Lecture by Dr. Vladimir Levin, Director of the Center for Jewish Art at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Levin will discuss the research and collections of the Center, including on-site missions and the Historic Synagogues of Europe web site.
The Architectural Dialogue between the St. Petersburg Jewish Community and the Tsarist Metropolis
In this lecture, Dr. Vladimir Levin will consider the uneasy relationship between the architectural oeuvre of the Jewish community and the capital city of the Russian Empire. Although concentrating on St. Petersburg, the talk will address questions and problems that many Jewish communities in European and American cities had to wrangle with. Every Jewish community that settled in a large or small city had to decide how to represent itself vis-à-vis that city, how prominent and visible should their representation should be; what are the ways to express Jewishness in the general cityscape and which means should be employed toward achieving this goal. The lecture will discuss how the Jews of St. Petersburg and their non-Jewish allies looked for a style that was best suited for marking their presence in the city, and how a unique convergence of architecture and manuscript illuminations was created to that end.
About the Speaker
Dr. Vladimir Levin is the Director of the Center for Jewish Art at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Born in St. Petersburg, he holds a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University. He authored From Revolution to War: Jewish Politics in Russia, 1907-1914 (in Hebrew, 2016) and co-edited Synagogues in Lithuania: A Catalogue (2010-2012). In 2017 he co-authored with Sergey Kravtsov the book Synagogue in Ukraine: Volhynia, and currently works on the book of Jewish heritage in Siberia with Anna Berezin. He also published 120 articles and essays about social and political aspects of modern Jewish history in Eastern Europe, synagogue architecture and ritual objects, Jewish religious Orthodoxy, Jewish-Muslim relations, Jews and Jewish politics in Lithuania, Russian architecture in the Holy Land, history of East-European Jewish communities etc.
Dr. Levin headed numerous research expeditions to documents synagogues and other monuments of Jewish material culture in eastern and central Europe and lead several research projects in the field of Jewish Art, the most important of which is the creation of the Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art – the world’s largest digital depository of Jewish heritage.
The Duomo & The Great Synagogue: An Evening of Italian Culture
An evening of Jewish and Florentine architecture, culture, music, and food.
• Informal talks about the history and architecture of two of Florence, Italy’s grandest and most iconic structures — the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral (the Duomo) and the Great Synagogue — by Ross King, author of the national bestseller Brunelleschi’s Dome, and noted scholar Professor Francesco Spagnolo, Curator of The Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life at UC Berkeley.
• Q&A session moderated by Gail Price, former Executive Director of The American Institute of Architects Santa Clara Valley Chapter.
•The San Jose Chamber players with Cantor Sharon Bernstein presenting both Jewish and Italian songs.
• Italian appetizers and ice cream.
A talk by by László Márk Negyela on the iconography of the art nouveau synagogue in Subotica, Serbia, designed by the Hungarian architects Komor and Jakab. (In Hungarian)
A lecture by architectural historian Dr. Ulrich Knufinke.
The lecture is part of jubilee events marking the 25th anniversary of the reestablishment of the Jewish community in Emmendingen. Seating is limited due to coronavirus measures.
The lecture examines the history of synagogue architecture in Germany and focuses in particular on those buildings that were built after the Holocaust. Their often remarkable, even challenging design raises the question of what role synagogues play today in the image of our cities.
Ulrich Knufinke is an architectural historian and monument conservator. For many years he was a research assistant at the Bet Tfila – Research Center for Jewish Architecture in Europe at the Technical University of Braunschweig. He currently holds the professorship for architectural history at the TU Braunschweig and works at the Lower Saxony State Office for Monument Preservation.
Click here for details about the jubilee events
A series of lectures, mostly dealing with synagogue architecture, is being held to mark the 25th anniversary of the re-establishment of the Jewish community in Emmendingen, Germany.
Except for the first lecture (October 12) they are being held at the Simon-Veit-Haus, Kirchstraße 11.
See program below:
A series of lectures, mostly dealing with synagogue architecture, is being held to mark the 25th anniversary of the re-establishment of the Jewish community in Emmendingen, Germany.
Except for the first lecture (October 12) they are being held at the Simon-Veit-Haus, Kirchstraße 11.
See program below:
A series of lectures, mostly dealing with synagogue architecture, is being held to mark the 25th anniversary of the re-establishment of the Jewish community in Emmendingen, Germany.
Except for the first lecture (October 12) they are being held at the Simon-Veit-Haus, Kirchstraße 11.
See program below:
A series of lectures, mostly dealing with synagogue architecture, is being held to mark the 25th anniversary of the re-establishment of the Jewish community in Emmendingen, Germany.
Except for the first lecture (October 12) they are being held at the Simon-Veit-Haus, Kirchstraße 11.
See program below:
Dr. Pieter Vlaardingerbroek will present an illustrated talk live from Amsterdam on the architecture and interior of the 1675 Portuguese Synagogue (the Esnoga) in Amsterdam and the synagogue’s direct influence on the architecture of the 1763 Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island.
Pieter Vlaardingerbroek, Ph.D., is a leading expert on Dutch architecture and material culture. He is an architectural historian for the City of Amsterdam, having served in a similar position for the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. He is an Assistant Professor of Architectural History and Conservation at the University of Utrecht. Professor Vlaardingerbroek is the author of many articles and books and served as editor for the definitive volume on the Portuguese Sephardic synagogue, The Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, published by the City of Amsterdam in 2013.
There is no fee to participate, but reservations are required to receive the Zoom login information.
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