Today is the Jewish fast day of Tisha B’av, or the Ninth of Av. It commemorates and mourns the destruction of the First and Second Temples and other tragedies that befell the Jewish people.
The Western Wall — or Kotel — in Jerusalem was a supporting wall of the Temple Mount and is the only remnant of the Second Temple, destroyed by the Romans in August 70 CE; as such, it has become the most sacred site in Judaism.
An image showing the Western Wall, often with people praying there, is a motif that has been used in the decoration of synagogues.
In the decades since the Holocaust, matzevot and rescued and recovered fragments of broken matzevot have been used to construct commemorative walls or monuments in a number of Jewish cemeteries, particularly in Poland.
We post here below a few examples, both of the image of the Western Wall in synagogue decoration and of the commemorative walls or monuments constructed of matzevot and fragments, in Poland, Ukraine, and Romania:
2 comments on “Tisha B’av: Mourning and Remembering the Temple, in synagogue art and commemoration”
These memorials are so eloquent and moving !
Thanks for the gallery ,
J Garchik in S F
Breaks my heart to think on this.
I am only 29% Ashkenazi, but I feel 100% for the entire race that is so mistreated.