Synagogues: new open access publication of special “Arts” journal issue on Synagogue Art and Architecture

A special issue of the journal Arts devoted to Synagogue Art and Architecture — is now freely available online via open access. It includes 10 articles devoted to various aspects of the topic, from architecture to decoration to current use. They include case studies as well as more general approaches.

The issue was edited by Dr. Ilia Rodov, chair of the Department of Jewish Art at Bar Ilan University. He writes in an introduction:

Since its inception in antiquity, synagogue architecture has served Jewish needs for communal prayer and gathering, exhibiting a great diversity of spatial arrangements and ritual venue designs. Scholarly attention to synagogue architecture and art emerged about one and a half centuries ago. Since that time, the object of research has undergone considerable metamorphosis. Numerous synagogues were demolished in wars and social disasters; others were abandoned or ruined over the course of time. During the same period, new synagogues were built, ancient and medieval synagogues were unearthed, and a number of old synagogues were reconstructed or recreated. Synagogue research has evolved from descriptive surveys and quests for typologies to case studies, to interdisciplinary investigations of the semantics and functions of buildings and artwork, and into studies of the processes of the creation, comprehension, and preservation of synagogue architecture and art. Investigations of religious, communal, and personal identities expressed visually have proven more fruitful than the prior scholarly preoccupation with the dilemma: “Does Jewish art/architecture exist?”

The articles include (click on the title to access):

Maribor Synagogue: Between Facts and Reinterpretation

by Janez Premk

Arts 2020, 9(1), 5; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts9010005 – 10 Jan 2020

Abstract

 

Maribor Synagogue is one of the few preserved medieval synagogues in Central Europe. The renovation of the building between 1992 and 1999, undertaken by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, proved to be much more demanding than originally foreseen. […] Read more.

 

 

The Question of Appropriateness. Museums Established in Synagogues in Communist Poland: The Cases of Łańcut and Włodawa

by Kinga Migalska

Arts 2019, 8(4), 167; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts8040167 – 17 Dec 2019

 

Abstract

 

World War II and the subsequent period of communist rule severely diminished the amount of historic Jewish architecture in Poland. It is estimated that in the mid-1990s there were about 321 synagogues and prayer houses in the country, all in various states of […] Read more.

 

Perceptions. The Unbuilt Synagogue in Buda through Controversial Architectural Tenders (1912–1914)

by Éva Lovra

Arts 2019, 8(4), 149; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts8040149 – 08 Nov 2019

 

Abstract

The unbuilt synagogue in Buda is an almost forgotten chapter in Hungarian architectural history which drew great attention between 1911 and 1914. It was discussed extensively by the contemporary press in the early 20th century and by architects in the Hungarian capital of […] Read more.

Synagogue Architecture of Latvia between Archeology and Eschatology

by Sergey R. Kravtsov

Arts 2019, 8(3), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/arts8030099 – 05 Aug 2019

 

Abstract

Synagogue architecture during the second half of the nineteenth century and the early part of the twentieth century was seeking novel modes of expression, and therefore the remains of ancient synagogues that were being discovered by western archeologists within the borders of the […] Read more.