Publication: 50 Years Since Piechotka "Wooden Synagogues"
Its been 50 years since the release in English of Wooden Synagogues (Warsaw: Arkady, 1959) by Maria & Kazimierz Piechotka. I've just written a short account of some of the influence of the book on American synagogue architecture for Nextbook.
The Blueprint: How a 1959 book changed the architecture of American synagogues.
Thanks to Paul Rocheleau and Bob Schwartz for use of their photos. This is derived from a longer study (forthcoming) on the influence of Polish synagogues on American synagogue architecture first presented in Poland last October (and dedicated to Maria & Maciej Piechotka). I enjoyed the opportunity of visiting with them and their architect son Michal. The Piechotkas taught me much of what I know of synagogue architecture during several extended visits in New York and Warsaw in the 1990s. Maciej is recovering from a broken hip, suffered at the end of the summer right after a retrospective exhibition of his drawings held in Warsaw, but seemed in good spirits.
To my readers: please send me more examples of the influence of Wooden Synagogues.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Publication: Ebrei Peimontesi
Publication: Ebrei Peimontesi: The Jews of Piedmont
I was happy to receive this week copies of the exhibition catalog Ebrei Peimontesi: The Jews of Piedmont just published by Yeshiva University Museum. Why was I pleased? One reason is because the book has my essay "The Synagogues of Piedmont," that I wrote at the time of exhibition 12 years ago.
The museum is to be congratulated on their perseverance to get this book published. It was occasioned by the exhibition of the same name held in 1996, but really the book it can stand alone. It is well designed and produced and benefits from the exquisite photos of synagogues by Alberto Falco.
The contents of the volume are as follows:
The Jews of Piedmont from the Later Middle Ages to 1796
by Geoffrey Symcox
Piedmont Judaism after Emancipation
by Gadi Luzzatto Voghera
The Jews of Piedmont and the Holocaust
by Susan Zuccotti
Rabbinic Culture in 15th-Century Piedmont
by Jeffrey R. Woolf
Nusah APaM: A Medieval Litugical Survivor
by Yom Tov Assis
Hebrew Manuscript Decoration in Piedmont from the Late 16th to the Early 19th Centuries
by Shalom Sabar
The Synagogues of Piedmont
by Samuel D. Gruber
The Cuisine of the Piedmontese Jewry
by Edda Servi Machlin
"The Rabbi's Family," chapter two of Memorie di vita ebraica: Casale Monferrato, Roma, Gerusalemme, 1918-1960
by Augusto Segre
Ebrei Peimontesi: The Jews of Piedmont (New York: Yeshiva University Museum, 2008).
[ISBN 0-945447-19-1] Softcover, list price $20.00.
I was happy to receive this week copies of the exhibition catalog Ebrei Peimontesi: The Jews of Piedmont just published by Yeshiva University Museum. Why was I pleased? One reason is because the book has my essay "The Synagogues of Piedmont," that I wrote at the time of exhibition 12 years ago.
The museum is to be congratulated on their perseverance to get this book published. It was occasioned by the exhibition of the same name held in 1996, but really the book it can stand alone. It is well designed and produced and benefits from the exquisite photos of synagogues by Alberto Falco.
The contents of the volume are as follows:
The Jews of Piedmont from the Later Middle Ages to 1796
by Geoffrey Symcox
Piedmont Judaism after Emancipation
by Gadi Luzzatto Voghera
The Jews of Piedmont and the Holocaust
by Susan Zuccotti
Rabbinic Culture in 15th-Century Piedmont
by Jeffrey R. Woolf
Nusah APaM: A Medieval Litugical Survivor
by Yom Tov Assis
Hebrew Manuscript Decoration in Piedmont from the Late 16th to the Early 19th Centuries
by Shalom Sabar
The Synagogues of Piedmont
by Samuel D. Gruber
The Cuisine of the Piedmontese Jewry
by Edda Servi Machlin
"The Rabbi's Family," chapter two of Memorie di vita ebraica: Casale Monferrato, Roma, Gerusalemme, 1918-1960
by Augusto Segre
Ebrei Peimontesi: The Jews of Piedmont (New York: Yeshiva University Museum, 2008).
[ISBN 0-945447-19-1] Softcover, list price $20.00.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Poland: Yale Strom Remembers Henryk Halkowski
Yale Strom Remembers Henry Halkowski
Ruth Ellen Gruber has posted a remembrance of Henry Halkowski by musician, author, filmmaker, photographer and mensch Yale Strom. Yale knew Henryk for almost 25 years.
Henryk died suddenly of a heart attack on the night of January 1-2. For a picture of Henryk click here.
Ruth Ellen Gruber has posted a remembrance of Henry Halkowski by musician, author, filmmaker, photographer and mensch Yale Strom. Yale knew Henryk for almost 25 years.
Henryk died suddenly of a heart attack on the night of January 1-2. For a picture of Henryk click here.
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Poland: Close-up View of Monument and Matzevot at Kazimierz Dolny
Poland: Close-up View of Monument and Matzevot at Kazimierz Dolny
by Samuel D. Gruber
It has been 18 years since I first visited the New Cemetery at Kazimierz Dolny and marveled at the power and beauty of the giant monument which sits on the hillside in front of what remains of the cemetery proper, with its small number of still in situ matzevot. Returning to the site after many years this fall, I was happy and amazed to find the power and pathos of the site undiminished. Despite my having visited scores of Jewish cemeteries in the meantime, and seen dozens of Holocaust monuments (and even helped design a few), this site still resonates strongly with me.
The enormous monument - which is a kind of giant vertical lapidarium 25 meters long and 3 meters high and holding 600 fragments of Jewish gravestones - was erected in 1983-85 on the design of Polish architect Tadeusz Augustynek. I will not describe the entire project, as I have done so before, and James Young treats the monument at length in his now classic work The Texture of Memory (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 199 - 203. It is enough to say that Augustynek created a giant matzevah (gravestone), with terrible crack or rift on one side, indicating the break in Jewish life, Jewish history, and the very broken nature of the Jewish cemetery and its gravestones, too. The stones used in the monument were all excavated from pavements laid during the German occupation40 years earlier. It is said that Polish workmen defied orders and placed the stones face down to protect their inscriptions. Certainly when they were dug up, the inscriptions and carved reliefs of Jewish symbols remained very clear, and some stones even retained traces of color from the original polychrome painting on the limestone.
On this recent visit, I was able to take the time to examine the individual stones. There is a limited range of symbolic compositions. For women it was common to show Sabbath candles and a hand giving charity (tzedakah). For men, there was an open bookcase indicating scholarship and piety. There are also more unusual designs, such as a dove beneath a crown. I assume, after all these years, that these epitaphs have been transcribed and translated. I will try to find out for sure. If not, my photos are clear enough to allow volunteers to do this work now.
by Samuel D. Gruber
It has been 18 years since I first visited the New Cemetery at Kazimierz Dolny and marveled at the power and beauty of the giant monument which sits on the hillside in front of what remains of the cemetery proper, with its small number of still in situ matzevot. Returning to the site after many years this fall, I was happy and amazed to find the power and pathos of the site undiminished. Despite my having visited scores of Jewish cemeteries in the meantime, and seen dozens of Holocaust monuments (and even helped design a few), this site still resonates strongly with me.
The enormous monument - which is a kind of giant vertical lapidarium 25 meters long and 3 meters high and holding 600 fragments of Jewish gravestones - was erected in 1983-85 on the design of Polish architect Tadeusz Augustynek. I will not describe the entire project, as I have done so before, and James Young treats the monument at length in his now classic work The Texture of Memory (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 199 - 203. It is enough to say that Augustynek created a giant matzevah (gravestone), with terrible crack or rift on one side, indicating the break in Jewish life, Jewish history, and the very broken nature of the Jewish cemetery and its gravestones, too. The stones used in the monument were all excavated from pavements laid during the German occupation40 years earlier. It is said that Polish workmen defied orders and placed the stones face down to protect their inscriptions. Certainly when they were dug up, the inscriptions and carved reliefs of Jewish symbols remained very clear, and some stones even retained traces of color from the original polychrome painting on the limestone.
On this recent visit, I was able to take the time to examine the individual stones. There is a limited range of symbolic compositions. For women it was common to show Sabbath candles and a hand giving charity (tzedakah). For men, there was an open bookcase indicating scholarship and piety. There are also more unusual designs, such as a dove beneath a crown. I assume, after all these years, that these epitaphs have been transcribed and translated. I will try to find out for sure. If not, my photos are clear enough to allow volunteers to do this work now.
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