Today, March 8, is marked around the world as International Women’s Day. In past years, we have marked the day with photo essays showing how women have been represented in Jewish art. (Click HERE for 2019 and HERE for 2018.) This year, we’re highlighting the physical place and places of women — images of the women’s sections of synagogues.
In orthdox practice, women sit separately from men in the synagogue, and they sometimes have separate access from outside the building.
In surviving synagogues, the women’s section is often located in in raised galleries that are at the back of, or surround, or flank the floor of the sanctuary. Sometimes the architecture gave them low railings or raised seats that allowed women to see the service below; other times the gallery was cut off by dense grilles.
Usually the gallery is one just one raised level.
But in some synagogues there are two storeys.
In a blog post about the 19th century Old Synagogue in Plzen, Samuel D. Gruber wrote that there are at least two two-storey women’s galleries in present-day Czech Republic: in the Plzen Old Synagogue and in the earlier 19th-century synagogue at Brandys nad Laben — both have been fully restored as part of the 10 Stars Network.
There were, however, several near-contemporary examples in the Austro-Hungarian lands, notably the Tempelgasse Synagogue in Vienna (dedicated 1858) and the Dohany St. Synagogue in Budapest (1854-1857). Other slightly later examples [in central Europe] are Timisoara, Romania, 1863-64 and Pecs, Hungary, 1868-69.
He writes:
The women were in the synagogue but not of the synagogue. From these galleries and many others it was almost impossible to see or hear anything of what went on below, and it can get very hot and stuffy the higher one goes.
In a blog post about the women’s galley in the synagogue in St. Polten, Austria, Samuel D. Gruber writes:
The galleries in St. Pölten were spacious and probably comfortable, but the original seating does not survive. The proportions of the building were much different than the Old Synagogue in Plzen. The main sanctuary was wider, and the distance from the women’s galleries to the main floor was less. Women could sit closer and see more, and probably the sound carried better. An additional gallery space for choir is also set above the women’s gallery at the entrance end of the sanctuary, opposite the Ark wall.
Today, in synagogues that have been restored, the women’s gallery may be used as an exhibition space — this is the case even in some synagogues that are used for worship, such as in the Jubilee/Jeruzalemska street synagogue in Prague.
Here are some further images of women’s galleries, in synagogues in several countries. Some are in synagogues still in use today for worship, others are in synagogues that have been converted for other use.
Read Samuel D. Gruber’s article about the women’s gallery in the Old Synagogue in Plzen
Read Samuel D. Gruber’s article about the women’s gallery in the synagogue in St. Polten, Austria
3 comments on “Photo Essay for International Women’s Day: Where the women are/were (in the synagogue)”
For further reference, please see my book,”Ten Times Chai: 180 Orthodox Synagogues of New York City,” published by Brown Books Publishing Group and available on Amazon. I documented 180 existing orthodox synagogues, including women’s galleries in 613 color photos. Synagogues include 100 in Brooklyn, 35 in Manhattan, 35 in Queens, 5 in The Bronx, and 5 in Staten Island.
Intelligent and committed Jews are still confused how to merge modern concepts with historical roles of Jewish women. Now is the time to observe ritual but bring it up to contemporary views to respect the rights of women.
Beautiful collection of photographs