Greece: Ioannina Christians Rally to Protect Jewish Cemetery

Greece: Ioannina Christians Rally to Protect Jewish Cemetery
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) On December 18, 2009, Greek Christians in the northern city of Ioannina united in an unprecedented demonstration against anti-Semitism and in recognition of the Jewish heritage of their city. As I wrote in July, the cemetery has been the repeated target of vandalism with three attacks this year.

In recent years the municipality has also made attempts to assume control over parts of the cemetery property.

Ioannina, Greece. Grave desecrated on June 2, 2009. Photo: KIS

According to Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulis, the demonstration "was organized by the Christian citizens of the city and was heralded as a “a human chain against racism.” The cemetery was surrounded by the citizens of Ioannina to show their support for the Jewish community of the city and to publicly show their outrage at recent desecrations of Jewish tombstones."

A public exhibition was also held to highlighted the ancient Jewish presence in Ioannina "and the importance of the Jewish cemetery as a monument to the long Jewish presence in Ioannina."

"The committee that organized the public display of support made the following statement: “The Jewish cemetery is not only the religious space of the Jewish Community but, also, a cultural monument of our city, the protection of which, like other historical monuments of our city, is the duty of every citizen.”

The Jewish community of Ioannina was been the subject of a multi-media documentation project by Vincent Giordano, sponsored by ISJM.

Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos, Museum Director at Kehila Kedosha Janina (New York) has previously provided this blog with an account of the cemetery's history.

For more information about the Ioannina cemetery and all aspects of Jewish history of Ioannina and of its daughter community in the United States, contact:

Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos
Museum Director
Kehila Kedosha Janina
280 Broome Street
NYC, NY 10002
kehila_kedosha_janina@netzero.net

Austria: Government Agrees to Fund Jewish Cemetery Conservation

Austria: Government Agrees to Fund Jewish Cemetery Conservation
by Samuel D. Gruber

I was in the process of compiling a list of top ten stories for 2009 about Jewish heritage sties when news from Deutsche Presse Agentur (DPA) and the Associated Press that the government has pledged 20 million euro over the next 20 years – at a rate of 1 million euro a year – to help restore the neglected Jewish cemeteries throughout the country.

There are about 70 known Jewish cemeteries in modern-day Austria, of which at least twenty the Jewish Community rates in poor condition. According to a report in the Associated Press, the Jewish Community will match the government grants through funds raised from private and local governmental sources. The decision to fund cemetery conservation and protection comes after nearly a decade of protracted and sometimes acrimonious negotiation about Austrian governmental responsibility for various types of compensation and support to Jewish survivors, the Jewish Community and Jewish heritage sites following the murder and destruction of the Holocaust. In 2001 Austria committed (as part of the so-called Washington agreement) to care for Jewish cemeteries as part of a compensation deal for Nazi crimes, but levels of care were not specified.

Unlike Germany, which during the post-World War II reconstruction period (and ever since) has taken a strong official stance in the need for and appropriateness of government support for Jewish cultural and religious life, Austrian governments (and public opinion) steadfastly denied responsibility, portraying Austria as the first “victim” of Nazi aggression, rather than a willing collaborator in Germany’s war and the Holocaust. Thousands of Austrian Jews fled the country before and immediately after the annexation of Austria to Germany in 1938. In all, it is thought that about 65,000 Austrian Jews met their deaths as a result of the Nazi policies.

Raimund Fastenbauer, secretary-general of the Jewish Community Vienna, told The Associated Press he hoped restoration work would begin next year.

While in other countries in Europe local and national monument authorities have sometimes assisted in the care for particularly historic Jewish cemeteries, for the most part governments have spent little - and sometimes nothing - on the care of such sites. Even worse, in many countries of Eastern Europe disputes continue on the definition of what a cemetery is. For Jews, the presence of human remains denotes a cemetery - which remains a sacred space requiring demarcation and care.

For many governments, and culture organizations, cemeteries are only recognized when gravestones are visible. In the case of at least several thousand Jewish cemeteries throughout Europe gravestones have been removed during times of persecution, expulsion, and genocide. Even in case where some gravestones remain, protected site status is often granted only to that small area of a cemetery rather than to the entire acreage where burials exist. Sometimes well-intentioned efforts to fence areas where stones remain results in the de facto sacrifice of more expansive cemetery areas.

The Austrian Jewish Community web site has an extensive page listing all the cemeteries and giving their history, size, location, condition and notes on any current or recent restoration efforts.

For a detailed listing of Jewish heritage sites in Austria, including some cemeteries see:
http://www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu/country/austria/austria1.htm

For lists of Jewish cemeteries, including a database of individual burials throughout the country, museums and currently-functioning synagogues, see the website of the Austrian Jewish community:
www.ikg-wien.at/static/etis/html/start.htm

Jewish Archaeology in Europe: Upcoming Conference and an Overview

Lorca, Spain. Medieval Synagogue (15th century?) and three of the dozens of handing glass oil lamps excavated, as reconstructed. Photos: Samuel D. Gruber, 2009.

Jewish Archaeology in Europe: Conference and Overview
By Samuel D. Gruber

A major conference about the archaeology of Judaism in Europe has been organized in Paris by Paul Salmona of the Institut national de recherches archéologiques préventives (INRAP). The conference will be held at the Musee d'art et d'histoire du judaisme on January 14-15, 2010.

INRAP was founded in 2002 under the French Law on archaeology of January 2001. It replaces Association for the national archaeological excavations (AFAN), established in 1901. INRAP is administered jointly by the French Ministries of Culture and Research.

The full program can be consulted at the INRAP website or downloaded here.

This conference comes on the heels of another big conference “Medieval Jewish archaeology in the Iberian Peninsula,” for archaeologists about recent excavation of Jewish sites in Spain held in Murcia in February, 2009. The 133-page proceedings of the conference can be accessed at:
http://www.lucesdesefarad.com/images/preactas.pdf

Both conferences are signs of the quickening pace of “Jewish archaeology” in Europe, and the increasing variety of sites encountered, and conflicting views on their excavation, interpretation and presentation.

The systematic and planned archaeology of Judaism in Europe is a relatively new phenomenon that has evolved from several trends that even today are not always easily reconciled. Since I will not be able to attend the Paris conference, and I doubt that many of readers will be there either, Ipresent here a brief overview of the topic of "Jewish Archaeology."

Jewish Archaeology in Europe: History

The roots of “Jewish Archaeology” lie in the 19th and early 20th century German scientific study of Judaism (Wissenschaft des Judentum), an academic movement that advocated intensive study of ancient, medieval and post-medieval source material and created more nuanced history of Jewish settlement and community. The movement mostly saw traditional Judaism as an historic relic, rather than as a dynamic religion, and was thus rejected by most observant Jews. The Wissenschaft movement was particularly attentive to texts, but was also cognizant of the possibility of the new field of archaeology in providing new information.

A similar movement developed in England, led by the Jewish Historical Society of England (founded 1893), that identified Jewish settlement sites in England from before the expulsion of 1290, and details about the names, occupations and wealth of many Jewish individuals. This effort has continued for more than a century and recently led to archaeological excavations in York, Guildford and London. Nearly contemporary with the Jewish Historical Society was the publication by Israel Abrahams (1858-1925) of Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, a work about the everyday life of Jews as much as about religion. It gave extensive coverage to material culture.

Along with the development of “Biblical Archaeology” in the Near East, Jewish scholars supported excavations in Europe. Archaeological investigation into ancient Judaism was deliberately developed in the Holy Land, first by Europeans in the late 19th century. In the early 20th century Jews resident in Palestine supported this work, and continued after 1948 the new state of Israel. The Israel Exploration Society (originally Society for the Reclamation of Antiquities) was founded in 1914. Among many discoveries – that continue today – are the remains of synagogues and Jewish villages of late antiquity. Parallel to this, were accidental discoveries in Europe of signs of ancient and medieval Judaism in the form of inscriptions and synagogues. One of the earliest was the uncovering of the Jewish cemetery of the rue de la Harpe in Paris in 1847 (thanks to Max Polonovski for this information).

In the second half of the 19th century Jewish scholars joined the study of texts and material culture by studying Jewish funerary epitaphs, including those from the catacombs in Rome, but also cemeteries dating from the 12th through 16th centuries in Worms, Prague, Vienna, Lvov and many other cities.

In Palestine there was a growing interest and professionalism in “Jewish archaeology,” while in Europe there was growing evidence – but not widespread interest – in the potential of archaeology to expand historical horizons. Unfortunately, many finds explicitly linked to the European Jewish past have languished in storage and the potential link to Jews and Judaism of other finds have received little scrutiny. One of the few publicly accessible collections of medieval Judaica in Europe was that of the Musee Cluny in Paris, assembled in the mid-19th century by Joseph Isaac Strauss (1806-1888) who displayed 82 items at the Universal Exhibition in the Trocadero Palace in Paris and exhibited part of the collection at the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition in London in 1887. The collection, which is mostly comprised of synagogue and household ritual objects was later purchased by Baron Nathaniel de Rothschild and presented it as a gift to the French nation.

Archaeology of Judaism in Europe as we know it today developed directly out of the destruction of European cities in the Second World War. Post-war urban renewal developed opportunities for archaeological excavation in bombed out city centers. Documentation of standing Jewish structures – mostly synagogues – had begun in earnest in Germany and Poland during the interwar years, but most of these buildings were subsequently destroyed in the Holocaust. After 1945, however, remains of extensive medieval Jewish settlements in German cities could be fully exposed and investigated. These sites – previously known mostly through documentary evidence – gave a new physical dimension to the medieval presence in Europe. Unfortunately, limitations of archaeological technique as well as post-War political issues, financial constraints, and pressure for urban rebuilding, restricted the results of excavation and analysis. Otto Dopplefield’s work at Cologne was the most extensive; where he revealed the remains of a medieval synagogue that he dated to the 11th century. An impressive multistory mikveh (ritual bath), a monument of early medieval engineering was also revealed. New excavations carried out by the City of Cologne on the site since 2007 have confirmed much of Doppelfield’s analysis, but has conclusively pushed the date of synagogue and mikveh back to the Carolingian period and most likely – at least for the synagogue – to late antiquity. Other excavations took place in Worms and Speyer.

Cologne, Germany. Medieval Mikveh, looking up. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber

The aftershocks of the destruction of Jewish communities in the Holocaust continued to influence Jewish scholarship in Europe. Two generations of scholars were lost – precisely those great teachers and their promising students who were most interested in the medieval Jewish past. Those that survived moved to American and Israel, far from the physical remains of European Jewish culture. Jewish medieval studies became again concerned almost totally with texts and movable objects. The methodology of the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University, for example, emphasized iconography over physical context.

Jewish Archaeology in Europe: Contemporary

Nowhere was there any planned effort to identify Jewish sites, nor to further exploit of the opportunities afford by unexpected finds. Throughout the Jewish world “Jewish archaeology” became almost synonymous with the uncovering of ancient Jewish remains, primarily in Israel, but also throughout the Mediterranean littoral, where a number of finds such as those from Ostia (Italy), Sardis (Turkey) and Stobi (Mecedonia) attested to Judaism’s widespread acceptance in the ancient world.

Medieval archaeology itself as a serious discipline with its own rationale and developed methods continued to evolve, especially in Britain (where the influence of the “New Archaeology” was strongest), and in Germany and Italy. Many of the favored archaeological conceptions such as urban archaeology and regional settlement surveys that should have brought more attention to the medieval Jewish component, however, tended to ignore it completely. A close reading of the archaeological literature from Europe between 1960 and 1990 would suggest that Jews were hardly present on the continent – despite their ubiquity in religious, historical, and legal sources as well as historical toponyms in many countries. Thus historians and archaeologists have different perceptions of the place and role of Jewish in the European Middle Ages.

From the 1960s through the 1990s most identification of Jewish materials in Europe was almost entirely accidental. The most spectacular instance was the discovery of a massive Romanesque structure in Rouen, France, in 1976, that may have been a synagogue, but was more likely a yeshiva (Talmudic school) and possibly a scriptorium. In 2002, excavations in Lorca, Spain uncovered the entire plan of a 15th-century synagogue as well as remains of eleven houses of the Jewish quarter, where previously no Jewish settlement was known. Houses contained distinctly Jewish features, including ceramic Hanukah oil lamps. The synagogue included original architectural and decorative features and fragments of more than 50 glass hanging lamps – previously only known from manuscript illuminations and later similar types from North Africa.

Archaeology of Jewish sites has centered on religious and ritual sites. These were the most prominent structures of Jewish communities, especially synagogues and mikvot (ritual baths), building types that are also most likely to incorporate distinguishing features allowing them to be identified as Jewish. These structures have usually been found in the course of building renovation or construction, or as part of other excavations. Recently, as in Regensburg (Germany) and Vienna (Austria), large planned excavations have been carried out at sites where ancient synagogues were known have existed before they were deliberately demolished, and the remains of those buildings and adjacent structures have been exposed. Similar excavations have been advocated for other known sites, such as the medieval synagogue in Budapest.

Vienna, Austria. Preserved remains of the medieval synagogue after excavation and creation of the Judenplatz Museum. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber

In Spain, a more sensitized archaeological profession is now more adept at identifying Jewish sites discovered by accident, and historians and archaeologists are also seeking Jewish remains. A rich array of documentary sources, as in Jaén, can help locate former Jewish settlements in towns and cities throughout Iberia, where medieval juderie are still remembered in local lore and toponyms.

For centuries, traces of many Jewish cemeteries have been found, mostly sites which Jews were forced to abandon during periods of expulsion, or which were expropriated from them by authorities. Commonly, inscribed stone gravestones (matzevot), often in only fragmentary condition, have been found; mostly discovered in locations of re-use, incorporated in later structures, roads, city walls, river embankments, etc. where they served as ready building material. This is true in Spain, Italy, Germany and elsewhere in Europe.

In a few cases, such as York (England), Prague (Czech Republic) and Lucera and Tarrega (Spain) previously forgotten and long unmarked Jewish cemeteries have been discovered in the course of urban development. In the past, such cemeteries might have been entirely destroyed without careful examination. Now, such finds are usually reported to cultural heritage authorities and they are carefully excavated by trained archaeologists. In some cases their Jewish character has been perceived when excavations began, but archaeologists did not consult with present-day Jewish communities. In almost all cases when the burials were identified as Jewish – either before or after excavation – some Jewish organizations, especially representative of Jewish religious communities, have protested the excavation and especially the exhumation of human remains as a violation of Jewish religious practice and law. In cases where the location of medieval Jewish cemeteries is known, Jewish communities have generally encouraged non-intrusive archaeological methods as a means of investigation. Jewish communities and archaeologists are still developing procedures to lessen conflict over cemeteries. So far, in some places, there seem to be irreconcilable differences of opinion and approach.

Maribor, Slovenia. Fragments of medieval Jewish gravestones now in Municipal Museum.
Photo: Ruth Ellen Gruber

Medieval treasures have been uncovered, mostly as accidental discoveries. The two most famous medieval treasure “hoards” are those of Colmar, discovered in 1863 and one from Erfurt found only in 1996. These hoards of money and precious objects were probably hidden in time of persecution and mass murder of Jews, and not recovered. The Colmar treasure contained an elaborate early 14th century wedding ring. Nothing is known of the individuals or groups who hid the treasures other than their apparent wealth, but it is assumed that they died in the massacres of 1348. Similar accidental discoveries of caches of documents and many artifacts of everyday life have been found in genizot, (plural of genizah), storage spaces in synagogues used for discarded texts and ritual items. But with the exception of the famous Genizah of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, whose documents have helped rewrite the Jewish and economic history of the Mediterranean region in the Early Middle Ages, these genizot have produced materials only from the 18th century on. In the case of genizot, after a series of accidental discoveries in the 1980s an 1990s in former synagogue south German synagogue buildings, more systematic investigations have been undertaken.

Note: The above text is adapted from two larger articles on “Jewish Archaeology” in press and preparation. I always appreciate new information – historic or contemporary – about all types of investigation of Jewish heritage sites.

New York Concert: Reviving Forgotten Synagogue Music

Carei, Romania. Synagogue (1871). Photo: (from Panoramio) by
K.Csaba

Concert: Reviving Forgotten Synagogue Music
by Samuel D. Gruber

Its obvious that synagogues are more than just buildings. Even synagogue architecture is best appreciated – at least by men - when we see the space in use, or perhaps better yet – use it ourselves. A synagogue space needs people, movement, prayer; and also music. For a medieval synagogue this might be solitary chant, or a holiday melody. For a 19^th century synagogue, especially on in Central Europe, this might be specially composed cantorial music, old prayers set to new melodies, and sometimes a mixed choir (men and women) and an organ.

We can still get the feel and the sound of 19^th century synagogue music in a few synagogues in Europe and America that have retained their older customs, or revive them occasionally for certain ceremonies. For most Central and Eastern European synagogues, however, even when the building survives (in part, or as a ruin, or adapted to a new use), the music has died, lost with the communities for which it was written.

A remarkable exception to this rule is the impressive Romanian Neolog synagogue of Carei, built in 1871, and situated in the country’s Hungarian speaking northwest, near the Hungarian border and not far form the better known Jewish center of Satu Mare. In 2008 American musician and photographer Yale Strom discovered a habd-notated volume of cantorial music amongst piles of unused prayer books stored in the women’s gallery of the former synagogue (given his discovery, Strom can perhaps be forgiven his trespass – for since the synagogue is kept locked, he broke in through a window). Strom made a copy of the volume (the original is now in the Carei archives), and from its melodies he has written a three part composition for string quarter that will performed this week at the Eldridge Street Synagogue in New York. The new musical arrangement doesn’t replicate the old, but it builds upon it. Strom dedicates the work, which he will perform together with the Mark Block Quarter, to those Jews who perished in the Holocaust. Following the performance Cantor Ari Priven of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, will sing the prayers in their original form.

In Memory Of with Yale Strom

Wednesday, December 16 at 7 PM

Read all about it in Jewish Week. $15 adults; $12 students and seniors

RSVP to: hgriff(at)eldridgestreet.org or call 212.219.0888 x 205

Museum at Eldridge Street
12 Eldridge Street
Between Canal & Division Streets

Conference: First Report from Vilnius Jewish Heritage Workshop

Vilnius, Lithuania. Sign on the Baron de Hirsch Houses, site of subsidized Jewish housing, and then a Nazi-established concentration/work camp, and then a murder and mass grave site for hundreds of Jews. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber

Conference: First Report from Vilnius Jewish Heritage Workshop

Ruth Ellen Gruber has posted a brief report from the 2-day workshop on Jewish heritage in Lithuania that was held earlier this week in Vilnius. I was invited, but could not attend. We will see in time how much was accomplished, and how much was just. Despite a quick start in recognizing Jewish heritage sites - especially cemeteries and mas murder and grave sites - early in the 1990s, Lithuania has since lagged behind other countries in developing a coherent and effective policy to maintain and protect most of its historic Jewish sites.

According to Ruth, the workshop presented

"a number of depressing factors, including vandalism, apathy, lack of coordination and cooperation between stakeholders, and the usual "one Jew building three synagogues on a desert island" syndrome. But the fact that the seminar took place was positive and I [Ruth] did learn some positive developments.

These included the news that:

-- a grant from Norway through the EU has been obtained to start rebuilding the "red synagogue" in Joniskis whose eastern wall collapsed in a hurricane two years ago.

-- both the Culture Ministry and the municipality of Pakruojis are committed to restoring the wooden synagogue there, which was seriously damaged by arson earlier this year.

Joniskis, Lithuania. The "Red Synagogue," one of two synagogues in this historic complex (before storm damage). Photos: ISJM archive

Hungary: Hanukah & Urbanism in the 7th District

Hungary: Hanukah & Urbanism in the 7th District


Ruth Ellen Gruber has an good and instructive piece in the New York Times on the upcoming Hanukah festival in the Seventh (and Sixth) districts of Budapest. First time that this festival has expanded to include more than 30 local businesses, including clubs, pubs and restaurants and well as Jewish institutions.

Read the article here:

A Nod to Budapest’s Future in a Grass-Roots Celebration of Its Past

by Ruth Ellen Gruber

USA: The Modern Synagogues of Sheldon Leavitt

Architect Sheldon, Leavitt, Portsmouth, Virgnia (2009). Photo: Samuel D. Gruber

USA: The Synagogues of Sheldon Leavitt, P.E., AIA
by Samuel D. Gruber

At a recent lecture that I gave I met architect Sheldon Leavitt, P.E., AIA, who I had previously known only as a name - the architect of record of Temple Oheb Shalom in Baltimore, designed and built 50 years ago (1956-60),and for which Walter Gropius was consulting architect. Leavitt told me something about the circumstances through which Gropius was engaged...and it was instructive for learning the reality of how modern synagogue architecture was sometimes developed - and still is.

Baltimore, Maryland. Temple Oheb Shalom (1956-60), Sheldon Leavitt, architect and Walter Gropius, consulting architect. Photo: Paul Rocheleau.

Temple Oheb Shalom was set to build a new suburban home and Leavitt was engaged, but it was suggested - or requested - that he try to engage someone with a bigger reputation to consult to help fund raising. Aesthetics had nothing to do with it. Leavitt suggested Gropius, with whom he had recently worked on a project and the rest is history. Leavitt visited Cambridge, where Gropius was at Harvard, and the two spent time working on designs. In the end the synagogue features and the functional aspects of the building were probably Leavitt's, since he knew the congregation and had already designed several other synagogues. The distinctive design features, however, especially four great barrel vaults that transverse the main block of the sanctuary, as well as the sanctuary floor that sloped up to the bimah; were Gropius's ideas. After a half century - and when asked on the spot - Leavitt couldn't quite recall. But I hope to interview him sometime soon to get more on this story, and to learn more of the collaborative process, but also more about his work on at least seven other synagogues which he told me about. All of these were built in the 1950s around the time of Oheb Shalom. Since that time his career took him in other directions - especially industrial, commercial, high-rise residential design.

At that time Leavitt was almost as prolific a synagogue builder as Percival Goodman, another young American-born Jewish architect who championed modernism. Leavitt, much more than Goodman, leaned toward a functionalism in his work which demonstrated his training as an engineer. Mr. Leavitt holds a BSCE degree with high honors from the University of Illinois.

Here is a working list of Leavitt synagogues. I have been able to pull together photos for some of them. His Gromley Chesed Synagogue in Portsmouth (1954), which I have not had a chance to visit, appears to be an especially handsome early modern structure.

All need to be visited, described and fully photographed, and I expect this will be done as part of ISJM's modern American synagogue documentation project. Architectural historic Al Willis has already volunteered to document those synagogues in the Virgina Tiderwater region.

Portsmouth, Virginia. Gromley Chesed (1954), Sheldon Leavitt, arch. Photos courtesy of Julian H. Preisler.

Norfolk, Virginia. Temple Israel. Sheldon Leavitt, arch. (1953). Photo: Samuel D. Gruber, 2009.

Cincinnati, Ohio. Former (?) Ohav Sholom Synagogue. Sheldon Leavitt, Arch. (1957).
Photos courtesy of Julian H. Preisler.

Other synagogues are:

Jacksonville Hebrew Congregation, 1955, Jacksonville, NC

Beth Israel Synagogue, (?) 1957, Roanoke, VA

Rodef Sholom Social Temple, 1957, Hampton-Warwick, VA

Adath Jeshurun Synagogue, 1958, Hampton, VA (subsequently redesigned)

Most of Leavitt's career has been as an accomplished engineer. Indeed, he was a Founding Fellow of the National Academy of Forensic Engineers, and is a Life Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and Fellow of the Architectural Engineering Institute of the ASCE, He founded Leavitt Associates in 1953, where he is still engaged, and where his son is a partner.

Romania: More on Piatra Neant Synagogue Restoration

Piatra Neamt, Romania. Interior of Cathedral or Baal Shem Tov Synagogue (before restoration). Photo by Janos Kalmar, published in Synagogues by Samuel Gruber (NY: Metrobooks, 1999)

Romania: More on Piatra Neant Synagogue Restoration
by Samuel D. Gruber

As a follow up to Monday's post about the completed restoration of the 19th century Baal Shem Tov Synagogue in Piatra Neamt, Romania, I post the above photo by esteemed architectural photographer Janos Kalmar (Kalmar photographed many of the synagogues of Central Europe in 1990s - these photos really needed to collated and published as a group).

Also, I have learned that restoration of the synagogue was entirely organized by the Romanian Ministry of Culture, which allocated approximately 300,000 euro of government funds to the project from 19907 through 2009. The work was overseen by Romanian preservation architect Constantza Carp. The project got its start with a modest planning grant from the Jewish Heritage Program of the World Monuments Fund in 2001-2002.

Unfortunately, given the state of the Romanian economy, we are not likely to see considerable spending on Jewish monuments - or perhaps any monuments - in the near future. Still, the situation for many historic and beautiful Romanian synagogues remains severe. Private funds are need for many worthy projects. For many other sites future use is uncertain, so preservation efforts are mostly postponed. In some cases modest spending on building maintenance and security can protect them from more expensive repairs in the future.

I welcome information about individuals, foundations, businesses, government agencies and organizations that would like to help. The International Survey of Jewish Monuments can make introductions to needy projects, or Gruber Heritage Global can provide more detailed and comprehensive planning and funding information.

Romania: Restored Piatra Neamt Synagogue to be Re-Dedicated on December 14, 2009

Romania: Restored Piatra Neamt Synagogue to be Re-Dedicated on December 14, 2009

The Cathedral or “Baal Shem Tov” Synagogue of Piatra Neamt, Romania has been restored after an eight year effort, and will be re-dedicated on December 14, 2009, according to an announcement by Dr. Aurel Vainer, President of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania (FedRom) and of the President of Jewish Community of Piatra Neamt. The restoration of the historic synagogue is fittingly scheduled for Hanukah.

The oldest surviving part of the synagogue complex was erected in 1766 and is listed as a State Historic Monument in Romania. It is the only surviving wooden synagogue in Romania, and was built utilizing the stone foundations of an earlier synagogue. There are many stories and legends associated with the synagogue, many of which concern the Ba’al Shem Tov, the found of Hasidism, who local tradition relates lived for a time in the area and sometimes prayed (in the previous) synagogue.

The simple square-plan timber building appears low from the outside, probably in order to conform to the heights of nearby buildings. The sanctuary is reached by descending steps (from a later approximately 100-year old brick annex structure) to a floor 7.5 feet below ground level, allowing a much higher-than-expected interior (about 16 feet high), surmounted by a wooden ribbed dome. A free-standing octagonal bimah, under an oval canopy, is set in the sanctuary opposite the Ark, near the west entrance.

A 2-level women’s gallery, actually a separate room, is on the north wall, and there is a one-level gallery on the west wall, above the entrance stairs. A space on the south wall is said to have been for children.

In 2001 the Federation of Jewish Communities initiated a restoration program for the synagogue, recognizing a number of serious problems including a damp and mold in the walls, a leaking roof, a wall off-axis, and a deteriorated floor and ceiling among other problems. The masonry synagogue also needed repair. It required the installation of an appropriate water-handling system, including roof replacement, as well a replastering and painting.

According to Ruth Ellen Gruber, who has visited the synagogue on several occasions: “Chandeliers hang from the ribbed wooded dome arching over the dull, brown-green walls decorated by pale stenciled flowers. Carved and gilded lions, griffins, bunches of grapes, and other decorations ornament the compact but elaborate Aron Ha Kodesh, built in 1835 by Saraga Yitzhak ben Moshe" (Jewish Heritage Travel, 2007, 269).

Very close by is the larger masonry Great of Leipziger Synagogue, built in 1839 and rebuilt after a fire in 1904.

Obituary: Terri Trieger, curator for the Koslower Gallery at the Westchester Jewish Center

Obituary: Terri Trieger, curator for the Koslower Gallery at the Westchester Jewish Center

I just learned this week of the recent death of Terri Trieger, on October 24, 2009. On behalf of ISJM, I send condolences to all of Terri's extebded family.

Terri was curator for the Koslower Gallery at the Westchester Jewish Center, where she installed its first art exhibit, based on life cycle events and holiday ritual objects, in 1991. Many New Yorkers have known Terri, too, for her active role as a docent at the Jewish Museum in New York for four decades. Terri was also an advisor to the Judaic Museum of Riverdale Hebrew Home for the Age.

Terri worked with the International Survey of Jewish Monuments in 2005 to install and present an exhibition of Vincent Giordano's Before the Flame Goes Out at the Koslower Gallery, as a work in progress. Terri was a woman of tremendous energy, enthusiasm, experience and insight. She will be missed by all who knew her.

Terri graduated from Brandeis University in 1955. She is survived by her husband Dr. Norman Trieger, 4 children, 13 grandchildren, and 11 great grandchildren.

Charitable contributions in her memory may be made to the Koslowe Gallery at the Westchester Jewish Center in Mamaroneck, NY.

Her obituary in the Larchmont Gazette here.

Belarus: Israeli Ambassador Urges Government to Assist in Restoration of Synagogues

Grodno (Hrodna), Belarus. Great Synagogue (1902-05). Photos: Wikipedia Commons

Belarus: Israeli Ambassador Urges Government to Assist in Restoration of Synagogues

(ISJM) Belarus News reported on November 11, 2009 that the Israeli ambassador to Belarus has urged the government to restore synagogues amid a “disastrous” shortage of prayer houses for Jewish communities in the country.

According to the article:

The Belarusian government should pay attention to deteriorating synagogues, which were built with contributions by the faithful, Ambassador Edward (Eddie) Shapira said at an international conference in Minsk.

“I do understand that there is no restitution law in the country, but there is a wave of religious revival and the state does not only return churches that once belonged to Orthodox Christian communities but also helps renovate them,” the ambassador said.

Mr. Shapira expressed concern about the condition of the “unique” three-story synagogue in Hrodna [Grodno]. Many tourists, including Jews, visit the city, but it is impossible to invite them to the synagogue hit by “devastation,” he said.

The ambassador also voiced alarm over what he called the unwillingness of law-enforcers to probe attempts to incite national hate “even when they are visible by the naked eye.”

He said that a swastika and an anti-Semitic text were sprayed on the building of the Jewish community in Slutsk, Minsk region, earlier this year, condemning the act as a vivid example of racism.

The ambassador called on the authorities to draw up regulations that would prevent immoderate construction work at old Jewish cemeteries and the sites of the WWII mass execution of Jews, and ensure that human remains discovered at such sites be reburied with proper rituals.

You can view this article online at VosIzNeias.com/41883

Copyright © 1999 - 2008 VosIzNeias.com - All rights reserved.

Of course, the ambassador's plea raises a host of sticky political and moral questions about government involvement in religion. On the one hand, Jewish and other groups are usually eager to see government support for synagogues and other Jewish religious and communal institutions - and such is a normal throughout much of Europe where the tradition of separation of church and state are not ingrained as part of the social and political cultures. On the other hand, these same groups fret about undo influence by government upon their activities, and on other forms of freedom of expression. How should be strike a balance?

On way, of course, is to look at the buildings that need to be restored. In Europe (but less so in America) governments are regularly involved in the protection, preservation and promotion of the historic buildings and other resources. When synagogues and other Jewish historic and architecturally significant buildings fall into this category, help should be provided to promote culture and history. I would never - however - support the government construction of synagogues (or churches or mosques for that matter). But in fact, in Belarus, as the ambassador points out the government does assist in the promotion of the Orthodox (Christian) church. But I would plea for the protection of historic synagogues based on their past - not on their future use. That issue is for Jews to decide (and to fund).

The Grodno synagogue is one of the most impressive in Belarus, and is situated in a major urban area. Just as the City of Warsaw has funded recent restoration of the Nosyk Synagogue, and the Hungarian government funded most of the expensive restoration of the Dohany Synagogue in Budapest, so too, can public funds assist in Grodno - which was returned to the Jewish Community of that city in 1991. The synagogue, however, was the site of intense communal rivalries in the years after its restitution. Disagreements over who would control the site and who would define the Jewish religious identity of Grodno were also factors that deterred international donors from embracing the project - as exactly the time when international attention was turning to places like Warsaw, Prague and Budapest. The Grodno Synagogue is now the Center of the city's Chabad movement, which is organizing its restoration. Today, Belarus is home to three main Jewish religious groups - the tradition Orthodox, the Chabad-Lubavich Orthodox, and a congregation of Progressive Jews. This confuses all requests for government support. Chabad has been more active (and successful) - especially in nearby Russia - in looking to government for recognition and active support. In neighboring Ukraine, which also lacks a restitution law, Chabad has also been the most organized and effective nationwide Jewish network - but there Chabad has mostly relied on private donors and the activism of local rabbis.

The lack of a proper restitution law in Belarus makes any general demand on the government for care of synagogues problematic. It would be better to fix the system and create a proper mechanism for the return and support of properties, than to bungle by on an ad hoc and reactive basis, and to beg for government largess. The problem in Belarus (and in other countries, too) is that governments are willing to "give back" older ruined and non-productive properties to Jewish communities, but they are reluctant - and even obdurate - to return useful income-producing properties. Thus, Jewish communities are after saddled with expensive historic properties, but no financial resource - and little or no government assistance - to maintain and restore them. This is like asking someone to make soup and giving them the ingredients, but no pot or fire.

What needs to be done is the proper and legal return of historic properties with the recognition that these properties are derelict due to more than a half century of neglect and or misuse by state or other non-Jewish users (appropriators). It is not enough to return a property, but the means also have to be attached to the property to make it whole again.

If an apple is stolen from a grocer, it does the grocer no good if only the apple core is returned.

I know that this is an expensive proposition - and its get more expensive all the time. But this is the system that we must lobby for. It is the only practical - and moral - solution. Governments add injury to insult when they return a ruined (historically designated) property to a Jewish community, and then within a short time threaten to penalize the community for not having maintained or restored the building - this after the government (or some predecessor government) neglecting the structure for decades. It is also wrong for governments to assume that just because a community will not or cannot maintain a property now, that it is forfeiting all claim on the building for all time. If such a scenario were carried out to its logical conclusion, than many governments themselves would find that they must forfeit many of their own buildings - since they are not maintained.

In places like Belarus is essential that a complete list of sites be compiled (this has already been done to a large degree), and that the conditions of the building, and its restoration needs be itemized, and that these be compared to potential uses for the building. This list then needs to be prioritized, and a small selection of sites be chosen for annual repair and restoration - sometimes by the Jewish community, sometimes by the government, sometimes by private entities - but mostly in the form of creative financing, use and lease or ownership arrangements involving all these parties. This can be done in many ways as examples from the Czech Republic and Poland demonstrate.

I will write more about the unusual architecture of the Grodno Synagogue in a future post.

USA: Exhibition by New Haven's Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Artists Project

USA: Exhibition by New Haven's Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Artists Project

Last week I wrote about the 1925 Orthodox Beth Israel synagogue in New Haven, Connecticut, popularly known as the Orchard Street Shul. I mentioned the upcoming exhibition at the John slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art in New Haven organized by the artists' group known as the Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Artists Project. The exhibition opens next week and continues through January, with a rich program of associated events.

The Public is Invited to the Opening Reception for the Participating Artists, on Sunday, December 6, from 12:00 Noon to 5:00 pm. To set the mood for the launch of “The Orchard Street Shul Artists Cultural Heritage Project”, the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale for Jewish Life at Yale will host a Jazz jam session on December 5 at 7:30, celebrating the swing dance music of 1924 and beyond, when the cornerstone of this Synagogue was put in place in a ceremony attended by Mayor Fitzgerald and much of the entire New Haven community.

The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art is open W-F, 11:00 am to 4:00 pm, and weekends 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Schools and other organizations who would like to arrange a group visit outside of regular hours may do so by sending an email to: arts@orchardstreetshul-artistsproject.org.

Below is more information about the synagogue, the project and the exhibition provided to ISJM by Cynthia Rubin, one of the Project and exhibition organizers. Cynthia explained to me that the Project overall was inspired by the many instances of contemporary art installed within or inspired by historic synagogues in Europe. In the case of the Orchard Street Shul, the group wanted to draw attention to the historic, architecture and preservation needs of the congregation while still respecting the fact the building remains as dedicated house of worship. Thus, the exhibition is being help elsewhere (also to save on the winter heating bills for the near-destitute congregation) , and certain parameters were placed on the art created for the event. The art pieces must be somehow relevant to the specific location, history, art and architecture of the Orchard Street Shul and its location, and it must be respectful of the congregation.

"Respect" of course is a subjective term...as I have previously written in my accounts of archaeology of cemeteries in Spain and in other contexts. Still, I believe that for art as for all types of public discourse and behavior, context is everything. When context is understood, than respect should be a natural result - and when it is not, it is usually the result of deliberate and often provocative disrespect. In art, there is often a place - and an important place - for intentional disrespect and shock value. In community building (and that is what is part of the goal in New Haven) the same disrespect and shock can be counter productive.

My preliminary review of the art in this exhibition - through photos and description only- shows that much of its interesting, much is innovative and clever. I appreciate the organizers' decision to encourage thought, but not to shock.

Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Artists Project

During the months of December 2009 and January 2010, The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art in New Haven, Connecticut will come alive with memories, recollections, and recreations of an important community heritage site, in an innovative group installation designed to both stimulate reflection on the legacies of past generations and engage the public in dreams for the future.

The Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Artists Project is an art exhibition, a history lesson, a point of cultural exchange, and meeting place for dreamers, both nostalgic and visionary. Artists, researchers, and scholars have joined together to celebrate an important historic New Haven landmark which was once central to the life of a large Jewish immigrant population in the Oak Street neighborhood.

Urban changes in the last 50 years have all but erased evidence illustrating the importance of the Oak Street neighborhood in the lives of the newly arrived immigrants and migrants who populated much of the area now known as the "Oak Street Connector", Route 34. Where some see open space, or a new hospital, or a school, or a parking lot, others with longer memories see shops bustling with activity, voices shouting in Yiddish and Italian, sprinkled with a variety of accents from elsewhere, including near and distant regions within the USA.

Contributions to the installation offer a range of approaches. Some artists researched the history of the Orchard Street Shul and its neighborhood, uncovering multiple stories of this community: stories of women working together to aid refugees, stories of hard-working fathers and mothers who dedicated themselves to making a better life for their children, and stories of teenagers who giggled and mingled on the steps of the Shul. Others built on their own experiences, reaching into their hearts to create depictions of the Shul that are evocative of deeper connections with history and community. Still others focused on the issues of urban renewal, making real the shifts in our urban landscape that are difficult to imagine as we visit the site today.

Included in the Project are presentations by researchers from Yale University who developed innovative ways to document the building, including virtual reconstructions exploring new digital methods, ground-breaking research by computer scientists that promises to change the ways that cultural heritage sites will be documented in the future. Some contributing artists used this digital data in their creative work.

The Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Project is organized by Cynthia Beth Rubin, a New Haven based artist, in collaboration with participating artists and researchers: Nancy Austin. Meg Bloom, Donnamarie Bruton, Jeanne Criscola, Roz Croog, Linda Drazen, Paul Duda, Gonzalo Escobar, Maya Escobar, Alan Falk, Greg Garvey, Shalom Gorewitz, Jaime Kriksciun, Leslie J. Klein, Beth Krensky, Seth Lamberton, Mary Lesser, Lisa Link, David Ottenstein, Bruce Oren, Robert Rattner, Cynthia Beth Rubin, Holly Rushmeier, Janet Shafner, Frank Shifreen, Suzan Shutan, Sharon Siskin, Christina Spiesel, Yona Verwer, Julian Voloj, Laurie Wohl, Chen Xu, and Howard el-Yasin. The group includes artists from California, Florida, Utah, Missouri, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New York, who traveled to New Haven to contribute to the project alongside artists from the region.

A Project Book is being published in conjunction with the exhibition, including essays by Hasia Diner, the eminent scholar of Jewish immigration history, Walter Cahn, renowned historian of art and and architecture, and Hana Iverson, known for her remarkable multi-media installation "View from the Balcony" that was instrumental in helping attract attention to the renovation project of the Eldridge Street Shul. The book will also feature photographs of the works in the exhibition and memories of the Orchard Street Shul, with commentary by Karen Schiff. The innovative book design is by Criscola Design.

An exciting series of public events includes:
Saturday, December 5, 7:30
Music from the 1920s-1930s jam session
Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale

Sunday, December 6, noon - 5:00
Opening Reception with the Artists
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art

Wednesday, December 9, noon
Lunch and Learn, in Partnership with the Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art

Sunday, December 20, 2:00 pm
Panel Discussion
Memoirs and Remembrances
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art

Sunday, January 10, 2:00 pm
Panel Discussion: Documentations: Photography, Recordings and Recreations
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art

Sunday, January 17, 2:00 pm
Informal Community Conversations
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art

Thursday, January 21, 4:00 pm
Presentation by Yale Computer Science Graphics Group on
The Orchard Street Shul: Case Study in Three - Dimensional Digital Representations of Culture Heritage Sites.
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art

Sunday, January 24, 2:00 pm
Panel Discussion: Art and the Echoes of Spirituality
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art


Sunday, January 31, 2010
Open Forum:
Artists Reflect on Cultural Heritage Project as Process
Closing Party
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art

====================================
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art:
Hours
Wednesday - Friday, 11am - 4pm
Saturday & Sunday, 2pm - 5pm
(203) 624-8055

For directions and information on the John Slade Ely House visit:
http://www.elyhouse.org
For information on the Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Project visit:
http://orchardstreetshul-artistsproject.org
contact:
arts@orchardstreetshul-artistsproject.org
Contact:
Cynthia Beth Rubin, Project Director
Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Artists Project
arts@orchardstreetshul-artistsproject.org
Paul Clabby, Curator
The John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art
203-624-8055

Slovakia: Refurbished Chapel in Bratislava New Orthodox Cemetery; An Important Modernist Work by Interwar Jewish Architects

Slovakia: Refurbished Chapel in Bratislava New Orthodox Cemetery; An Important Modernist Work by Interwar Jewish Architects

(ISJM) Dr. Maros Borsky, of the Slovak Jewish Heritage Center, sends the following information:

The Jewish Community of Bratislava completed another stage of the New Orthodox cemetery chapel restoration. The precious building of the cemetery chapel constructed in 1929 has now fully refurbished interiors in the original coloring. Designed by two Jewish architects who perished in the Holocaust, Fridrich Weinwurm and Ignac Vecsei, the building is an important milestone in the modern Slovak architecture. The site is still used for the original purpose. The site owner expects the major restoration stage, when the exterior and surroundings will be refurbished, to be carried out in 2010. The Slovak Jewish Heritage Center will be happy to match any interested donor to the project with the Jewish Community office.

To see a photo go to:
http://www.slovak-jewish-heritage.org/news.html

Hungary: Continuing Struggle to Save Budapest's Seventh District

Budapest, Hungary. Kazinczy Street in the 7th District, with Orthodox synagogue. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber, 2000.

Budapest: Continuing Struggle to Save the 7th District
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) Ben Harris of the Jewish Telegraphic agency brings us up to date with a new story on the struggle to preserve some historic and community character in Budapest's Seventh District- the traditional home of much of the city's Jewish population, and the site of much Jewish history and culture. Ever since the fall of Communism 20 years ago, the District has been the target of development - much of it badly planned and short sighted. The destruction of the historic character of the District is estimated as high as 40%. The area is prized by office and condo developers especially because of its immediacy to the center of Budapest.

While many of the well-known synagogues in the areas have been restored, much of the urban fabric - including great apartment blocks - has been altered, or entirely replaced be new construction. Apart from its Jewish past, the area's urban and cultural role in Budapest has been much like that of New York's Upper West Side, and similar to the Upper West Side, change has come quickly after decades of relative architectural and social stability.

You can read the article here:

Coalition fights real estate development in Budapest’s Jewish quarter by Ben Harris • November 24, 2009

Ruth Ellen Gruber has followed the changes in the District over two decades. She comments on her blog about Ben Harris' article, and on some of the changes. You can read a JTA story by Ruth about the topic from 2004 here.

Conference: Jews of Spain: Past and Present

Conference: Jews of Spain: Past and Present

(ISJM) On December 5-7, 2009, the American Sephardi Federation will host a symposium about the Jews of Spain: Past and Present. The complete schedule can be consulted here.

Of special interest to blog readers will be Dr. Vivian Mann's presentation on the "Unknown Jewish Artists of Spain." Dr. Mann is curator emeritus of Judaica at the The Jewish Museum (New York) and has curated many important exhibitions about Sephardi Jewish art and culture. She is now director in the Master degree program in Jewish art at the Jewish Theological Seminary.

USA: New Haven's Orchard Street Shul (1925)

New Haven, CT, Orchard Street Shul (1925). Facade and Interior.
Photos: Samuel D. Gruber, 2009

USA: New Haven's Orchard Street Shul (1925)
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) In a previous blogpost I described the former Temple Mishkan Israel building in New Haven, Connecticut, designed by Brunner & Tryon in 1896, and now used as a performing arts center. On a visit last week to New Haven, I had the opportunity of spending the morning at The Orchard Street Shul (Congregation Beth Israel) another important New Haven Jewish landmark and the region’s oldest intact and in use purpose built Orthodox synagogue. While all of Beth Israel’s physical features are intact, its congregation has dwindled. Today, there is only a small occasional minyan, and all those who still profess membership also belong to other synagogues in the areas. The future of the building is in question (for more photos click here).

Congregation president Sam Teitelman remains active at age 87 – but he knows that hard decisions about the fate of the building need to be made soon. He doesn’t want the building, which in the past few years has received some assistance for window repairs and other limited restoration work, to fall victim to a “last one out the door turn off the light” scenario that has been common for older congregations. Teitelman and others in the congregation are reaching out to others in the Jewish and non-Jewish community for ideas and support about how to save the building and its history, even if the future use is different from that the building now (just barely) enjoys.

New Haven, CT, Orchard Street Shul, Interior details.
Photos: Samuel D. Gruber, 2009

Teitelman has been looking at what’s been done at Boston’s Vilna Shul and New York Eldridge Street Synagogue to see if aspects of those solutions would be applicable – and affordable – at Orchard Street. He and other congregation members have also been supportive of a effort by local and national artists - the Orchard Street Shul Cultural Heritage Artists Project - to use the synagogue and its history for inspiration for art projects – some of which will be exhibited for the first time in a group exhibition opening at New Haven’s John Slade Ely House Center for Contemporary Art on December 6th. While the art doesn’t directly impact the future preservation of either the building or its congregation, it is aimed in part to raise awareness of the synagogue’s existence as an historic and cultural site in New Haven. According to New Haven-based digital artist Cynthia Rubin, one of the prime organizers of the exhibition, “included in the Project are presentations by researchers from Yale University who have developed innovative ways to document the building, including virtual reconstructions exploring new digital methods, ground-breaking research by computer scientists that promises to change the ways that cultural heritage sites will be documented in the future.”

Cynthia Rubin and Sam Teitelman at Orchard Street Shul, New Haven.

Photo: Samuel D. Gruber, 2009

Beth Israel Synagogue was erected in 1925 at 232 Orchard Street, on designs by local Jewish architect Jacob Weinstein, who had offices on State Street (more information is needed on this architect). The area was then heavily Jewish, though other immigrant groups lived there, too. Much of what was once Jewish housing, as well as several important Jewish buildings, was demolished in the 1960s. Beth Israel draws architectural inspiration from both Temple Mishkan Israel, but also from the impressive Beth Jacob synagogue on George Street, built in 1912 (and demolished in 1962). Like Mishkan Israel, the Orchard Street Shul is brick, has two (small) tower features flanking the façade, and is articulated with Colonial revival details. The exterior is noteworthy for its two rows of windows, indicating the men’s sanctuary and the raised women’s gallery. The windows are large and filled with clear glass, and the upper windows are round arched. Both Mishkan Israel and Beth Jacob had tall, narrow double height windows serving main floor and gallery together, and both those congregation used stained glass.

Yale University art historian Walter Cahn, who has written a short essay about the synagogue for the catalogue of the upcoming exhibition, suggests a link with Amsterdam’s Esnoga (Portuguese Synagogue), especially since that building was so known in the early 20th century from graphic representations.

The interior arrangement of ark, bimah and seating follows the traditional Eastern European Orthodox arrangement, very common in American immigrant synagogues from the 1880s through the 1920s, but Orchard Street is a late example. It is noteworthy that there are two aisles dividing the seats in to three sections, with the bimah and the projecting Ark platform (duhan) occupying much of the space of the central section. The marvelous Ark with its carved lions and a eagle recall the the Ark carved by craftsmen such as Samuel Katz, represented by Murray Zimilas in his Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses exhibition last year. The ark is adorned with light bulbs in a manner similar to the arks at Chevra T’helim in Portsmouth and at Eldridge Street (among others).

New Haven, CT, Orchard Street Shul. Windows have been repaired and the roof no longer leaks, but restoration of the wall finishes, as well of many or other parts of the building, is still needed. Photos: Samuel D. Gruber, 2009

For more information about pre-World War II synagogues in Connecticut see the excellent and still essential survey by David F. Ransom, "One Hundred Years of Jewish Congregations in Connecticut: An Architectural Survey," Connecticut Jewish History, Vol 2: 1 (Fall 1991). 1-147 (entire issue).