Jewish planners, architects and real estate developers have helped to transform American cities - often far outside traditional "Jewish space." A conference in Philadelphia addresses the causes, effects and significance of the Jewish contribution - or should it just be the "contribution by individual Jews" - to the modern American urbanism.

Conference Announcement:
Jews & the American City: Planning, Developing, and Imagining Urban Space and Jewish Space
Sponsored by Temple University's Feinstein Center for American Jewish History

Thursday, November 11, 2010
Edward H. Rosen Hillel Center, Temple University

An all day conference sponsored by Temple University's Feinstein Center for American Jewish History, the History Department at Temple University, the Center for Humanities at Temple, and the Foundation for Jewish Culture will explore the relationship between Jews and American urbanism. What role have Jews and Jewish ideals played in the redevelopment of urban space, especially over the last three decades? Practitioners in and scholars of the fields of urban development, urban planning and architecture, and urban politics will consider how we can understand American cityscapes in light of Jews' investment in the creation, destruction and re-creation of urban spaces and ideals. Among the individuals joining us in this discussion are Lizabeth Cohen, Deborah Dash Moore, Robert Fishman, Paul Levy, Max Page, Wendell Pritchett, Inga Saffron, and Tom Sugrue. A full program and information about attending the conference is available at http://www.temple.edu/feinsteinctr/.

Publication: New Book about Louis Kahn and Philadelphia's Mikveh Israel

Publication: New Book about Louis Kahn and Philadelphia's Mikveh Israel


I review Susan Solomon's new book, Louis I. Kahn’s Jewish Architecture: Mikveh Israel and the Midcentury American Synagogue in today's edition of Tablet Magazine.

Click here to read the review Sacred Space: Louis Kahn and the architecture of quiet reverence.

The book is about more than Kahn. It contains several informative chapters on issues of ideology, aesthetics and identity in post-World War II American synagogue design.

USA: Philadelphia's Society Hill Synagogue Receives Preservation Grant

USA: Philadelphia's Society Hill Synagogue Receives Preservation Grant
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) On February 7, 2009,The Philadelphia-based preservation organization Partners for Sacred Places has announced that Society Hill Synagogue, at 418 Spruce Street (between 4th and Lawrence Streets) in Philadelphia, has been awarded an $80,000 matching grant for critical repairs to the envelope of the 19th century sanctuary and annex. The money comes from Partners’ Philadelphia Regional Fund for Sacred Places, established three years ago. This is the Fund’s first grant to a synagogue. Over the course of the next two years, the congregation must raise at least $160,000 in matching funds to complete several restoration projects.

The massive granite, brick and stucco synagogue was designed by leading Philadelphia architect Thomas U. Walter (1804-1887) in 1829 as the Spruce Street Baptist Church, of which he was a member. In 1851, the church was enlarged and a new façade with an imposing attic story, was also designed by Walter. Originally there were cupolas over the side bays of the façade, which project slightly like towers, so the overall appearance of the building was loftier and less bulky. The Baptist Church left the building in 1908, when the area had become Philadelphia’s teeming Jewish immigrant neighborhood (my own grandfather was born just a few blocks away at 4th and Bainbridge). By 1910 the building was sold to a Romanian Jewish congregation, Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Nusach Ashkenaz.

The Society Hill Synagogue, a conservative congregation, was formed in 1967 during the early years of the revival, restoration and gentrification of what became known as the Society Hill Neighborhood. From 1968 on the congregation restored the building, including Walter’s façade, under the supervision of several architects Henry J. Magaziner (1968) and Cauffman, Wilkenson & Pepper, architects in association with John Milner (1971 ff.). The building is listed a Philadelphia City Landmark and on the state and National Registers of Historic Places. In 1985, architect James A. Oleg Kruhly designed a new addition and in 2007 planning began for an expansion into the building next door, to add classroom and administrative facilities.

In addition to the design of this unintended synagogue, Thomas U. Walter also designed the Egyptian Revival style Crown Street Synagogue in 1845. At that time Walter, who had been a pupil of William Strickland, was already well known as the designer of Philadelphia’s Classical style Girard College (1833-47) and the Egyptian style Moyamensing Debtor’s Prison, among other works. He would later go on to earn national fame as the architect of the dome of the United States Capitol Building in Washington, DC.

In past postings I have written about synagogues becoming churches, but early in the 20th century in American cities, the reverse was more likely to be true. Society Hill Synagogue is not the only synagogue in the neighborhood located in an historic church. Kesher Israel Synagogue at Lombard Street between 4th and 5th Streets was built as the First Universalist Church in 1794. It was transformed into a synagogue in the 1890s.

Society Hill Synagogue is open to the public weekdays from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.
Best to call in advance (215) 922-6590. Kesher Israel can be visited by appointment. Call (215) 922-1776. Both congregations have regular services. Check for hours.