There are many online conferences and events these pandemic days — but this one looks especially interesting, providing insight and context to a topic that is largely little known: Synagogue architecture in Sweden (and other Nordic countries).
The Symposium on Swedish Synagogue Architecture (1795–1870) and the Cultural Milieu of the Early Jewish Immigrants to Sweden will take place on Zoom, on April 19, 2021.
It is organized by the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies at Lund University, the University of Potsdam, and the Institute of Jewish Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, with the support of the Stockholm Jewish Museum.
To attend, click this link to register:
The opening presentation will be of particular interest, an overview by Daniel Leviathan of his PhD dissertation project, “Jewish Sacred Architecture in the Nordic Countries 1684-1939.”
Leviathan, of Lund University, says he is just in the early stages of his work, a survey and study of the synagogues in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland, and is eager for “input, comments, and suggestions.”
“To date, there exists no comprehensive survey or study about the synagogues in the Nordic countries, neither on a national level nor in a wider perspective, which this study aims to change,” he writes.
Other speakers at the symposium will focus on specific buildings and on the history and relationship between synagogues and their architecture in the Nordic countries and various other countries and regions.
Besides Leviathan, speakers will include Vladimir Levin and Sergey Kravtsov, of the Center for Jewish Art in Jerusalem; Ilia Rodov of Bar Ilan University; Maja Hultman, of the Centre for European Research and Department of Historical Studies at University of Gothenburg Centre for Business History in Stockholm; Mirko Przystawik, of Bet Tfila – Research Unit for Jewish Architecture in Europe, Technische Universität Braunschweig; Yael Fried, of The Jewish Museum of Stockholm; and Carl Henrik Carlsson, of The Hugo Valentin Centre, Department of History, Uppsala University.
Click here to see the full program, with abstracts of talks