The Addlestone Library at the College of Charleston (South Carolina) has launched a new online exhibit that provides a fascinating (and useful) resource on synagogue history, architecture and practice.
Called “The Life of the Synagogue,” the exhibit includes 76 items selected from the Library’s William A. Rosenthall Judaica Collection. The Collection, the exhibit text notes, is “one of the largest accessible collections of imagery related to synagogues and other aspects of Jewish life and culture around the world.” The Library for awhile ran a “synagogue a day” Tumblr and Twitter feed of images from the collection.
The strength of the Rosenthall Collection lies in postcards and prints, but there is a similar wealth of other materials, such as periodicals, clippings, philatelic materials, greeting cards, photographs, textiles, and medals drawn from every continent except Antarctica, including more than a dozen languages, and spanning five centuries. The synagogue is a major focus of the collection. To make a selection for the exhibit, thousands of postcards, hundreds of prints, and all sorts of ephemera were examined, along with other materials that illuminate the design of synagogue buildings and the activities that took place within and around them.
The ample explanatory text sets the images in context, in a way that offers “a broad understanding of the history of synagogue architecture and design, in addition to shedding light on the lives, customs, and religious practices of the people within the four walls of the synagogue.”
The introduction, however, notes that even such a huge collection of material to choose from had its limitations:
Though vast in size and scope, the Rosenthall Collection is not a comprehensive history of synagogue architecture or of Jewish ritual and domestic life. Rather, it reflects the availability of material, and the interests, tastes, and tenacity of the collector during the pre-Internet decades when Rabbi Rosenthall was actively acquiring items from print and antique shops, bookstores, and flea markets. Many synagogues located in places too far away, or of too little popular interest, were just never illustrated.
The web site also includes a link to a lengthy bibliography of works about all facets of synagogue architecture, use and symbolism.
Curated by Samuel D. Gruber, Sarah Glover, and Amy Lazarus, the exhibit is divided into nine sections, each including a selection of images from the Collection — engravings, lithographs, postcards, newspaper illustrations, photos and other formats — accompanied by explanatory text.
Section 1 — Siting the Synagogue
Where were and are synagogues built? How do they relate to the urban context?
Section 2 — Building & Dedications
Who built and build synagogues? What restrictions and limitations were placed on their construction?
Section 3 — Inside the Synagogue
What are a synagogue’s interior structures and components?
Section 4 — Rabbis
Who are rabbis and what are their roles?
Section 5 — Life Cycle
What Jewish life cycle rituals take place in a synagogue?
Section 6 — Fasts & Festivals
How are Jewish holidays observed?
Section 7 — Women in the Synagogue
How do women, historically segregated from men, pray in the synagogue? What role do they play? How has this changed over the centuries?
Section 8 — Patriotism
What role does the synagogue play in reflecting Jews’ broader civic identity and relationship to their homeland?
Section 9 — Education
One of the synagogue’s primary roles has been as a study house. Just what does that mean, and how has it evolved?
Click here to access the exhibition
1 comment on “New online exhibit a valuable resource on synagogue history, architecture & practice”
a real treasure!
It reminds me once of a sudden a poem[ anonymous]:
The Closing of the gates
Open the gates to us when the gates are
being closed,for the day is about to set.
The day shall set,the sun shall go
down and set- let us enter Your gates!
[the Penguin Book of HEBREW Verse,edited by T.Carmi,p.241]
Thanks for your tremendous important contribution !