Obj. ID: 34382
Jewish Architecture Wooden synagogue in Jurbarkas, Lithuania
The ceiling of the wooden hexagonal bimah was decorated with a depiction of a crowned double-headed eagle with the lulav and etrog (looking like a scepter and an orb) in its paws. The depiction of the eagle was sourrounded by an inscription:
כנשר יעיר קנו על גוזלו ירחף יפרוש כנפיו יקחהו ישאהו על אברתו: יי בדד ינחנו ואין עמו אל נכר: [דברים לב, יא-יב]
As an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft. The Lord alone led him; no foreign god was with him. Deut. 32:11-12.
Trees with birds under a sky with stars and probably sun (or moon) are depicted around the central medalion.
According to a legend, the wall paintings in the synagogue were done by Italian artist Andrioli: "flower combined with animals - deer and lions - and with ancient holy symbols of our people like the tablets of the law, the menorah, magen david etc." (Poran, p. 300).
sub-set tree:
Kamzon, Y.D., Yahadut lita: tmunot vetziyunim (Jerusalem: Mosad Harav Kuk, 1959), ills. on p. 148-150.
Kravtsov, Sergey, “Synagogue Architecture in Lithuania,” in Synagogues of Lithuania. A Catalogue, ed. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, Sergey Kravtsov, Vladimir Levin, Giedrė Mickūnaitė, and Jurgita Šiaučiūnaitė-Verbickienė, vol. 1 (Vilnius: Vilnius Academy of Arts Press, 2010), 43–72, p. 57.
Piechotka, Maria and Kazimierz, Bramy nieba: bóżnice drewniane na ziemiach dawnej Rzeczypospolitej (Warsaw: Krypski i S-ka, 1996), pp. 235-237, ills. 98, 167, 355-357.
Piechotka, Maria and Kazimierz, Bóżnice drewniane (Warszawa: Budownictwo i architektura, 1957), p. 201, ill. 73.
Piechotka, Maria and Kazimierz, Heaven’s Gates: Wooden Synagogues in the Territories of the Former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Translated by Krzystof Z. Cieszkowski. (Warsaw: Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews, 2015), pp. 331-334.
Poran, Zevulun, “Beit ha-kneset ve-ha-hayyim ha-datiyim ba-kehilah,” in Sefer ha-zikaron le-kehilat yurburg - lita, edited by Zevulun Poran (Jerusalem: Igud Yotzei Yurburg Be-Israel, 1991), 297–304.
Rupeikienė, Marija, Nykstantis kultūros paveldas: Lietuvos sinagogų architektūra (Vilnius, 2003), p. 49 ill. 23, p. 53 ill. 27, p. 57 ill. 32, p. 60 ill. 37, p. 63 ill. 40.
Rupeikienė, Marija, “Medinės Lietuvos sinagogos.” in Medinė architektūra Lietuvoje, edited by Alfredas Jomantas (Vilnius, 2002), 71–79., p. 71 with ill at the end of the book.
Yargina, Zoya, Wooden Synagogues. Masterpieces of Jewish Art. (Moscow: Image, 1993), ills. 123-125.
Åhr, Johan. “Memory and Mourning in Berlin: On Peter Eisenman's ‘Holocaust-Mahnmal’ (2005),” Modern Judaism, Vol. 28, No. 3 (October 2008), pp. 283-305., ills on pp. 442-447.
Marija Rupeikienė, "Synagogues of Lithuania," in Lithuanian Synagogues (Exhibition Catalogue) (Vilnius: The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, 1997), p. 27;
Pinkas hakehilot: Lita, ed. Dov Levin (Jerusalem, 1996), p. 325 with ill.;
www.jewishgen.org/litvak/images/yurburg1.jpg;
Yad Vashem, 59691, 103243, 67871, 57491 (Bima), 56357 (TA);
Lite, eds. Mendl Sudarski, Uriyah Katsenelnbogn and I. Kisin (New York, 1951), ill. on p. 1596;
Avraham Kariv, Lithuania - Land of My Birth, trans. from Hebrew by I.M.Lask and Gertrude Hirschler (New York: Herzl Press, 1967), ill. on p. 24 (Eliahu chair) = Dovid Katz, Lithuanian Jewish Culture (Vilnius: Baltos Lankos, 2004), ill. on p. 179;
Saulius Kaubrys, National Minorities in Lithuania: An outline (Vilnius, 2002), ill. after p. 128;
Jewish Life in Lithuania. Exhibition Catalogue, 2nd edition (Vilnius, 2007), ill. on p. 56;