Publication: Synagogue Speaks in New Children's Book

Publication: Synagogue Speaks in New Children's Book

"If these walls could talk" has become a cliche in the historic preservation world, but when standing inside an old synagogue its still a irresistibly phrase and ideas. Anita Kassof, associate director of the Jewish Museum of Maryland and illustrator Jonathon Scott Fuqua, have taken the idea and made an appealing children's book from it. “Long before your grandparents’ grandparents were babies, before they walked or talked or tied their own shoes, I was built with shovel and pail, hammer and nail, brick and stone.” So begins the narrative of Baltimore's Lloyd Street Synagogue, opened in 1845 as Maryland's first synagogue, the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation, as told in the recently published The Synagogue Speaks [ISBN: 978-1-883312-12-1]. I wrote about the restoration of the synagogue back in 2009.

The historic building, now part of the museum, evolved from traditional to Reform observance in the mid-19th century, and then was transformed into a Catholic church in 1889. In an less common twist of fate, the building became home to an Eastern European Orthodox Jewish congregation in 1905. It was saved from the wrecking ball in 1960 and now serves as the cornerstone of the Jewish Museum of Maryland, and has long been celebrated as one of the first Jewish community historic preservation successes.

That's a lot of history to relate in a 48-page book, especially on with only about 100 words per double page. But the richly detailed and historically precise watercolors by Fuqua bring the story to life. While the book is recommended for children ages 4 to 10, I think adults will enjoy the illustrations - some of the construction views are in the style of the great architectural illustrator David Macaulay. The book is available at the Jewish Museum of Maryland’s shop, on its website or through book stores. You can read about the making of the book here.

For those whose appetite is whetted for more history of the building and its history effort, there are several good articles form the 1990s by former director Bernard Fishman, and the catalog from the exhibition on Maryland synagogues held at the museum a few years ago.

Baltimore, Maryland. Two Lloyd street Synagogue construction scenes illustrated by the Jonathon Scott Fuqua in The Synagogue Speaks. (The Jewish Museum of Maryland, 2011).

The exhibition tells the story of the landmark building in all its phases, and the two immigrant Jewish and on Catholic congregation that occupied it. Baltimore Hebrew Congregation occupied the building until 1889, when it became home to St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church. From 1905 to 1960, it housed the Orthodox Shomrei Mishmeres HaKodesh. The building became the property of the Jewish Historical Society in 1963 and continues to be part of the Jewish Museum of Maryland, that society's successor. I was consulted during the research for the exhibition, but I have not yet seen the installation. You can read a lengthy online review - mostly on technical aspects of the exhibition and its installation by Jeanine Kern- online at exhibitfiles.org

Children's books that tell the stories of American historic sites are quite common, but The Synagogue Speaks is only the second example of the genre that I know of that tells the story of an old American synagogue.

The Old Synagogue written and illustrated by Richard Rosenblum (1989) tells the story of the creation, decline and restoration of a small New York synagogue (like the Stanton Street Shul) - it is a mix of reportage, nostalgia, exploration and discovery. More recent is Mark Podwal's Built by Angels: The Story of the Old-New Synagogue. This children's book, also 48 pages, is more about myth, mystery and imagination. Its vivid illustrations and text of legends leans more to the fantasy genre than to history. While it does introduce young readers to a important building and history, it also reinforces misconceptions and stereotypes - not the best way to learn from the past, but perhaps a way to inspire curiosity. Other congregations and historic preservation planners will want to learn from all these examples.

For further reading about the Lloyd Street Synagogue and related Baltimore synagogues see:

Cahn, Louis F., 1973. The Restoration of the Lloyd Street Synagogue. Jewish Historical Society of Maryland, Balitmore, Maryland.

Fein, Isacc M. The Making of an American Jewish Community: The History of Baltimore Jewry from 1773 to 1920. (Philadelphia: JPS, 1971).

Fishman, Bernard, 1989. "Lloyd Street Synagogue's Wandering Ark: Solving Architectural Mysteries in Maryland's Oldest Synagogue," Generations (Fall), 17-21.

Fishman, Bernard, 1995. "Color and Camouflage in Baltimore's Lloyd Street Synagogue, 1845-1991," in Maryland Historical Magazine, 90:3 (Fall 1995), 287-311.

Goldman, Israel M., 1978. "The Second Oldest Existing Synagogue Building in Baltimore ---The Chizuk Amuno Synagogue on Lloyd and Lombard Street," Generations, 1 (Dec. '78), 33-44.

Kaufman, David, 2000, “Cornerstones of Community: The Historic Synagogues of Maryland,” in Cornerstones of Community: The Historic Synagogues of Maryland, 1845-1945 (Baltimore, Jewish Museum of Maryland, 2000)

Leeser, Isaac, 1845. “Consecration of the Synagogue at Baltimore,” The Occident and American Jewish Advocate 3:8 (Nov 1845), 362

Pruce, Earl, 1993. Synagogues, Temples, and Congregations of Maryland: 1830-1990. Jewish Historical Society of Maryland, Baltimore.

Tabak, Israel, 1972. "The Lloyd Street Synagogue of Baltimore: A National Shrine," in ­American Jewish Historical Quarterly­, 61, 342 352.

Zalesch, Saul E., 1984. Synagogue Building in Baltimore During the Nineteenth Century, M.A. thesis, Department of Art History, University of Delaware.

Restitution: JTA's Dinah Spritzer Provides Followup to Prague Conference

Restitution: JTA's Dinah Spritzer Provides Followup to Prague Conference

I am posting the following text and article links provided by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. for more about the conference and to reference the final statements see my previous post.

On the heels of what insiders say will be the last major Holocaust restitution conference, JTA Europe correspondent Dinah Spritzer reports from Prague about a new pledge by 46 countries to ease the restitution process for Jewish property taken during the Nazi era.

In this JTA Special Report, Spritzer examines whether the new restitution measures will yield results in time for Holocaust survivors, analyzes which are the least cooperative countries when it comes to compensating Jews for looted property and art, and talks with Stuart Eizenstat about Israel's shortcomings when it comes to fighting for restitution.

JTA Special Report: Pressing for Restitution

Last Chance for Holocaust restitution?

Stalling tactics, lack of political will and resentment of Jews have frustrated efforts by Jewish owners, heirs and advocates to recover property stolen by the Nazis. A new measure may ease the restitution process, but will it come in time for Holocaust survivors? Read more »

Q&A with Eizenstat on Holocaust-era restitution

Stuart Eizenstat, who is credited with getting Jewish property restitution started in the former Eastern bloc, criticizes the European Union for failing to follow through on restitution and takes Israel to task for not doing enough over the years for Holocaust survivors and their heirs.

Last Chance for Holocaust restitution?

The list of 10 European Union countries where claimants of looted art, communal property or private property face serious obstacles.

Conference: Life and Work of the Maharal of Prague

Conference: Life and Work of the Maharal of Prague

(ISJM) The Jewish Community of Prague will host a conference dedicated to the life and work of the great thinker and rabbi, the Maharal of Prague (Judah Lowe Ben Bezalel) from September 7-9, 2009 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the death of the learned and legendary Rabbi and community leader.

The conference seeks to bring about a full discussion on such topics as the Prague Maharal’s role in the life of Ashkenazi Jewry at the beginning of the modern era, his position in the Jewish religious philosophy of his period, and the importance of his spiritual legacy to modern Jewish philosophy and life. This special event will be attended by internationally renowned experts across the rabbinic and academic world. The official languages of the conference will be English and Hebrew.

The following events will be held as part of the conference:

• Group visit to the Maharal’s grave
• Ceremonial opening of the conference
• Gala reception at an historical venue
• Visit to the exhibition on the Prague Maharal
• Visit to the Jewish Museum in Prague

The event is being organized in cooperation with the Department of Religious Affairs in the Diaspora (the Sochnut) and other institutions, including the Ariel University Center of Samaria, Charles University in Prague, the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic and the Jewish Museum in Prague.

For more information please visit the website at: www.maharal.name

Conference: Update on Holocaust-Era Assets Conference in Prague

Conference: Update on Holocaust-Era Assets Conference in Prague
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) The Holocaust-Era Assets Conference in Prague that began last Friday night is wrapped up today. In addition to enumerating continuing problems and reiterating positions, the Conference has produced a document (the Terezin Declaration) aimed at improving and perhaps speeding the restitution process for property seized during and after the Holocaust and never returned to direct or collective heirs. Forty-six participating countries signed the statement, if remains to be seen how many will follow through with its implementation. Like most such conference statements it is long on sentiments and short on details. The conference is certainty is good stimulus to the more than decade-long process of restitution negotiation, but it is a milepost only, not the final destination.

I subsequent blogpost I will discuss some of the expert conclusions from the conference. These provide more detail and more specific recommendations on how to proceed. Different approaches are needed in different countries, and regarding different types of contested property.

The main pronouncements of the Terezin Declaration that might impact the future restitution, protection, care and preservation of historic sites and monuments, architecture and art are the following:

1. Recognizing that Holocaust (Shoah) survivors and other victims of the Nazi regime and its collaborators suffered unprecedented physical and emotional trauma during their ordeal, the Participating States take note of the special social and medical needs of all survivors and strongly support both public and private efforts in their respective states to enable them to live in dignity with the necessary basic care that it implies.

2. Noting the importance of restituting communal and individual immovable property that belonged to the victims of the Holocaust (Shoah) and other victims of Nazi persecution, the Participating States urge that every effort be made to rectify the consequences of wrongful property seizures, such as confiscations, forced sales and sales under duress of property, which were part of the persecution of these innocent people and groups, the vast majority of whom died heirless.

3. Recognizing the progress that has been made in research, identification, and restitution of cultural property by governmental and non-governmental institutions in some states since the 1998 Washington Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets and the endorsement of the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, the Participating States affirm an urgent need to strengthen and sustain these efforts in order to ensure just and fair solutions regarding cultural property, including Judaica that was looted or displaced during or as a result of the Holocaust (Shoah).

4. Taking into account the essential role of national governments, the Holocaust (Shoah) survivors’ organizations, and other specialized NGOs, the Participating States call for a coherent and more effective approach by States and the international community to ensure the fullest possible, relevant archival access with due respect to national legislation. We also encourage States and the international community to establish and support research and education programs about the Holocaust (Shoah) and other Nazi crimes, ceremonies of remembrance and commemoration, and the preservation of memorials in former concentration camps, cemeteries and mass graves, as well as of other sites of memory.

Other sections deal with Holocaust memory, education and care for Holocaust survivors. An additional Joint Statement was released in which the

"European Commission and the Czech EU-Presidency declare their readiness to make every effort and create a more effective European approach by supporting goals dealing primarily with education and social welfare such as:

- Holocaust education and research,
- Social care of survivors,
- Preservation of memorials in former concentration camps and cemeteries as well as of other sites of memory,
- Provenance research of Looted Art"

Full texts of both statements can be found here:

TEREZIN DECLARATION, June 30, 2009

Joint Declaration, June 29, 2009

Expert Conclusions (from specialized sessions)


You can read the JTA report by Dinah Spritzer here.

I was quoted in a preliminary article "Jews Hope to Reclaim Their Architectural Legacy in Eastern Europe," about the conference published in the Christian Science Monitor. My point about the reluctance of countries to restitution valuable urban properties, and their eagerness to dump dilapidated and neglected properties on Jewish communities is true, though the details of this issue are lost in my "soundbite" quote. In the past ten years there have been some successes, but these are few in relation to the actual number of restitution claims submitted by Jewish communities (not to mention by individuals).

Here are links to other pre-conference news reports:

Shoah assets forum opens in Prague
Holocaust survivors, Jewish groups and experts gathered in Prague Friday to assess efforts to return property and possessions stolen by the Nazis to their rightful owners or heirs...
Friday, June 26,2009

Art Restitution Conference in Prague
Representatives of the governments of 49 countries as well as museums, Jewish groups and other organizations will meet in Prague this week for a five-day conference on the restitution of artwork stolen by Nazis...
Wednesday, June 24,2009

Lithuania offers too little, too late for seized Jewish property, US Jewish leader says
Lithuania’s compensation plan for Jewish property seized by Nazi Germany in World War II and kept by the Soviet regime is too little, too late, a senior American Jewish leader said Thursday...
Friday, June 26,2009

Conference: Holocaust-Era Asset Conference to Open in Prague Friday

Conference: Holocaust-Era Assets Conference to Open in Prague Friday

(ISJM) As reported last month, the Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets will convene this weekend in Prague. Delegations from several dozen countries and many NGOs will participate. The schedule for the conference, including the working group sessions have been posted.

Working Groups (WG) are composed of representatives of institutions with fundamental activities, field experience and research results related to the principal topics of the WG agenda.

The role of each WG is to:

- prepare the agenda of the expert portion of the Prague conference,
- discuss the important focal points of their agenda,
- suggest the framework for presentations at the Prague conference, and
- draft recommendation for the final declaration.

Working Groups schedules are listed here:

Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research
Immovable Property (Private and Communal)
Looted Art
Judaica and Jewish Cultural Property
Special Session - Caring for Victims of Nazism and Their Legacy

Conference: Governments and Jewish Groups Get Ready for June Meeting in Prague on Holocaust-Era Assets

Governments and Jewish Groups Get Ready for June Conference in Prague on Holocaust-Era Assets

(ISJM) Ten years after the international conference on Holocaust-era assets held in Washington, DC, a new conference will convene in Prague in late June to assess progress on restitution issues. The conference is sponsored by the Government of the Czech Republic, in cooperation with the Documentation Centre of Property Transfers of Cultural Assets of WW II Victims, the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic, the Jewish Museum in Prague, the Terezín Memorial, the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Hussite Theological Faculty of the Charles University in Prague and the Forum 2000 Foundation.

The Prague conference scheduled for Prague on June 26-30, 2009 is intended to evaluate progress in identifying and recovering assets of Holocaust victims since the Washington Conference. Immovable property (synagogues, cemeteries, etc) is one of many categories around which the Prague conference in organized.

At present it is hard to get an accurate schedule of the conference or a list of participants. Potentially, there will be scores of delegations from countries and from NGOs. Many countries are still holding back on announcing who will be in their delegations, waiting to see what high-level dignitaries will be attending from the United States and other countries. Most likely, there will be formal and public sessions in which platitudes will be reiterated, and sound-bites recorded. There will be some lecturing by "good" countries, and some defensive posturing by "bad" countries. It will be behind the scenes that working groups of diplomats, Holocaust experts, historians, lawyers, and Holocasut victim advocates will be pressing their cases, and trying to negotiate policy.

The objectives of the conference are:

• To assess the progress made since the 1998 Washington Conference on Holocaust Era Assets in the areas of the recovery of looted art and objects of cultural, historical and religious value (according to the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art and the Vilnius Forum Declaration 2000), and in the areas of property restitution and financial compensation schemes.

• To review current practices regarding provenance research and restitution and, where needed, define new effective instruments to improve these efforts.

• To review the impact of the Stockholm Declaration of 2000 on education, remembrance and research about the Holocaust.

• To strengthen the work of the Task Force on International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research, a 26-nation body chaired by the Czech Republic in 2007-2008.

• To discuss new, innovative approaches in education, social programs and cultural initiatives related to the Holocaust and other National Socialist wrongs and to advance religious and ethnic tolerance in our societies and the world.

Herbert Block, Assistant Executive Vice President of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a co-coordinator of the recent Bratislava Seminar, and an upcoming participant in Prague, recently published a summary of the present state of property restitution in much of Central and Eastern Europe.

Prague: Ruth Ellen Gruber Comments on Recent "Golem-mania"

Prague, Czech Republic Golem restaurant. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2004

Prague: Ruth Ellen Gruber Comments on Recent "Golemania":
When does cute become kitsch? When does story-telling get in the way of truth?

Its a shame when a rich and complex history is reduced to a stereotype, and even more so when the media takes a lively part. But rather than go into the details of Jewish life, history, thought, art, ritual, and science in the Jewish town of Prague, its so much easier to talk about the Golem.

When does cute become kitsch? When does story-telling get in the way of truth?

Ruth Ellen Gruber has tracking the cult of the Golem for years, and she's posted some comments and links on what appears to a return of this particularly persistent cultural virus. Some would say that Jews always need a Superman - even a stupid one made of mud. But I say say we need understanding of history, not reiteration of myth embellished for entertainment of profit.

Maybe things will change a bit this summer, when an informative exhibtion about the real life, times and intellect of Rabbi Judah Löw ben Bezalel (reputed creator of the reputed Golem) opens on Castle Hill. Then we can appreciate the Golem story in a bigger context and better light.

Prague -- Heads Up for Summer Exhibition on Rabbi ...

My confession? On at least one of my visits to Prague I bought Golem whistles and necklaces for friends and relatives. Way better than puppets of hook-nosed Jews.

Prague, Czech Republic "Jewish" puppets for sale near Jewish cemetery. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2004

See Ruth's most recent blogs with links to stories in the New York Times and on JTA.

Prague -- Yet More Golemania....

NYTimes Discovers the Golem

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.

Publication: New Book on Leopold Eidlitz Wins Award

Publication: New Book on Leopold Eidlitz Wins Award
by Samuel D. Gruber


Dedication of Temple Emanu-El, New York, 1868. From Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper (Oct. 3, 1868)


Temple Emanu-El, New York, 1868. Harper's Weekly (Nov. 14, 1868).

(ISJM) The Southeastern Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians (SESAH )has presented its award for best book to Kathryn E. Holliday for Leopold Eidlitz: Architecture and Idealism in the Gilded Age (W.W. Norton, 2008; hardcover). The well-illustrated monograph is the first critical examination of the work of New York architect Leopold Eidlitz (1823-1908), America's first Jewish architect and a founding member of the American Institute of Architects, who was one of the titans of 19th-century American architecture but is mostly forgotten today, though his work was much admired in his time, and as Holliday argues, his organic approach to architecture laid the foundation for H.H. Richardson and his followers.

For readers of this blog the book will of greatest interest for the first chapter, which traces Eidlitz's personal and professional roots to his birthplace Prague, and to Vienna where he trained before arriving in America at age 20 in 1843. Holliday establishes Eidlitz's Jewish origins, though once in America the architect neither confirmed nor denied his Jewish upbringing, and contemporaries and subsequent historians have been unsure of his past. While Eidlitz married his (non-Jewish)boss's daughter, he obviously maintained relations with New York's Jewish community. Holliday provides the most complete descriptions of his two synagogue projects - Shaary Teffila of 1846-48 (with Charles Otto Blesch)and the grand Temple Emanu-El of 1866-68, today Eidlitz's best known building, despite it demolition. As Holliday writes "It is ironic that Eidlitz, with his professional focus on Christian churches and his own desire to leave his Jewishness in the past, became most identified with a synagogue." (p 78). Fortunately, Holliday places her discussion of the synagogues in the context of his church designs, which make them seem both more common, and at the same time exceedingly original and even exotic.

This book is an essential addition to the library of anyone interested in either 19th-century or American architecture. There are too few Eidlitz buildings surviving. In New York City the most impressive are St. George's Episcopal Church at Stuyvesant Square (1846-49) and the New York County (Tweed) Courthouse (1861-81). We are indebted to Prof. Holliday for bringing Eidlitz's rich body of work, and his writing on architecture, back to public and scholarly attention.

Kathryn Holliday teaches architectural history and theory at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Leopold Eidlitz: Architecture and Idealism in the Gilded Age by Kathryn E. Holliday. (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008). ISBN: 13: 978-0-393-7339-9

Restitution: Jewish Museum of Prague to Return Art Collection

Restitution: Jewish Museum of Prague to Return Art Collection

The Associated Press has reported that the Jewish Museum of Prague is ready to return to relatives an art collection of 32 paintings that belonged to Emil Freund, a Jewish lawyer from Prague he died in the Lodz Ghetto in 1942. The contested collection includes works by Signac, Derain and Utrillo. How the collection will be returned and when and where items can be sold remains unclear. Czech law requires that at least some of the most notable works remain in the Czech Republic. The claimants would like the right to sell works abroad.

Read the article in the International Herald Tribune here.

Czech Republic: Stolpersteine Project Memorializes Shoah Victims in Prague

Stolpersteine in Braunschweig, Germany (photo: Samuel D. Gruber Oct 2007)


Stolpersteine Project Memorializes Shoah Victims in Prague

Ruth Ellen Gruber has linked to a story about the Stolpersteine project ("Stones of the Vanished" or "Stumbling Stones") which began in Germany, and has now spread to the Czech Republic. Holocaust victims remembered by new ‘Stones of the Vanished’ project, describes the beginning of the project in Prague's historic Jewish quarter. The project, originated in 1994 in Cologne by artist Gunter Demnig, embeds small stones resembling cobbles, in the pavements near houses where Jews lived before their deportation out of Germany, or to their deaths.

The stones are actually concrete cubes about 10 cm each ( Four inches), with a thin sheet of brass on top inscribed with: ‘here lived – the name of a person, the date of birth, the date of transport, where that person was deported and the place and date of that person’s murder’. Each stone costs about 95 euro, paid for by contributions.

As of last year, 13,000 "stones" had been placed in 280 cities in Germany, Austria, Hungary and Holland. The largest numbers can be found in Cologne, Hamburg and Berlin.

The project is representative. It makes no attempt to identify and commemorate every deported Jew, homosexual or communist. If it did, some German neighborhoods would be entirely paved with brass.

The Unknown Michael Fingesten: Paintings, Prints and Ex Libris from the Ernst Deeken Collection

Publications: The Unknown Michael Fingesten: Paintings, Prints and Ex Libris from the Ernst Deeken Collection by Arno Parik

Jewish Museum of Prague, 2008 (ISBN 978-80-86889-71-9)

(ISJM) The Jewish Museum of Prague has published a catalog in conjunction with the exhibition of work of Michel Fingesten (1884–1943), which recently closed after several months at the Robert Guttmann Gallery. Fingesten was one of the best known graphic artists in pre-war Berlin, but until this exhibition and catalog, has been almost forgotten. He was born in Northern Moravia, began his art studies in Vienna in 1900, and then left for America where he traveled and made a living by drawing illustrations for newspapers. Fingesten returned to Europe in 1907 and studied with Franz Stuck in Munich. He then went to Asia, where he spent four years. In 1911 he was briefly in Paris, and later settled in Berlin, where achieved success. The Nazi’s labeled his work ‘degenerate art’ in 1933, and Fingesten left the country, moving to Milan, from where he was sent to the Civitella del Tronto internment camp in 1940, and was later interned in Ferramonti di Tarsia. Fingesten died of an infection in Cosenza on the 8th of October 1943, a few days after it was liberated by the British Army.

Exhibition curator Arno Pařík wrote the 36 page catalog, which features 100 color illustrations. The catalog, in Czech and English, can be ordered from the Museum website.

UK: New Czech Scrolls Museum To Open in London, September 17th, 2008

UK: New Czech Scrolls Museum To Open in London, September 17th, 2008

The Memorial Scrolls Trust has entirely redesigned and reinstalled is facilities at Kent House in London to create a new Czech Scroll Museum, to open to the public with a reception on the evening of September 17th. The previous exhibition has been in place since 1988. I have written about the story of the scrolls before but it is a story that merits retelling.

In 1964, 1,564 Torah Scrolls arrived at Kent House in London, the home of London's Westminster Synagogue. After intense negotiations, they were brought from a dilapidated synagogue in Prague where they had moldered since they were collected from the Jewish congregations of Moravia and Bohemia at the time of their destruction. In London, during the next four decades, in a suite of rooms above the synagogue at Kent House, many of the scrolls were restored for synagogue service while others made suitable for use a memorials. Almost all the scrolls have sent out to communities across the world, where their use and exhibition is a constant reminder of the Holocaust.

The existence of the Torah scrolls is a constant reminder of the murder of Czech Jews and the destruction of Czech Jewish communities and synagogues in the Holocaust. The survival of the Torah scrolls and their rescue and repair and subsequent distribution to Jewish communities throughout the world, is in its simplest terms, testimony to the resilience of Judaism and the Jewish people. The new museum, which is the product of the energy and commitment of Evelyn Friedlander, Chair and Curator of the Czech Memorial Scrolls Trust, and German designer Fritz Armbruster, tells these stories, and more. The Jewish Museum in Prague has provided support, information and contributed exhibition objects on loan.

In addition to commemorating those tens of thousands of Czech Jews killed in the Holocaust, Evelyn Friedlander writers in the Trust’s newsletter that “The Museum is also a memorial to two groups of people; the Jews of the Prague Jewish community who worked at the Central Jewish Museum and who proposed the plan that enabled so many ritual objects to be saved. The second group to be honored in our new exhibition is those founder members of Westminster Synagogue, who, under the leadership of Rabbi Harold Reinhart, enabled these Scrolls to be brought to London. Here, they were returned to life and distributed to communities all over the world.”
The new museum shows the various stages of the story of the rescue of the Scrolls, from the tragedy of the Czech Jewish community under the Nazis, to the arrival of the Scrolls in London, the subsequent work done by professional scribes, the sending out of the scrolls to their new Jewish (and non-Jewish homes) and the present-day research undertaken by those recipients to explore the background of their Scroll.

Among the exhibits are the remaining scrolls lying on the original wooden racks where they were placed when they arrived, and an display of some of the Torah binders which were tied around the scrolls. The exhibition also show’s the scribe’s table where he worked meticulously upon the scrolls, together with his ink, pens and other equipment.

The Museum will open on 17th September and thereafter will be open to the public on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 am to 4 pm.? Groups are asked to contact the Trust to arrange party visits.

Address: Westminster Synagogue, Rutland Gardens, Knightsbridge, London SW7 1BX

Tel: 020 7584 3741 , e-mail: czech.scrolls@virgin.net