Simchat Torah — Rejoicing in the Torah, the Jewish festival that celebrates the conclusion of the annual cycle of public Torah readings (and beginning of the new cycle), falls on Monday-Tuesday. To mark the occasion, here are some images of the Aron ha Kodesh, or … continue reading →
Continuing our series of posts about synagogues dedicated on Rosh Hashana, we recall Warsaw’s monumental Great Synagogue on Tłomackie street, which was inaugurated at Rosh Hashana 140 years ago this week — on September 26, 1878. Attending the ceremony were Russian … continue reading →
Rudolf Klein’s magisterial new book, Metropolitan Jewish Cemeteries, is a richly illustrated, detailed examination of 19th and 20th century Jewish cemeteries in Eastern and Central European cities in all their aspects — funerary art, layout, topography, architecture, the impact of … continue reading →
This summer’s prolonged heatwave and drought in Europe has had an unexpected effect: it has exposed buried gravestones, showing their layout in the historic Beth Haim Portuguese (Sephardic) Jewish cemetery at Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, located near Amsterdam at the confluence … continue reading →
A 50-year-old drawing reveals the ravaged interior of the 17th century synagogue in Tykocin, Poland — nearly a decade before it was renovated and reopened as one of the very few Jewish museums that operated in Communist-ruled east-central Europe. The … continue reading →
