Latvia: Rezekne Green Synagogue Restoration Update

Rezekne, Latvia. Green Synagogue.  Photos: Aadne Sollid (2009). See more project photos here.

Latvia: Rezekne Green Synagogue Restoration Update 
by Samuel D. Gruber
 
(ISJM) David Michaelson has provided me with an update and links on the long hoped for/planned restoration of the Green Synagogue of Rezekne, Latvia, a project which he first brought to my attention almost ten years ago.  David's great-grandparents were from Rezekne, a town which had the substantial Jewish population of around 20,000 people before 1900.  At the time of the Second World War only 10,000 Jews lived there,  and now only small number - a few dozen Jews at most - still live there.  He and his wife first visited Rezekne in 2003 and were shown the closed and dilapidated (Green Synagogue, built 1845) by Rashel Kuklya, head of the small Jewish community.  The building was last used by the Jewish community in the early 1990s. 

The Green Synagogue, which is built of wood, is the only synagogue building (of at least 11) to have survived in Rezekne.  While the government had considered restoring the building as a museum, the cost of the project (then estimated at $160,000 - $165,000) was daunting.  At that time the emphasis on Jewish heritage and Holocaust commemoration  projects was in Riga, the capital of the country and where most of the country's Jews live today (Riga's beautiful Egyptian Revival/Art Nouveau Peitav synagogue was restored in 2009).  The Kadisha Synagogue in Daugavpils was also restored in the past decade.  But the survival of the Green Synagogue is now more important than ever, since the wooden synagogue in Subate, Latvia, was destroyed in 2009.

David, however, was not to be put off.  With some assistance from the International Survey of Jewish Monuments and Meier Melers of the Jews of Latvia museum in Riga, David was able to submit an application to the World Monuments Fund, which WMF approved for funding of a preservation plan. At first, the hope was the EU funding would become available for the restoration.   Eventually, however, a Norwegian team adopted the project and after several attempts received funding.  It appears that the WMF-funded plan is still the basis for the project, which will begin this spring. 

Norway is not a member of the European Union, but to have access to the European markest, the country is required through the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA Agreement) to support projects in "new" EU countries.  The Green Synagogue project is one of these,  costing 711 000 EURO (close to one million US dollars).   85% of the funding come from Norwegian grants, 10%  is from the Latvian culture ministry, and 5% from the Rezekne municipality. 

It is interesting to note that the basis of the project is the exchange of restoration, craft and education skills between Norway and Latvia, and  unlike similar projects funded by international donors, the Jewish history and significance of the building did not (at least overtly) play a major part the scope of the project.   

The restoration of the building will engage students and teachers from Sam Eyde vgs, the Lunznava vocational school, the technical school Vilanu, the Rezekne art school and local artisans in Latgale; organize and strengthen cooperation between regional (latgalske), National (Latvian) and international (Norwegian) craftsmen, teachers, students and authorities; organize workshops for participants to develop meeting and communication models; and rain craftsmen, teachers and students in the restoration of wooden structures. 

According to the project website the synagogue was chosen because the wooden construction is similar to that in Norway from the beginning of 18th century (the synagogue was built around 1845),  it is not privately owned, and it is the only surviving wooden synagogue in the area.   

The Green Synagogue is one-and-a-half story square-plan building with a shallow four-slope roof.  The facade is modest; the windows of the ground floor have semicircle lintels, and above them are "blind windows".  Inside, benches, bimah and Ark are still intact, but these may not be original to the building.  A one-and-a-half story glazed gallery is above the main entrance.  The building suffered significant water damage until the roof was repaired with government funds a few years ago. The interior painted ceilings are in bad condition with sections missing and the interior walls also are damaged. Overall, the exterior is in better condition but also shows signs of damaged timbers including some damage that may be the result of vandalism over the years. 

After restoration (which should take 18-24 months) the synagogue will be a part of the Latgale (which is the region of Latvia Rezekne is in) Cultural Museum.  It will be available for use as a synagogue upon request. It is not clear how this work, but militarism arrangements have been made at restored historic synagogues in other countries. 

Here is the Norwegian website describing the project: (Google Translate does a good job with it)

http://www.austagderfk.no/Vare-virksomheter/Videregaende-skoler/Sameyde-videregaende-skole/Satsingsomrader/Synagogeprosjektet/

More pictures can be found here:

http://www.austagderfk.no/Vare-virksomheter/Videregaende-skoler/Sameyde-videregaende-skole/Satsingsomrader/Synagogeprosjektet/Bilder-fra-synagogeprosjektet/

Poland: Auschwitz’s future secure, preservationists worry about ‘forgotten’ Nazi camps

Auschwitz’s future secure, preservationists worry about ‘forgotten’ Nazi camps

By Ruth Ellen Gruber · October 12, 2011

ROME (JTA) -- Auschwitz, the most notorious camp in the Nazi killing machine, may soon claim success in its campaign to preserve the legacy of the Holocaust.

The foundation supporting the site in southern Poland has attracted tens of millions of dollars from donor countries, and the camp’s barracks and other buildings seem set to be preserved for decades to come. The museum memorial at the former Nazi death camp attracts more than 1 million visitors per year.

Some fear, however, that the concentration of resources and attention on Auschwitz could overshadow other preservation efforts and threaten the integrity or even the existence of the memorials and museums at lesser-known camps and Holocaust sites in Poland.

"Because Auschwitz is treated as the symbol of the Holocaust and the whole world is supporting only this museum, everybody in Poland, including the government, seems to think that this is enough," said historian Robert Kuwalek, a curator at the state-run Museum at Majdanek, the Nazi concentration camp and killing center near Lublin in eastern Poland. "The problem is deeper because it is the lack of basic knowledge that the Holocaust happened in forgotten sites like Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Majdanek and Chelmno.”

Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka were the three killing centers of the so-called Operation Reinhard plan to murder 2 million Polish Jews in 1942 and 1943. During that operation, Kuwalek said, "more people were killed in a shorter time than in Auschwitz-Birkenau during the whole period that that camp functioned."

Despite their importance in the history of the Holocaust, these and other sites -- such as the forced labor camps at Stuffhof and Gross-Rosen -- are overlooked by the vast majority of visitors who want to learn about the Holocaust or pay homage to its victims firsthand. All are marked by memorials or even museums. But some are located in remote parts of the country, and most are in serious need of upkeep and preservation.

Read the entire article 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: 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).

USA: Orthodox Synagogue Restored in Portsmouth, Virginia as Museum and Cultural Center

Portsmouth, Virginia. Former Chevra T'helim, now Jewish Museum and Cultural Center.
Photos: Samuel D. Gruber 2009

USA: Orthodox Synagogue Restored in Portsmouth, Virginia as Museum and Cultural Center
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) Earlier this month I had the pleasure of lecturing at the Jewish Museum and Cultural Center in Portsmouth, Virginia, housed in the newly restored former Chevra T’helim (House of Psalms) synagogue.

Chevra T’helim was founded in 1917. IN the following year, the new Orthodox congregation purchased its property at 607 Effingham Street, where it began to build a new synagogue. The result is a building that combines Old World and New. The brick exterior is fronted by a Colonial style columnar façade. Inside, the architecture and furnishings maintain a traditional Eastern European synagogue arrangement with galleries for women in three sides and a central bimah. The brick exterior is fronted by a colonial style columnar façade. Or so it seems at first but it's not as simple as that. The façade columns are much taller than one expects in a traditional Georgian/ Colonial Building, and above, in the pediment, is a Magen David. The columns are sheathed in metal; something strange to me, but that I was told was not uncommon in the South- apparently wood in this climate is susceptible to rot and insect infestation. The Magen David, however, is decorated with light bulbs, and that is something I know is uncommon everywhere.

Inside, the classical Ark breaks tradition, too; it has decorative lightbulbs along the intrados of the arch. Crowning the Ark, as in many Eastern European and American immigrant synagogues of the time, is a pair of carved lions flanking a Decalogue. But these lions are special, too. They have red eyes, lit by colored lights that flash on and off. Chrevra T’helim isn’t the only example of this love of (electric) lights. In Baltimore, the immigrant Orthodox Congregation that took over the 1876 B’nai Israel Synagogue on Lloyd Street in 1895 installed festive electric lighting on its ark, probably around 1910. Similar lights decorate the Ark at New York’s Eldridge Street Synagogue. Murray Zimiles exhibited several examples of red-eyed lions in his "Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses" exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum. One pair of lions originally from Scranton, Pennsylvania also has light bulbs for eyes. I don’t know if they flashed!

Portsmouth, Virginia. Former Chevra T'helim, interior. Photos: Samuel D. Gruber 2009

The timing may have been coincidental that the region’s oldest congregation, Temple Ohef Shalom – originally Orthodox but Reform since the mid-19th century – also laid the cornerstone for their new Temple in 1917. Temple Ohef Sholom (of which I hope to write more later) is a massive Neo-Classical building designed in tandem with an imposing Methodist Church across the street. At the time Norfolk and Portsmouth were only connected by ferry. The cultural divide between Cheva T’helim and Ohef Shalom was even greater than the geographic distance. Still, both Reform and Orthodox congregation used columnar facades – no doubt to emphasis their American spirit.

Norfolk, Virginia. Temple Ohef Sholom. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2009

Restoration of Portsmouths’s unused and deteriorating synagogue began in 2001 after intense and sometimes acrimonious negotiations among several groups seeking the site. As in Boston in the early 1990s, where at the Vilna Shul a small Orthodox congregation aged and died, leaving the future of its building unplanned, so too, in Portsmouth, where only one surviving trustee remained committed to the building. Eventually, the courts ceded control over the congregation’s cemetery to a Conservative Synagogue that has its cemetery immediately adjacent, but the independent not-for-profit Friends of Chevra T’helim was able to secure the building, with the promise to protect and preserve it. The fact that this not-for-profit citizens' group had already been formed gave it the standing to receive the building without further litigation.

The goal of the restoration project is now partially achieved: the 1918 building itself is secure, intact and restored. It can now host visitors and small events, including the lecture series to which I contributed this year. To do more, however, The Museum and Cultural Center needs more space, and the next phase of the project is to build a modest structure at the north side of the synagogue (where there is now an empty lot). This building will house an archive and exhibition space with memorabilia and historical material from Jewish families of the Tidewater Region. The new building will also house the necessary restrooms, service areas, elevator, and conservation work spaces.

At present, despite the fact that a new $50 million Jewish Community Campus has been erected on the edge of Norfolk on the way to Virginia Beach, there is no active Jewish historical center or archive for the region. The Friends of Chevra T’helim look north to what has been achieved at the Jewish Museum of Maryland in Baltimore, and also the successful state-of-the-art Jewish archive at Beth Ahabah in Richmond, Virginia, and they have high hopes.

I was tremendously impressed by the talent and energetic dedication of Minette Cooper and Zelma Riven, two of my hosts for the weekend and two of the movers and shakers in this project. It seems possible – even likely – that they can and will achieve what they set out to accomplish. Considering the cost (and the luxury of some the materials used) of the JCC Campus, the budget for the new museum and archive building is quite modest – about $1.5 million dollars. The organization has been developing creative ways to raise this money. The building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and one option being explored is the establishment of an LLC (limited Liability Company) to actually own the building, and thus as a for-profit entity, benefit from available historic preservation tax credits.

Effingham Street is in downtown Portsmouth, an area essential to the long term cultural and economic revival of the city. Civic leaders have recognized this and have gotten behind the synagogue restoration project. Indeed, it was a secular local foundation that provided the first funds needed to restore the building’s roof when the project was just starting. Since then, the building has been included as part of Portsmouth’s “Path of History” that celebrates historic sites in the city with signage and public events.

Portsmouth, Virginia. Path of History Signage for Cheva T'helim.

Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2009

As with many urban synagogue restoration projects in the United States, Jewish organizations have been slow to get involved. As in Boston, Hartford, Tucson and Phoenix and elsewhere, some see these efforts not sufficiently Jewish, or not sufficiently Orthodox, or not sufficiently something this or something that. Federations and established synagogues see historic projects as at best irrelevant and as worst as competitive for resources, for audience and for publicity. Not surprisingly, however, once grassroots and sweat-equality restoration projects are successful, the establishment is often eager – sometimes insistently – to claim them for their own. Things are not as bad as they were twenty years ago. The success of many Jewish historical projects in more than a dozen states has proven their relevance and their popularity. But in Portsmouth, it remains to be seen whether the former Chevra T’helim synagogue will be a thorn in the side of the Tidewater Jewish Community or a jewel in its crown.

USA: Syracuse (NY) Former Temple Adath Yeshurun to be Developed as a Hotel

Syracuse, NY. Former Temple Adath Yeshurun when in use as a theater.
Photo: Samuel Gruber (1997)

Syracuse, NY. Former Temple Adath Yeshurun with exterior cleaned, awaiting adaptive reuse.
Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2009)

Syracuse,NY. Temple Adath Yeshurun sanctuary in 1930s. Gordon Wright, architect.

USA: Syracuse (NY) Former Temple Adath to be Developed as a Hotel
by Samuel D. Gruber

Last April, Reform Temple Society of Concord in Syracuse, NY, dedicated in 1911, was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It is the only pre-World War II synagogue building in Syracuse that retains it original congregation and use. The congregation, founded in 1839, will begin celebration of the centennial of the building next year.

Meanwhile, the nearby former Orthodox Beth El was abandoned by its congregation in the 1960s. For awhile, it was a Baptist Church, and now it is used by a Messianic "Jewish" congregation.

The third historic synagogue building at the corner of Harrison St. and Crouse Ave. on "The Hill" (adjacent to the ever-expanding campus of Syracuse University) is the former Temple Adath Yeshurun (TAY), designed by noted Syracuse architect Gordon Wright and dedicated in 1922. The congregation, founded in 1870, had previously occupied the Naistadter Shul built 1878 on Mulberry (now State) Street, just down the hill to the west in what was once the city's prime area of Jewish settlement. Most of the district was demolished as part of 1970's "urban renewal." Wright's brick building is prominently sited and can be seen from afar. The design is simple stolid and severe. It distinguishing exterior feature is 4-column portico in antis, where the columns are unusually tall and narrow, culminating in Egyptian-influenced capitals. A inscription is on the frieze in Hebrew and English declares (from Psalm 118) "Open Ye the Portals of Righteousness I Will Enter and Praise God." A Star of David is set into the pediment.

Syracuse, NY. Former Temple Adath Yeshurun with exterior cleaned, awaiting adaptive reuse.
Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2009)

TAY's congregation left the building in 1968, and moved to a new complex designed by Percival Goodman just inside the city's eastern boundary. They took some of the stained glass windows which are now installed in the vestibule area between the sanctuary and the social hall (see pictures).

Syracuse, NY. Temple Adath Yeshurun (Kimber Road). Parts of stained glass windows from 1922 sanctuary inserted in 1969 building. Photos: Samuel D. Gruber (2005).

In something of a forced deal, the city of Syracuse bought the large classical-style building from the congregation. Stuck with what many considered at the time (of great economic stress) a "white elephant," the city eventually leased the site to a local theater company. Then, in 2004, when was shown that the Salt City Center for the Performing Arts had failed to sufficiently invest in the building's maintenance, and to keep it up to code, the city evicted the theater group and the building sat empty. The theater had blacked out the sanctuary, and subsequent water damage from the leaking roof destroyed interior plasterwork. Some patterned stained glass was still visible in the building a few years ago. Its not clear what has happened to this. In an auction of the theater's assets, several architectural elements of the building including chandeliers and lights fixtures were inappropriately and possibly illegally sold.

In 2006, local developer Norman Swanson, who owns two nearby hotels and many other properties, offered to buy the building from the city for $352,000 through his company the Woodbine Group. His plan, at a time of increased interest in upscale city housing, was to convert the building to spacious condominiums, and to add on a new apartment tower wing near the building rear, in an area that was already surface parking. The the already compromised interior articulation of the building would be lost, but Swanson promised to restore the exterior, to maintain it "landmark" presence in the neighborhood - an area where much of the older architecture has already been demolished for University and Hospital expansion. The City of Syracuse accepted Swanson's proposal over another which would have utilized the interior for a restaurant and entertainment space, figuring that Swanson was more likely to be able to find funding for his project. The Preservation Association of Central New York (of which I was Board President) analyzed both plans and endorsed Swanson's as the best way to both save the empty and deteriorating building and to benefit the local tax base, too.

The difficult economy which compounded the always difficult development process in Syracuse postponed Swanson's plans. He did go ahead with the exterior restoration, but had to change his plan for housing to project with commercial space (to be called "Temple Commons." That plan, too, has failed, and now Swanson will break ground in October on a new adaptive reuse plan, transforming the building into a boutique hotel. Running hotels is something Swanson does well, and a few years ago the Preservation Association gave Swanson's company an award for its sensitive transformation of the 1920s Medical Arts Building into Parkview Hotel. Despite problems in the local hotel market (the nearby Renaissance Hotel, next to to the Parkview has just gone into foreclosure) Swanson believes he can make the new hotel work - drawing on the constant need for high quality rooms near the University, three local hospitals, and new research facilities. Swanson hopes to make use of various tax credits, and his goal is to receive a gold certificate from the U S green Building Council as art of the LEED (Leadership in Energy Efficient Design) program. The building, may also be eligible for some Historic Preservation Tex credits.

The Preservation Association which continues to support the project, has long maintained the most energy efficient building (when considering issues of embedded energy and the energy needed for demolition and new construction) is an older building that continues in use or is reused.

Architect Gordon Wright built two other notable religious buildings in Syracuse. Both the downtown Gothic style Mizpah Tower, renowned for its exceptional and extravagant auditorium, and the former First Church of Christ Scientist are unoccupied and endangered. The First Church of Christ Scientist had been purchased by a local credit union to be developed as an Art Center, but this project has been difficult to sustain, and the former church is now again up for sale.

Germany: Former Mikveh and Shammas House Restored in Schwedt / Oder in Brandenburg

Schwedt / Oder, Germany. Views of Reconstructed Mikveh
Photos Courtesy of City of Schwedt / Oder

Germany: Former Mikveh and Shammas House Restored in Schwedt / Oder in Brandenburg
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) Last month the town of Schwedt / Oder in Brandenburg, close to the Polish border, announced the completion of the reconstruction of the former mikveh complex (Jewish ritual bath), including the former house for the shammas of the synagogue, which was situated on the sourthern part of the site until its destruction in the 1930s.. The property is at "Gartenstraße 8 and Louis Harlan Street 1" on the western edge of Old Town. The restoration is one of an increasing number of Jewish heritage projects that have developed in towns and cities of the former East GermanyUntil German reunification twenty years ago, much of the Jewish history of the region and most Jewish sites were ignored or misrepresented.

The rectangular-plan synagogue, designed by master mason G. Michaelis, was built in 1862 and destroyed on Kristallnacht in November 1938.

According to published reports, the shammas’s house was built in two phases. First, a one-story roughly square structure with a pyramidal timber roof on a roughly square plan as erected – this may have previously been a garden shed or work building owned by the previous owner of the land between the late 18th and the mid-19^th century when the site was acquired by the Jewish community, at which time the structure was expanded to the east.

Schwedt / Oder, Germany. Shammas's House before Reconstruction

Photo courtesy of City of Schwest / Oder

Oder, and an exhibition on the Jewish history of the town will be installed.

The project was sponsored by the Office of Construction and Transportation of the State of Brandenburg in the framework of the Federal program "Urban redevelopment and development activities" within the redevelopment area "Old Town / Lindenallee" by the German Foundation for Monument, from the television lottery "spiral of happiness” and by donations of the Rotary Club of Schwedt. According to the Infrastructure Ministry the project cost was about 320,000 euro. Other reports put the cost closer to 500,000 euro.

USA: Museum at Eldridge Street On-Line Publications

USA: Museum at Eldridge Street On-Line Publications
by Samuel D. Gruber

New York City's Museum at Eldridge Street has posted some worthwhile publications on-line.

The Academic Angles 2007-08 lecture series sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities is now online in the form of a complete booklet, and as individual essays. In addition, audio files of some of the lectures are also posted.

Eight lectures look at the history and restoration of the Eldridge Street Synagogue from different "academic angles." Marilyn Chiat and I both contributed essays focused on historic preservation. My written topic is The Choices we Make: Eldridge Street Synagogue and Historic Preservation. My somewhat longer talk (those who know me know how long my talks can be!) - in audio form - also deals with the architectural history of the American synagogue, especially in New York City (for the record, I have not gone back to listen to what exactly I said when I went off-script). Marilyn Chiat's essay, which draws especially on her experiences preserving historic synagogues and other religious sites in the Minnesota and the Midwest is Saving and Praising the Past. Other contributors are historians Deborah Dash Moore, Jeffrey Gurock, Jeffrey Shandler, Tony Michaels, Riv-Ellen Prell and Daniel Soyer.

Historian Annie Polland, who helped organize these lectures and is the author of her own history of Eldridge, Landmark of the Spirit, has left the Museum to take up a similar role at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Annie's presence there is a good omen of what we can expect to be a growing and continuing cooperation between the two important Lower East Side cultural institutions. I wish Annie well in her new position and look forward to reporting on her programs.

The Museum at Eldridge has also posted its 2008 Annual Report on-line. This is a tremendous resource for any historic synagogue organization as it provides so many examples of creative and effective programming, and when read carefully, can also serve as a primer in fund-raising.

USA: Boston's Vilna Shul Wins Prestigious Grant

USA: Boston's Vilna Shul Wins Prestigious Grant
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) Partners in Preservation is a recent initiative begun by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express in Boston which this year has offered $1 million for ten local preservation projects. The project is unique in that it allows for on-line voting to determine which sites out of all those nominated will receive funds. After all the votes were tallied last spring, The Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture – the only Jewish site nominated, was shown to have come in seventh and in June it was announced that the Vilna Shul would receive a $90,800 grant. The funds will be used to uncover murals hidden since the 1940s in the historic synagogue's women's gallery.

The Vilna Shul is the first Jewish structure to be included in the Partners in Preservation program. The historic building and exhibits will remain open throughout this phase of the restoration project, which must be completed by December 2010.

The Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture, is the name adopted last year for the former Vilna Center for Jewish Heritage, Inc., created in the early 1990s when the small Beacon Hill synagogue was saved from demolition after it closing. Along with a new name,. the organization has new goals, and a new mission statement, and has developed a five-year plan to restore the Vilna Shul to its original appearance and to revitalize the building as a center of Jewish culture. Their new mission statement reads: “The Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture, preserves the historic Vilna Shul on Beacon Hill as a unique Jewish community venue and resource. It presents educational and cultural programs and exhibits that explore the Jewish experience of Boston.” The Partners in Preservation grant is an important step in the restoration process.

Final Statement of Principles and Procedures from Bratislava Seminar

Final Statement of Principles and Procedures from Bratislava Seminar

(ISJM) After incorporating minor changes and additions, the organizers of the Seminar on Care, Conservation and Maintenance of Historic Jewish Property held in Bratislava on March 17-19, 2009, have released the final statement adopted by seminar participants. This statement and other documents related to the seminar will be be posted later this month on the ISJM website. ISJM was a co-sponsor of the seminar.

Seminar on Care, Conservation and Maintenance of Historic Jewish Property
Bratislava March 17-19, 2009
Final Statement Adopted By Participants

The participants in the Seminar “Care, Conservation and Maintenance of Historic Jewish Property,” meeting in Bratislava March 17-19, 2009, agree on the following principles and procedures which guide their work.

Introduction

The ongoing struggle for property and resource restitution has often overshadowed the practical issues of how to manage community properties already held, or those returned.

Proper care of these properties; often involving substantial costs, difficult planning and use issues, and demanding historical and architectural preservation concerns, have preoccupied many Jewish communities for years. In many cases, and especially for smaller Communities, the needs of these properties continue to stretch professional and financial resources. Everyday community needs often delay or prevent the attention that properties require.

Each Jewish community faces its own specific situations, and has unique needs, but there are many shared problems and needs that can be addressed collectively. Importantly, there are also solutions - many of which have been pioneered by Communities themselves - that can be shared, too.

Jewish Properties and Jewish Heritage

Jewish heritage is the legacy of all aspects of Jewish history – religious and secular.

Jewish history and art is part of every nation’s history and art. Jewish heritage is part of national heritage, too.

Documentation, planning and development of sites benefit and enrich society at large as well as Jews and Jewish communities.

Jewish historic sites and properties should also be developed where possible within the context of diverse histories – Jewish, local, national, art, etc.

Jewish tourism and tourism to Jewish sites should be part of every country’s tourism strategy.

Inventories and Documentation

All past and present Jewish communal properties, and all Jewish properties and sites deemed to have historic, religious and/or artistic significance, should be documented to the fullest extent possible.

Inventories must be made and maintained of all properties in each country, and more substantial documentation should be made of historically and architecturally significant properties, especially all synagogues, institutional buildings, cemeteries, monuments, and Judaica and archival materials.

Jewish communities and institutions should cooperate and collaborate in this process to the fullest extent possible, and should welcome the assistance of other public and private institutions and individuals in pursuing these documentation goals.

Information on Jewish sites is most useful when it is most widely available. Efforts should continue and expand to make documentation available in publicly accessible research centers and through publications and on-line presentation, all the while considering safety, security and privacy concerns.

Materials relevant to Jewish history and properties in public, state archives and Jewish community archives should be open for everyone for historical and legal research.

Good documentation must be accurate and complete in its description, and it must be historically informed so that it presents something of the significance of what is recorded.

Synagogues and Former Synagogues

Synagogue and former synagogues should retain a Jewish identity and or use whenever possible, though each one does not necessarily need to be restored or fully renovated.

Former synagogues, no matter what their present ownership or use, should be sensitively marked to identify their past history.

As part of the effort to restitute communal and religious property, when a property of historic value - such as a synagogue - in disrepair or otherwise in a ruined condition (while in the government's possession) is returned, States should help either by modifying laws which impose penalties for not maintaining properties in reasonable condition, or by providing financial and material assistance to undertake necessary repairs and restoration.

Cooperation and Trust

Honesty and transparency are Jewish values and should be especially apparent in the handling of all matters concerning Jewish property, which is held as a communal trust.

Jewish communities should manage their properties to maximize their use for present and future generations.

Jewish communities and institutions should work together as much as possible to share existing information, methodologies and technologies, and they should work together to develop new and compatible goals and strategies to optimize the care and management of historic Jewish properties.

Regular meetings of Jewish community leaders, members, staff and expert professionals to discuss property issues is encouraged within single communities, and between communities. Regional, national and trans-border meeting are useful for the exchange of information and ideas, and for effective planning purposes.

Any sale or development of communal property must be to meet identified community needs.

Wherever possible, proceeds from the sale or development of some properties should be allocated to the care and maintenance of other properties including, but not exclusively, cemeteries.

Jewish communities and museums should work together to develop historic, descriptive and exhibition materials that can be shared.

Jewish communities and local heritage, cultural and tourist bodies should work together to develop regional, national and trans-border heritage routes.

USA: Preservation New Jersey Offers Workshop for Advocates for Historic Places

(ISJM) Preservation New Jersey offers a workshop for advocates for endangered historic places: Tips to Persist, Persevere and Preserve, on Sat. June 13 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The workshop meets at the historic 1st Presbyterian Church of Trenton, 120 E. State St. The Workshop includes sessions and speakers from a variety of preservation-related arenas, sharing tips and strategies for successful preservation advocacy and action.

Speakers:
• Using non-traditional media – Michael Willman, WMSH Marketing Communications

• Technical Assistance – Richard Southwick, FAIA; Beyer Blinder Belle Architects

• Finding funding: a case study – Numa Sisselin, CEO; Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank

• Grassroots Advocacy – Michael Shakarjian; the John C. Evans Project, Milltown

$5 registration fee at the door | Light refreshments served.

Contact PNJ at 609.392.6409 for more information

In recent years there have been many historic preservation and adaptive reuse projects for synagogues, former synagogues and other Jewish sites in New Jersey. these range from the Star of Israel Synagogue in Hoboken to the wooden synagogues of South Jersey to Louis Kahn's "Bath House" near Trenton.