Austria: Conference and Exhibition on Jewish Associations and Societies in Vienna, November 12-14, 2008
by Samuel D. Gruber
(ISJM) Perhaps as much as synagogues and prayer houses, Jewish associations and societies (Vereine) played an important communal, organizational and spatial role in European Jewish communities form the late 19th century until the Holocaust. Of course, some societies - such as those providing comfort for the sick and burial assistance - transcended nominal social and spatial borders between the religious and secular, the synagogal and domestic, and the public and private. These associations reached out and often included members of all strata of Jewish society, and their activities could embrace traditional and less observant Jews. To some extent this continues today in a smaller way, although the impact of associations on the communities remains strong. In Central and Eastern Europe, where most recognized Jews are not religiously observant, such associations help establish and maintain Jewish group identity.
A conference about Jewish Associations and Societies in Vienna will take place on November 12-14 in the former Vienna's Jewish community building at Herklotzgasse 21. Three presently active Jewish associations will be visited and will present their current work within an historical perspective. The participants of the conference will be guides through the exhibition "The Triangle of my Childhood. A Jewish Suburban community in Vienna."
The conference is organized by the research project "Herklotzgasse 21 and the Jewish Spaces in a Quarter of Vienna", in cooperation with the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute of Holocaust
Studies and the Jewish Community Vienna
Speakers at hte conference are: Evelyn Adunka, Gabriele Anderl, Brigitte Dalinger, Tamara
Ehs, Angelika Hausenbichl, Dieter Hecht, Gerald Lamprecht, Elisabeth Malleier, Georg Traska, Verena Pawlowsky
To register for the conference contact: office@herklotzgasse21.at
For more information: www.herklotzgasse21.at; Tel.: 0043-1-23676
Monday, November 10, 2008
Ukraine: Ruth Ellen Gruber's Observations on Jewish Heritage Remnants in Ukraine
Ukraine: Ruth Ellen Gruber's Observations on Jewish Heritage Remnants in Ukraine
I have an unusual relationship with my big sister - journalist and author Ruth Ellen Gruber. Not only are we siblings, but we are friends and colleagues. A series of unexpected career turns 20 years ago have made us both "professional Jews," in that we are both been active participants (and sometimes observers) in the worldwide resurgence of interest in the fate of Jewish material culture.
Two weeks ago, however, we participated as speakers at the same conference for only the second time (that we can remember). Ruth gave the keynote address at the conference in held in L'viv, and I spoke about "Can Lviv be Developed as a Jewish Heritage Center." Since the conference Ruth has posted several interested pieces on her blog. The latest: "Ukraine - On its Crumbling Jewish Heritage," which I recommend (and not just because it mentions my own work) includes some passages from her keynote address.
I have an unusual relationship with my big sister - journalist and author Ruth Ellen Gruber. Not only are we siblings, but we are friends and colleagues. A series of unexpected career turns 20 years ago have made us both "professional Jews," in that we are both been active participants (and sometimes observers) in the worldwide resurgence of interest in the fate of Jewish material culture.
Two weeks ago, however, we participated as speakers at the same conference for only the second time (that we can remember). Ruth gave the keynote address at the conference in held in L'viv, and I spoke about "Can Lviv be Developed as a Jewish Heritage Center." Since the conference Ruth has posted several interested pieces on her blog. The latest: "Ukraine - On its Crumbling Jewish Heritage," which I recommend (and not just because it mentions my own work) includes some passages from her keynote address.
USA: Georgia’s 19th-Century Jewish Architects, Alfred Eichberg and Hyman Witcover
USA: Georgia’s 19th-Century Jewish Architects, Alfred Eichberg and Hyman Witcover
by Samuel D. Gruber
(ISJM) In response to my blog entry on Savannah, Georgia (USA) Jewish-American architect Hyman Witcover, Atlanta-based architectural historian Richard Funderburke has responded with information about Witcover’s mentor and colleague Alfred Eichberg (born: NYC, 1859) a professional architect in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia, from 1880 until about 1900, with whom Witcover first found employment as a draftsman, and who around 1899 Eichberg made his partner. Funderburke writes that “Eichberg was extremely successful during the twenty years from 1880 to 1900 and seems likely to have been the first professional Jewish architect to live and practice in Georgia and the Deep South [he designed buildings in N.C., Florida and S.C. as well].”
Eichberg’s “parents moved to Atlanta [from New York] about 1869 when Alfred Eichberg was ten years old. His parents became extremely wealthy and influential in the German and German-Jewish community. They were social and economic leaders -- and Alfred followed in their footsteps as a community leader here and in Savannah which was the major center of his architectural practice. He worked with a local architect as a teenager -- a gentile who designed the synagogue of which his father was chairman of the building committee. Alfred then went to the German technical college in Stuttgart from about 1876 to 1880. At that time and before his 21st birthday, he returned to Atlanta and entered practice as an architect with one of the city's most established architects -- as his full partner.”
”Eichberg designed synagogues in Brunswick, Ga. and Sumter, S.C. He also did renovations on the major synagogue in Savannah -- among many other buildings for the German-Jews of Georgia and for many gentiles as well. Hyman Witcover became his draftsman around 1894 and then his partner around 1899. Eichberg mysteriously gave up his Savannah practice in 1900 and returned to Atlanta presumably to help run the family businesses. Although he listed himself as an architect for many years thereafter in the city directories, he did not have an office as such and there are no buildings credited to him after 1900.”
Richard writes that “I am pretty sure he was the first Jewish professional architect to maintain a practice in Georgia, and probably the Deep South It is my contention that he led the way for Jews in this profession in the South.”
Richard is currently writing a long article on the life and work of Alfred Eichberg which I, and I am sure many others, await with great interest. Personally, the early parallels with his near contemporary Arnold W. Brunner (1857-1925) – a subject of my own research – are tantalizing. Brunner, of course, stayed in New York, and after 20 years of mostly working for Jewish individual and community clients was able to break out of that architectural “ghetto” by winning an important national competition (for the Cleveland Federal Building in 1901). Eichberg took a different route. In the more tolerant (to Jews) environment of the South, Eichberg and Witcover were able to easily serve Jewish and non-Jewish clients. At least in the case of Witcover, active involvement in the Masons facilitated access and acceptance.
by Samuel D. Gruber
(ISJM) In response to my blog entry on Savannah, Georgia (USA) Jewish-American architect Hyman Witcover, Atlanta-based architectural historian Richard Funderburke has responded with information about Witcover’s mentor and colleague Alfred Eichberg (born: NYC, 1859) a professional architect in Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia, from 1880 until about 1900, with whom Witcover first found employment as a draftsman, and who around 1899 Eichberg made his partner. Funderburke writes that “Eichberg was extremely successful during the twenty years from 1880 to 1900 and seems likely to have been the first professional Jewish architect to live and practice in Georgia and the Deep South [he designed buildings in N.C., Florida and S.C. as well].”
Eichberg’s “parents moved to Atlanta [from New York] about 1869 when Alfred Eichberg was ten years old. His parents became extremely wealthy and influential in the German and German-Jewish community. They were social and economic leaders -- and Alfred followed in their footsteps as a community leader here and in Savannah which was the major center of his architectural practice. He worked with a local architect as a teenager -- a gentile who designed the synagogue of which his father was chairman of the building committee. Alfred then went to the German technical college in Stuttgart from about 1876 to 1880. At that time and before his 21st birthday, he returned to Atlanta and entered practice as an architect with one of the city's most established architects -- as his full partner.”
”Eichberg designed synagogues in Brunswick, Ga. and Sumter, S.C. He also did renovations on the major synagogue in Savannah -- among many other buildings for the German-Jews of Georgia and for many gentiles as well. Hyman Witcover became his draftsman around 1894 and then his partner around 1899. Eichberg mysteriously gave up his Savannah practice in 1900 and returned to Atlanta presumably to help run the family businesses. Although he listed himself as an architect for many years thereafter in the city directories, he did not have an office as such and there are no buildings credited to him after 1900.”
Richard writes that “I am pretty sure he was the first Jewish professional architect to maintain a practice in Georgia, and probably the Deep South It is my contention that he led the way for Jews in this profession in the South.”
Richard is currently writing a long article on the life and work of Alfred Eichberg which I, and I am sure many others, await with great interest. Personally, the early parallels with his near contemporary Arnold W. Brunner (1857-1925) – a subject of my own research – are tantalizing. Brunner, of course, stayed in New York, and after 20 years of mostly working for Jewish individual and community clients was able to break out of that architectural “ghetto” by winning an important national competition (for the Cleveland Federal Building in 1901). Eichberg took a different route. In the more tolerant (to Jews) environment of the South, Eichberg and Witcover were able to easily serve Jewish and non-Jewish clients. At least in the case of Witcover, active involvement in the Masons facilitated access and acceptance.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Ukraine: More Recent Books of Note
Ukraine: More Recent Books of Note
Sergey Kravtsov of the Center for Jewish Art has sent some more titles of significant new publications about Jewish heritage in Ukraine. I Invite others to send me news of publications which I will post. Apparently librarians are tuning in to this blog, and this is a good way to promote otherwise little-known and hard-to-find new books and articles. Review copies can also be sent to:
Samuel Gruber, editor
ISJM
P.O. Box 201
118 Julian Place
Syracuse, NY 13210
Sergey's recommended titles are:
-- Boris Khaimovich, The Work Our Hands to Glorify. Murals of Beit Tfila Benyamin Synagogue in Czernowitz (Kiev: Spirit and Letter Publishers, 2008), ISBN 978-966-378-080-1. It is an important monograph on naive murals by an anonymous artist in a Hasidic synagogue of Chernitvtsi, the capital of Bukovina. The book includes text in English and Russian, as well as numerous color illustrations, photographs of preserved synagogue murals in Ukraine and Rumania. Author's analysis of the decorative program of Beit Tfila Benyamin is based on decades of Khaimovich's work in the region.
(Sam's note: Boris's work should also be a valiable contribution to those who are studying American synagogue decoration, especially the zodiac and other decorative systems I have reported on previously).
-- Victor Proskuryakov, Bohdan Hoy, Kul'turolohiya yevreys'koho teatru v konteksti chasu, dii i arkhitektury [Cultural Study of Jewish Theatre in Ukraine in Context of Time, Action and Architecture] (Lviv: National University "Lviv Polytechnica" Publishers, 2007), ISBN 978-966-553-620-8. The book gives a rich material on buildings of Jewish theatres in Ukraine, both rent and designed for this purpose. Published in Ukrainian, with black and white figures.
-- Żanna Komar, Trzecie miasto Galicji. Stanisławów i jego architektura w okresie autonomii galickiej [The Third City in Galicia. Stanisławów and Its Architecture during Galician Autonomy] (Krakow: Międzynarodowe Centrum Kultury Publishers, 2008), ISBN 978-83-89273-52-9. This interesting book gives a chapter on the Progressive Synagogue of Stanisławów, designed by an outstanding Jewish architect Wilhelm Stiassny. Author publishes an alternative design of the same synagogue by local and Vienna-trained architect Maksymilian Schloss, and gives its story as seen by its historiographer Leon Streit, and by local press. Published in Polish, with rich illustrations, wonderful photographs, beautiful layout. The project was sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland.
(Sam's note: We should expect more publications on the work of the Viennese Stiassny - one of the most active and respected Jewish architect and civic leader (and Zionist) of his day. A paper on his work was presented at the Lviv conference).
Sergey Kravtsov of the Center for Jewish Art has sent some more titles of significant new publications about Jewish heritage in Ukraine. I Invite others to send me news of publications which I will post. Apparently librarians are tuning in to this blog, and this is a good way to promote otherwise little-known and hard-to-find new books and articles. Review copies can also be sent to:
Samuel Gruber, editor
ISJM
P.O. Box 201
118 Julian Place
Syracuse, NY 13210
Sergey's recommended titles are:
-- Boris Khaimovich, The Work Our Hands to Glorify. Murals of Beit Tfila Benyamin Synagogue in Czernowitz (Kiev: Spirit and Letter Publishers, 2008), ISBN 978-966-378-080-1. It is an important monograph on naive murals by an anonymous artist in a Hasidic synagogue of Chernitvtsi, the capital of Bukovina. The book includes text in English and Russian, as well as numerous color illustrations, photographs of preserved synagogue murals in Ukraine and Rumania. Author's analysis of the decorative program of Beit Tfila Benyamin is based on decades of Khaimovich's work in the region.
(Sam's note: Boris's work should also be a valiable contribution to those who are studying American synagogue decoration, especially the zodiac and other decorative systems I have reported on previously).
-- Victor Proskuryakov, Bohdan Hoy, Kul'turolohiya yevreys'koho teatru v konteksti chasu, dii i arkhitektury [Cultural Study of Jewish Theatre in Ukraine in Context of Time, Action and Architecture] (Lviv: National University "Lviv Polytechnica" Publishers, 2007), ISBN 978-966-553-620-8. The book gives a rich material on buildings of Jewish theatres in Ukraine, both rent and designed for this purpose. Published in Ukrainian, with black and white figures.
-- Żanna Komar, Trzecie miasto Galicji. Stanisławów i jego architektura w okresie autonomii galickiej [The Third City in Galicia. Stanisławów and Its Architecture during Galician Autonomy] (Krakow: Międzynarodowe Centrum Kultury Publishers, 2008), ISBN 978-83-89273-52-9. This interesting book gives a chapter on the Progressive Synagogue of Stanisławów, designed by an outstanding Jewish architect Wilhelm Stiassny. Author publishes an alternative design of the same synagogue by local and Vienna-trained architect Maksymilian Schloss, and gives its story as seen by its historiographer Leon Streit, and by local press. Published in Polish, with rich illustrations, wonderful photographs, beautiful layout. The project was sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland.
(Sam's note: We should expect more publications on the work of the Viennese Stiassny - one of the most active and respected Jewish architect and civic leader (and Zionist) of his day. A paper on his work was presented at the Lviv conference).
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