The Center for Jewish Art
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Since the publication of the last newsletter, the Center for Jewish Art has been a very busy place, confirmed by the size of this issue! Through excursions, partnerships, training programs, conferences and publications, we have continued to enlarge our knowledge of Jewish material culture and have created an arena for teaching students and training young scholars.
In 1999, the Center's founder Bezalel Narkiss was awarded the Israel Prize in recognition for his groundbreaking work in the study and documentation of Jewish art. Furthermore, the Center's work in the area of preservation through documentation was acknowledged by the world community: The World Bank, UNESCO, and the Council of Europe have all sought out our expertise and have placed the protection of the Jewish cultural heritage on the world agenda. This holds promise for future collaborations and for enlarging our efforts to document what is left of the pre-WWII European Jewish communities.
Unfortunately, we haven't been effective in mobilizing the organized Jewish world to join in taking responsibility for recording and preserving our visual heritage. While the last ten years has seen the proliferation of Holocaust museums, the material legacy from those very communities annihilated in WWII is rapidly disappearing.
As I write this, the forces of nature and regional politics are eroding the Jewish historical record. On our second expedition to the former Yugoslavia this past September I again witnessed how forgetfulness, expediency, and a need to eradicate historical evidence, can effectively erase a millennium of history: The city of Vlasenica in the Republic of Serbska was once a thriving Jewish community. Its cemetery, erected as a monument to posterity, is now a municipal garbage dump. Those people buried in the Jewish community cemetery have in effect, suffered a double death. This scenario, sadly, is not an isolated one.
In our work at the Center, we are attempting to reconstruct the history of the Jewish people through the material culture. Even more than in the written sources, the material heritage gives us a concrete view of how Jews really lived, and how they created their synagogues, funerary monuments, ritual objects, books and manuscripts. Documentary evidence of the eighteenth century found in archives shows how involved the community leaders were with the architectural design and decoration of their synagogue, let alone the Torah ark and furnishings. It is interesting to note that some synagogues in Germany, from the eighteenth century on were built in the most advanced style of their period. This confirms, once again, the indisputable fact that the Jewish imagination has found expression in the visual as much as in the written word.
In the years to come, we hope, that together with our friends and academic partners, we shall achieve an even greater measure of success in documenting the visual treasures of the past, before a large part of our cultural legacy is lost.
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The Jewish community of Bulgaria
survived the Holocaust intact. Immediately following World War II, however, approximately
ninety percent of Bulgaria's 50,000 Jews immigrated to Israel. Those who remained found
their lives and institutions controlled by the Communist Party; religious life during this
period was almost eradicated. The reign of Communism also greatly damaged the community's
art treasures: grand synagogues were abandoned or appropriated and valuable sacred and
ritual objects were sold or plundered.
Since the fall of Communism, the Jewish community has been revived and efforts have been initiated to restore existing synagogues in such cities as Sofia and Plovdiv. Today numbering some 5,000 souls, the Jewish community has succeeded, with the aid of new legislation, in reclaiming several properties.
A research team from the Center for Jewish Art conducted an expedition to Bulgaria in August 1998 to document ritual objects, synagogues and cemeteries in the capital city of Sofia and cities and towns near the Black Sea. The research team, led by senior researcher, Boris Khaimovich also included Einat Ron and Gila Pollak, researchers from the Ritual Objects Section of the Index of Jewish Art, researcher Benyamin Lukin, architect Zoya Arshavsky, and photographer Zev Radovan. Researchers completed documentation of eight synagogues, over one hundred ritual objects from collections in Sofia and Plovdiv and several cemeteries.
History
The Bulgarian Jewish community claims an ancient heritage tracing to the destruction of the First Temple, when a small group of Jews arrived in the Balkan Peninsula after passing through Asia Minor. Based on the discovery of coins from the Bar Kochba revolt found in the area, historians maintain that Jewish slaves arrived after the failure of the revolt in 132-5 CE.
Additional evidence of Jewish settlement in the Balkan Peninsula during the time of the Roman Empire is provided by a stela from the village of Gigen. Inscribed on the stela, which may be seen today in the Sofia museum, is Yosefus archiesynagogus, meaning Joseph, head of the synagogue. A mosaic floor from a second or third century synagogue in the ancient city of Plovdiv provides further proof of Jewish settlement.
Due to periodic migrations in the following centuries, three distinct communities developed: the Greek-speaking Romaniots, Sephardi Jews fleeing Spain and Portugal at the end of the fifteenth century, and Ashkenazi Jews. Despite the diversity of their origins, by the seventeenth century most of these Jews had joined together to form a single community following the Sephardi tradition, whereas only a small Ashkenazi community endured. In all, the artistic legacy of the Jewish community of Bulgaria represents a magnificent patchwork of Turkish, Spanish and Greek sources, together with influences from Eastern Europe, such as Poland and Hungary.
These pinecone- shaped Torah finials, dated 1863, have a dedicatory inscription to the community of Yambol (Jampol), whose Jews, in eastern Bulgaria, were transferred to Istanbul after the Ottoman occupation.
Bulgarian Torah scrolls are adorned with mantles, as in other Balkan Jewish communities.
Although differing in shape (elongated, cylindrical or trapezoidal) these Torah mantles
are all decorated with Ottoman motifs and techniques. This Torah mantle is notable
for its luxurious embroidery. A silver dedicatory plaque sewn to its front is dated: the
year of the keter (crown), referring to the actual date, 1860
An
Austro-Hungarian type Torah coronet is encircled by twelve oval medallions
inscribed with the mishnaic verse of Rabbi Shimon, mentioning three of the four crowns:
Kingship, Priesthood, and that which excels them allthe Crown of a Good Name. This Torah
coronet and the ruins of a nineteenth century synagogue are all that remains of this once
vibrant community of Vidin, one of the most important Jewish centers on the Danube
during the Ottoman period.
A shiviti parokhet embedded with studs has a menorah composed of verses from Psalm 67. This decorative use of studs, most probably of Ottoman influence, is very common in Bulgarian textiles.
Synagogue Architecture and Cemeteries
The documentation and research work of the Center for Jewish Art is indispensable in aiding the efforts of the Bulgarian Jewish community to reclaim its invaluable artistic heritage, one of the gems of Jewish cultural tradition in the Diaspora. At the same time, the study of this national culture will give our researchers a deeper understanding of the development of the art of the Ashkenazi, Sephardi and Romaniot communities.
Bulgarian synagogue architecture and decorations reflect significant Ottoman
influences. The synagogue in Samokov (pictured above), once home to a very wealthy Jewish
community, was built in 1884. This tile-roofed rectangular synagogue is adorned with large
arched windows (at right) on the lower level and oval windows on the upper.
Pazardzik, once home to a wealthy Sephardi Jewish community of 1,500, is today home to only one hundred Jews. A complex of buildings once included two synagogues and a Jewish school; the large synagogue is used today as a storage space, the other, as a coffeehouse. Pictured above is the interior of the large synagogue. There are four wooden pillars in the center of the synagogue, probably once used to support a canopy over the bimah, and a wooden ceiling carved with geometrical patterns. The central pillars are reminiscent of other synagogues of the former Ottoman Empire.
Researchers documented the one remaining synagogue in the ancient Macedonian city of Plovdiv (Philipopolis), built by Philip, father of Alexander the Great. Constructed in 1875 and renovated in 1923, the synagogue is located in the Jewish quarter at the base of the mountain where the old city was built and serves the700-strong community.Pictured is a detail of the pediment above the Torah ark.
Two synagogues were documented in Varna, which was once a large Jewish center on the Black Sea and is now home to one hundred Jews. Pictured here is the Sephardi synagogue built at the end of the nineteenth century, which is virtually a ruin, with only four remaining exterior walls.
This expedition was carried out with the generous support of the Fanny and Leo Koerner Charitable Trust, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Steven Spielberg's Righteous Persons Foundation in cooperation with the Project Judaica Foundation of Washington, D.C., Mark Talisman, President.
REMNANTS OF A MATERIAL LEGACY:
DOCUMENTING JEWISH ARCHITECTURE
AND CEMETERIES IN UKRAINE
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A
visual legacy of Jewish culture, eloquent testimony to centuries of settlement, is richly
scattered throughout the Ukraine. During the summers of
1998 and
1999, researchers from the Center for Jewish Art broadened
the Center’s extensive survey and documentation work of Jewish treasures in this
country. To date, the Center has conducted eleven expeditions in the Ukraine, covering
diverse regions where architecture, cemeteries and other art objects testify to the major
presence of Jews whose lives were inextricably linked to the area.
Perhaps the richest repositories of Jewish art in the Ukraine are the hundreds of cemeteries that can be found scattered around the country. They have been the main focus of the Center’s work there. During the course of its expeditions in Ukraine, the Center has surveyed some 130 cemeteries and documented around 70 in the regions of Galicia, Volyn, Podolia and Bukovina. Some extremely rare finds have been made over the years, particularly regarding tombstones marking the beginning of Jewish settlement in the region in the early sixteenth century. More than 3,000 decorated tombstones from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries have also been found.
In 1998, the team consisting of Boris Khaimovich and Binyamin Lukin of the Center, assisted by colleagues from Lvov and the Jewish University in St. Petersburg, conducted a survey of synagogues and cemeteries in the southern Galicia region of Ukraine, and the cities and surrounding areas of Kharkov and Poltava in eastern Ukraine.
The expedition team began their journey in southern Galicia in search of cemeteries and synagogues in settlements that were set on the banks of the winding Dniester River, which flows for more than one thousand kilometers. Jewish settlement there is venerable, dating from the sixteenth century when large communities thrived in the towns and numerous shtetls sprung up on the banks and inlets of the vast river.
Starting out from Lvov, the research team’s expedition route covered the villages of Vibranovka, Novoe Strelishe, Kniaginichi, Burshtin, Bolshovtsy, Ustechko, Usece Zhelone, Belce Zlote, Chortovets, Chernelitsa and Zolotoi Potok. Some of these villages were so ‘off the beaten track’ or so close to the river that access was difficult.
| The team traveled on to Kharkov, a large industrial city in eastern Ukraine, built almost two hundred years ago. Although Jews settled in Kharkov only in the second part of the nineteenth century, they thrived as a community that numbered amongst its members a surprising number of successful architects, among them A.Ginsburg and V.Feldman. Their distinguished buildings, designed for both the Jewish and general community, helped to make Kharkov one of the most beautiful cities in Eastern Europe. |
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By the early part of the twentieth century, Kharkov was home to five impressive
synagogues, as well as a Karaite kenasa, all of which were active until 1917. The most
lavish of them, the city’s Great Synagogue (left), was built by a Jewish architect
from St. Petersburg Jacob Gevirts, who had won the competition for the synagogue’s
design held by the community. Used as a sports hall after the Revolution, it once again
serves as the main synagogue of the Jewish community, which was revitalized after
Perestroika. Its grand domed structure was influenced by Northern European Art Nouveau
while the interior decor features Moorish elements.
Interior of the Great Synagogue in Kharkov
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| The researchers found a single cemetery in the region of Poltava, located in the village of Gadiach.. A most significant grave there is that of the first Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Schneur Zalman Mi’Lyadi, known as the ‘Alter Rebbe,’ who died in 1813. His grave is covered by a small memorial structure known as an ohel, this one resembling a small synagogue with windows. It is one of the oldest of surviving structures of this kind in the eastern Ukraine. | |
An unexpected find on this leg of the expedition: a
seventeenth century fortress synagogue still standing in the city of Khmelnik (seen
at left). Although documented in pre-war literature on synagogues in the region, this
structure, now a bathhouse in a hospital complex, was thought to have been destroyed
during World War II. Built during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the great
stone fortress synagogues served to protect the local populace–both Jewish and
non-Jewish–from attack during times of war or at the hands of marauders.
The three week expedition in 1999 covered areas in western Ukraine where researchers surveyed and documented shtetls and cemeteries in the areas of Volyn, Podolia and southern Galicia. The researchers worked in the shtetls in the vicinity of Polonnoe, one of the largest and oldest Jewish communities in the Volyn region, and in the region of Bukovina. Boris Khaimovich also led this expedition assisted by five researchers from the Jewish University in St. Petersburg including topographer and architect, Dr. Yulii Lifshits, and a photographer.
| Researchers covered more than 2,500 kilometers during three weeks of documenting during the summer of 1999. Their journey in the region of Volyn started in the city of Polonnoe, which was one of the most influential communities of that area and an acclaimed center of Hassidic learning between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. It was there that the well-known Kabbalist, Rabbi Shimshon from Ostropol, was murdered by Cossacks in 1648. Rabbi Jacob Josef wrote and published the first Hassidic book in Polonnoe, which had the first Hassidic publishing house in Eastern Europe. Today only a few remaining Jewish families are left in Polonnoe. |  |
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The researchers documented the old cemetery in Polonnoe, which has 30 eighteenth century tombstones, one of the earliest, seen at left, dated 1727, and another dated 1730, above. These tombstones have finely carved borders with animal, floral and architectural motifs. The block script resembles the printing styles of the same period. |
From Polonnoe researchers traveled to Ostrog, the oldest Jewish community in Volyn, and once a very important center of Jewish learning. Many famous rabbis, like Solomon Luria (Maharshal), taught here, and was a place where some of the most famous yeshivot in Europe were established, including one founded by the Maharal of Ostrog. In this region of Volyn, Jews from Amsterdam established the first printing houses for Jewish books.
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Three years ago the Center’s researchers documented an impressive fortress-like seventeenth century synagogue in Ostrog. Unfortunately at the time, it was used as a warehouse and the interior was difficult to photograph. When the researchers returned in 1999, they found that the building had been |
emptied, exposing the original beauty of the prayer hall, and they were able to photograph it and complete the documentation. Sadly, the enormous cemetery, which included five thousand tombstones, some as early as the fifteenth century, was destroyed in 1976. |
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The Jewish town of Yampol in Volyn was built on an island in a lake. A single house remains which, even today, is occupied by a Jewish family.
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The cemetery of Yampol was destroyed by the army in the 1920s and the stones were thrown into the water. Researchers were fortunate to be present when the water level was low and were able to document a few of the stones. They found about twenty tombstones from the mid-eighteenth to early nineteenth century, beautifully decorated with motifs of griffins, birds, bears, and grapes. |
One of the oldest Jewish settlements in the area, dating from the sixteenth century, was in the village of Smotrich. In the mid-eighteenth century, a wooden synagogue with rich wall paintings was built, reflecting the prosperity of the community. Suffering the fate of the vast majority of wooden synagogues in Eastern Europe, the synagogue of Smotrich was destroyed during World War II. There are no Jews left in the area today and the cemetery alone hints at the former affluence of the community.
Two areas of the Smotrich cemetery remain intact: one from the early nineteenth century, and another from the eighteenth century, the earliest tombstone dated 1723.
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These tombstones are both from the mid-eighteenth century. Tombstones in this cemetery represent the high point of the art of tombstone carving, comprising a wide range of styles– richly carved animal and floral motifs and traditional Jewish symbols. |
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In the same region, researchers documented tombstones from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, specifically in Vizhgorodok, Balin, Shatava, and in Lanovtsi, where there is a memorial next to the cemetery commemorating the 1,000 Jews who were massacred on the spot.
Several years ago, researchers from the Center for Jewish Art had documented the seventeenth century fortress synagogue in Satanov. They were very disheartened to find that, in the interim, the synagogue deteriorated significantly. There are holes in the ceiling and all the interior galleries have been destroyed. The Satanov cemetery has been vandalized and dozens of highly decorated tombstones from the late seventeenth and eighteenth century have been broken, the pieces scattered.
| Another cemetery documented by the Center for Jewish Art team was in Banilov, where the five hundred early nineteenth century tombstones offer testimony to a highly developed funerary art amongst Jews of this area. A broad spectrum of motifs were found, some similar to those in synagogue wall paintings, such as leviathans, lions, and complex geometric patterns. Traces of color on some of the stones indicate that these tombstones were once painted. The tombstone pictured here is dated 1893. |
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Continuing into southern Galicia, researchers entered Solotvino in the Carpathian mountains, where Jews arrived in the seventeenth century. In this once large and prosperous community, the cemetery which has over 3000 tombstones, served most of the Jews in the region. The hard stone used in the tombstones has retained very clear images. The oldest tombstones are from the seventeenth century and have inscriptions resembling display script in manuscripts. The eighteenth century tombstones are typical of Galicia, with portals and triangular pediments around the inscriptions and modest adornment. The nineteenth century tombstones are decorated in a traditional local style, with lions, deer or birds holding menorahs or decorated with trees or garlands. The inscriptions are very detailed, including such information as birthplace of the deceased, why they fled their previous homes, and from which wars they had escaped. The nineteenth century synagogue in Solotvino still stands, though no Jews remain.
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Among the highlights of this expedition were the extraordinary tombstones found in the cemetery of Zolotoi Potok, a small but important mercantile center where Jews had settled in the seventeenth century. The wealth of the community is reflected in its tombstones. Many seventeenth and eighteenth century tombstones have, remarkably, remained in good condition though buried underground. The earliest one, pictured here, is dated 1633. These tombstones constitute some of the most outstanding examples of the art of tombstone |
| carving. The
large stones, designed in Renaissance style, have large bands with grape and vine motifs.
The pediments, carved in high relief, are decorated with lions and garlands and vessels.
Fifty such tombstones were documented.
The Center for Jewish Art will continue sending expedition teams to the Ukraine. Even after many years of exploring the area, researchers are still amazed by the visual riches this region has yet to reveal. |
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The 1999 expedition was supported by the Fanny and Leo Koerner Charitable Trust, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
BOSNIA/HERZEGOVINA AND CROATIA:
DOCUMENTING JEWISH ART AND ARCHITECTURE
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Devastation wreaked by the Holocaust
and the recent civil war has left fewer than 5,700 Jews in former Yugoslavia. The Jewish
community, like the entire country, was once defined by its unique combination of eastern
and western traditions. Populations of Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews peacefully co-existed
in cities like Sarajevo, alongside their Christian and Muslim neighbors.
To date, this unique Jewish culture has never been systematically studied and its remnants are disappearing rapidly. Without the presence of a concerned population, many synagogues have been destroyed and sacred objects looted or sold. The Center for Jewish Art has set documentation of the remaining Jewish national treasures and landmarks as a priority.
Two expedition teams were sent to survey and document synagogues and cemeteries in Sarajevo and Mostar in Bosnia/Herzegovina and Dubrovnik and Split in Croatia. Three significant sixteenth century synagogues were documented. The Old Temple in Sarajevo was originally built in 1581 to serve the growing numbers of Jews coming from other parts of the Ottoman Empire. While the building was allocated by the City Museum as a Jewish Museum, it is used today as a storeroom.
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Located in the historic site of the Jewish Quarter of Sarajevo, Velika Avlija, the Old Temple Synagogue was damaged by fire in 1697 and again in 1788. In 1965, when the building was transformed into the Jewish Museum, the walls were stripped of their decorations. |
| Four other synagogues were documented in Sarajevo, including the Ashkenazi Synagogue, the only functioning synagogue in Sarajevo today. Constructed in 1902 on the south bank of the river Miljacka, its highly decorated neo-Moorish or Mudejar style was very popular in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1966 the synagogue was divided horizontally into two levels. | 
Ashkenazi Synagogue in Sarajevo |
| One can
still imagine the grandeur of the original synagogue with its high, ornate ceiling,
highlighted by a ten-pointed star, its enormous arches and richly painted decorations, and
its women's galleries supported by columns. Today the synagogue is in the women's
galleries on the upper floor. At the entrance to the synagogue, a stone menorah
commemorates the 400-year anniversary of the Jews in Bosnia.
The Great Synagogue, consecrated in 1930, was once one of the largest synagogues in all the Balkans. In 1966, after decades of abandonment following partial destruction in World War II, it was offered to the city of Sarajevo as a cultural center. In renovations most of the exterior and interior decorations were discarded, leaving only the dome and a few windows in the interior courtyard from the original design. Researchers also documented cemeteries and cemetery chapels in Sarajevo, Dubrovnik and Split. Located on a hill above the city of Sarajevo, the Old Sephardi Cemetery was established in 1630 on land originally rented from the Moslem Waqf. During the Austro-Hungarian era, a railroad was constructed through the middle of the cemetery, and today only the upper half remains, with about 3,800 graves. When the old Ashkenazi cemetery was closed in 1959, the remnants of 900 buried there were exhumed and transferred to this cemetery, under a common monument. |
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The shape of the tombstones in the Sarajevo cemetery is unusual. The monolithic rounded forms recall to some extent gravestones of the Bogumils, a Nestorian Christian schismatic sect, who lived in the region between the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sea until the arrival of the Ottomans. Most of the stones are inscribed both in Hebrew and Judeo-Spanish, with epigraphs written in poetic form. Directly on the line between Serbs and Bosnians, the entire cemetery endured great damage during the last civil war. Fortunately, due to previous |
| documentation by the City Institute for Protection, Preservation, Restoration and Conservation of the Cultural and Historic Heritage, the contents and appearance of the cemetery were carefully recorded. | |
| The Center's researchers documented the present cemetery chapel in Sarajevo (left), a two story octagonal structure built in 1926. Recent heavy artillery damage and water seepage have caused rapid deterioration of the building. |  |
| What distinguishes the ornate Dubrovnik Synagogue is its dynamic interaction with its history. Originally built circa 1537 on the second floor of a building owned by the Tolentino family, it enabled congregants to attend evening services in spite of night curfews in the ghetto through a network of passages to adjacent houses constructed in 1652. | |
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Its present Italian baroque appearance dates to the second half of the seventeenth century, following restorations made after an earthquake in 1667. The Torah ark, with its Corinthian columns, is probably from the early nineteenth century. During World War II, Emilio Tolentino hid the ark by sawing it into several |
| sections. Pieced
together after the war, its divisions are imperceptible. During the recent civil war,
while the heavily damaged building was under repair, sacred and ceremonial objects from
the synagogue were sent to New York for display, and finally returned home in 1998. |
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| The Split synagogue, dating back to the beginning of the sixteenth century, is still in use today. Situated at the entrance to the former ghetto, within the walls of the northwestern part of Diocletian's palace, the building had been a church before it was rented and later sold to the Jews. |  |
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Repeatedly damaged by fire and earthquakes, its present appearance dates to 1728, when baroque elements, such as the small oval windows, were incorporated into the structure. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, even before their synagogue was founded, the Jews of Dubrovnik rented a small plot outside the city walls and established a cemetery that existed until 1911. A second one was established in the suburb of Boninovo at the beginning of the nineteenth century and is still in use. One of the oldest cemeteries in this part of Europe overlooks the city of Split, on the eastern slope of Mount Marjan. Founded in 1573, it has been in use for four centuries. All of its 650 tombstones are marked with Hebrew texts. Today its chapel, built in 1892, is used as a restaurant. |
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The Center for Jewish Art's 1999 expedition team returned to Bosnia/Herzegovina and Croatia to further explore the former home of almost one-third of post-World War II Yugoslav Jewry. Unhappily, with few exceptions, the researchers found little cause for rejoicing. In view of the desperate state of Jewish sites, their mission was all the more urgent.
Synagogues, nationalized or confiscated by the previous regime, are collapsing from decades of neglect and recent warfare or have been converted to secular use. Not one of the synagogues documented during this expedition functions according to its original intention. Some have been unrecognizably altered into apartment buildings, a dry cleaning shop, and a Red Cross station; only those used for cultural purposes have been maintained. Some have been converted to churches, such as the converted synagogue in Osijek, today a Pentacostal church, which still bears a resemblance to the original structure, both in its interior and exterior.
The fate of Jewish cemeteries is equally distressing. One which researchers located is being used as the local garbage dump. In larger Slavonian cities though, where cemeteries of various faiths are situated side by side, Jewish cemeteries are sometimes preserved.
In the city museums of Zenica and Travnik and within the Jewish community in Osijek, the Center's researchers documented three small collections of ritual objects. The collection in Zenica included silver Torah finials dated 1896, Hanukah lamps, and Torah staves with mother-of-pearl inlays. In the Travnik museum, researchers found silver artifacts, including Esther Scroll cases and a silver prayer book cover. They are thought to be from one of the city's oldest Jewish families. This cache was recently discovered while digging the foundations of a new house in 1989. The few remaining ritual objects of the Osijek Jewish community included a red velvet Torah mantle, dated 1902, a silver Torah pointer and a pair of silver Torah finials.
Synagogues
Ten synagogues, primarily in Bosnia-Herzegovina were documented. They are in a woeful state of disrepair.
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Zenica Synagogue (left): Zenica is a town boasting a Jewish community of forty-five members. The neo-Moorish synagogue, built in 1906, is today a city museum. |
Rogatica Synagogue (right): Built and consecrated in 1928, this small synagogue has been out of use since 1941, when almost all the Jews of the town (54 prior to World War II) were killed. |
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Travnik Synagogue: Built in 1860, it has functioned since World War II as a metal workshop.
Visegrad Synagogue: Built in 1905 and confiscated after World War II, the simple building with its plain facade serves today as headquarters of the local Red Cross.
Zvornik Synagogue: This mixed Sephardi and Ashkenazi community built a synagogue in 1902, which is today a private dwelling. Although there are no recognizable signs of its origins from the building's exterior, the wooden painted ceiling, visible in the attic has been retained.
Tuzla Synagogue: Once the location of two Jewish communities with separate synagogues, today only the small Sephardi prayer room remains. Confiscated in 1950, this poorly maintained structure now houses a dry cleaning shop owned by a Palestinian refugee of 1948. Tuzla's community of 112 has no place to pray.
Derventa Synagogue: Built in 1911 in the neo-Moorish style, it has been altered into a private house. Across the street is a spring called "Temple," which possibly served as the mikveh (ritual bath). No Jews remain in Derventa.
Sisak synagogue: Built in 1880 and confiscated in 1949, the synagogue is currently used as a music school.
Entering Croatia, researchers documented a synagogue in Osijek. Prior to World War II the population of the Jewish community numbered more than 3,000. The city had been the center of the Zionist movement in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. The destruction of the Jewish community in 1941, failed to extinguish all Jewish life. Currently, there are 120 members who have a community center and prayer hall where religious services are held for the holidays.
| The lower Osijek synagogue, built in 1903, was converted in 1970 into a Pentecostal church. Although crosses decorate the main facade, there are also Tablets of the Law over the entrance. The building, combining neo-Romanesque with neo-Moorish elements, has two side towers with separate entrances and staircases which once led to the women's galleries. Its Torah ark crowned by Tablets of the Law, remains in place, as well as the Stars of David in the round windows of the women's gallery. |  |
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The synagogue complex in Daruvar, including the Rabbi's house and "heder," date to 1860. The synagogue, confiscated in 1948, was radically reconstructed in 1951 and converted into a theater; all Jewish symbols were removed. The synagogue is presently undergoing renovation by a Pentecostal church. The research team was able to document the synagogue as well as the adjoining Rabbi's house, which is currently empty. The accompanying archival photograph shows the original appearance of the synagogue. |
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Cemetery Chapels
The expedition team documented five cemetery chapels, all in Croatia, in Slavonski Brod, Dakovo, Vukovar and Osijek. These structures remain, in many places, the only witness to the once thriving Jewish communities.
The chapel of a cemetery in Slavonski Brod established in 1880 by a predominantly Ashkenazi community is seriously neglected. In Djakovo, the cemetery chapel and its accompanying 700 tombstones are all that remain of the Jewish community. A memorial to the victims of the nearby concentration camp is located in the center of its neo-Romanesque chapel.
The cemetery in Vukovar, established in 1850, is well kept. The chapel, an impressive structure, was damaged in the last war, following a long period of neglect. The modest chapel in the lower town of Osijek, established in 1860, has been repaired after damages in the last war, however no decoration survives.
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The neo-classic cemetery chapel of upper Osijek emerged relatively unscathed from recent warfare. It is situated amongst 500-600 monuments in a cemetery dating back to 1850. |
In addition, a total of nineteen cemeteries were surveyed, most dating from the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth century: Zenica, Travnik, Jajce, Rogatica, Visegrad, Vlasenica, Zvornik, Tuzla, Gracanica, Doboj and Derventa in Bosnia/Herzegovina and Slavonski Brod, Dakovo, Vinkovci, Vukovar, Osijek, Nasice, Daruvar and Sisak in Croatia. For the most part, tombstones are unadorned and the cemeteries are neglected. In rare cases, as in Jajce and Rogatica, the cemeteries are well tended by caretakers, who believe their work important and "good for the soul."
The news of the upcoming visit by an Israeli research team spurred a frenzied clean-up of the city garbage dump in Vlasenica, which covered the tombstones. And as they did at all cemeteries, the team recited Kaddish, the mourner's prayer, in Visegrad for the husband of Mrs. Romano, the town's sole Jewish survivor.
In every city visited, Center researchers established warm relations with local authorities who, in turn, provided access to all sites of interest. They also made contact with local archivists and private persons, through whom they obtained archival photographs and documents concerning the sites they were documenting as well as synagogues no longer in existence. The team also obtained valuable video footage concerning Jewish heritage in Croatia from Croatian television.
The havoc and uncertainty of the recent civil war, has forced Jews to reconsider their future in the Balkans. Those who have decided to stay lack the financial strength to protect or maintain the heritage of the once rich and numerous Jewish communities. Without energetic measures on the part of the world Jewish community, the fate of priceless examples of Jewish art will be sealed.
This expedition was made possible with the generous support of Steven Spielberg's Righteous Persons Foundation in cooperation with the Project Judaica Foundation of Washington, D.C., Mark Talisman, President, and UNESCO. The project 'Documenting Jewish Art in Former Yugoslavia' was supported by a grant from The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Inc.|
HEBREW ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS IN THE AUSTRIAN NATIONAL LIBRARY OF VIENNA Adapted from a lecture presented by Michal Sternthal, Expedition Head, at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, December 13, 1999. Two years ago the Austrian National Library in Vienna (Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek) and the Center for Jewish Art embarked on a mutual project to catalogue the Hebrew illuminated manuscripts in the Vienna collection. The library's significant collection includes forty-one Hebrew illuminated manuscripts made up of Bibles and prayer books, books of halakhah (Jewish law) and Talmud, science, philosophy and history books as well as two marriage contracts (ketubbot). In 1998 the Center sent a graduate student researcher, Alissa Fried, to survey and begin documentation of the Hebrew illuminated manuscripts in the library. Last summer a second team, including Michal Sternthal and Yaffa Levy traveled to Vienna to continue this important work. They documented six manuscripts, some of which consisted of several pages of elaborately decorated panels. The researchers were warmly received and greatly assisted in their work by Dr. Andreas Fingernagel, researcher of medieval manuscripts in the Austrian National Library, Prof. Dr. Gamillscheg, Director of the Department of Manuscripts and Dr. Eva Irblich, Deputy Director. One of the most important Jewish manuscripts in the Vienna library is the Krems Ketubbah, the earliest known illuminated Ashkenazi marriage contract, and also the earliest known ketubbah depicting a human figure. This 1391/2 marriage contract was found cut into four pieces, inside the bindings of two Gospel Books. The details, such as the day and month of the marriage and the amount of the dowry, were cut from the center of the contract. The location of the wedding is partially missing as well. All that remains of the city's name is the ending "REMS," in the second line on the left. This led researchers to conclude that the contract was written in Krems, "KREMS" in Hebrew, which had a prominent and flourishing Jewish community during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
Documentation of Hebrew
illuminated manuscripts was carried out with the generous support of the Österreichische
Nationalbank in Vienna and the Fanny and Leo Koerner Charitable Trust, Cambridge,
Massachusetts. |
|||||||||||||||||||||
Notes 1. David Davidovitch, "Illuminated Ketubbot," Encyclopedia Judaica, vol. 10, 1974, col. 930. back 2. Shalom Sabar, "The Beginning of Ketubbah Decoration in Italy; Venice in the late 16th to early 17th Centuries," Jewish Art 12/13, 1986/7, p.101, note 41. back 3. Gabrielle Sed-Rajna, "Filigree Ornaments in Fourteenth-Century Hebrew Manuscripts of the Upper Rhine," Jewish Art 12/13, 1986-87, pp. 45-54. back 4. Bezalel Narkiss, Ashkenazi Manuscripts in the British Isles (to be published). back 5. London, B.L., MS. Add. 22413. The other two are: Budapest, Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Kaufmann Collection, MS. A 384; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Mich. 619. back |
|||||||||||||||||||||
)
The Center of Jewish Art
and the
Institut fuer Baugeschichte at the Technische Universitaet
Braunschweig, carried out a joint expedition in June and July 1999. The purpose of the
expedition was to document former synagogues in Sachsen-Anhalt, Sachsen and Thüringen
using the most innovative techniques in measuring, including the laser distance
measurement system in combination with the tachymeter and trigomat program, as well as the
massband system (trigomatsystem). These systems were developed by Dr. Friedrich Balck of
the Technische Universitaet Clausthal. Utilizing these techniques, researchers documented
the Woerlitz Synagogue in Sachsen-Anhalt, the cemetery chapel and Jewish cemetery in
Plauen, Saxony, and the Aschenhausen Synagogue in Thuringia.
The German and Israeli teams also had the opportunity to review the progress of the documentation project, which has been in process since 1994.
In this region alone researchers documented seven existing structures in Saxony and seven in Thueringen. Archival research revealed three additional structures in Saxony and nine in Thuringia.
Researchers documenting the Woerlitz Synagogue in Sachsen-Anhalt dated 1789.
Pictured here are members of the expedition team from left to right: Ivan Ceresnjes from the Center for Jewish Art; Prof. Dr. Harmen Thies; Dr. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin; Zoya Arshavsky from the Center for Jewish Art; Katrin Kessler, Ulrich Knufinke, Simon Paulus, all from the Institut fuer Baugeschichte (Technische Universitaet Braunschweig); and Dr. Friedrich Balck (Technische Universitaet Clausthal).
Documenting Synagogues in Sachsen-Anhalt is supported by the Alfred Freiherr von Oppenheim-Stiftung, Cologne Documenting Synagogues in Saxony and Thuringia is supported by German-Israel Foundation for Scientific Research and Development.INDEX: Architecture
Rausing Trust of London
|
|
The Choral Synagogue in Drohobych, 1842-1865 |
With the help of the Rausing Trust of London, the Center was able to carry out an in depth study of the synagogues of Drohobych, Ukraine. The earliest record of Jews in Drohobych is 1404, just a decade after the first written record of the town itself. The buildings which the Center documented date from the 1840s on, and represent the last stage of evolution of the Drohobych community, from emancipation to annihilation. The Choral (Great) Synagogue pictured here, built between 1842-1865, was returned to the Jewish community in 1993 and is again being used as a synagogue.
Getty Grant Program
|
|
Synagogue in Chechelnik, Ukraine, late 18th c. |
The Getty Grant Program has given a gift to the Center for Jewish Art to document the Jewish built heritage in the Ukraine. The three year gift, which is allowing the Center to document research and computerize forty synagogues in Ukraine, is a significant contribution to the Center's virtual preservation of one of the greatest Jewish communities in the Diaspora. The Great Synagogue of Chechel'nik was built in the second half of the eighteenth century.
Clore Foundation
|
|
Batei Rand Synagogue, interior |
The Clore Foundation's generous grant allowed the Center to document synagogues in Jerusalem's Lev Ha'Ir neighborhood. This historic area, built in the late 1800s as a result of overcrowding in the Old City, reflects the diverse multi-cultural nature of Israeli society.
The Evelyn Stieber Bernstein Scholarship
Evelyn Stieber Bernstein, a great friend and supporter of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has established a scholarship in Jewish Art this year in honor of her granddaughter Deborah Putnoi who is a gifted artist in her own right. Evelyn established a chair for cancer research in honor of her first husband, Otto Stieber. In addition, she has given generously to many university programs, including the Melton Center for Jewish Education, the Rothberg International School, and the Lafer Center for Women's Studies. Her late second husband, Sol Bernstein, continued the tradition of generosity to the University and became a Founder. Evelyn, today, is an active leader in the Hollywood/Hallandale Chapter of the Florida Region of the American Friends of the Hebrew University. Her most recent significant involvement with the Hebrew University was the dedication of the Evelyn and Otto Stieber Observation Plaza for which she was a major contributor along with the Florida Friends of the Hebrew University.
 |
Scholarship recipient Michal Sternthal with Evelyn Stieber Bernstein |
The recipient of the Evelyn Stieber Bernstein Scholarship for the 1999-2000 academic year is Michal Sternthal, Head of the Hebrew Illuminated Manuscript Section of the Index of Jewish Art. Michal was the recipient of the 1997 Mordechai Narkiss Prize for Outstanding Research in Jewish Art. She has been a member of the Center’s research staff for five years and is writing her master’s thesis on the Regensburg Pentateuch, which was produced in southern Germany in c.1300. Michal spent two weeks last summer at the Austrian National Library in Vienna where she documented the rare Ashkenazi Ketubbah of Krems, and significant thirteenth and fourteenth-century manuscripts attributed to two important schools of Medieval Hebrew and Latin manuscripts: the school of filigree manuscripts of the Upper Rhine region and that of manuscripts from around Lake Constance.
The Madeleine and Albert Erlanger Scholarship
Professors
Madeleine and Albert Erlanger of Zurich, Jewish art enthusiasts, have been devoted
supporters of the Center for Jewish Art for many years, donating six scholarships since
1995, as well as supporting the Center's Save-a-Synagogue project. Orit Sehayek-Avital, a
master's student in Art History and researcher in the Ancient Art Section of the Index of
Jewish Art, is the 1999-2000 recipient of the Madeleine and Albert Erlanger Scholarship.
Orit has a B.A. in History of Art and Archeology from the Hebrew University, and is
studying for her master’s degree in the art of Ancient Israel and the surrounding
areas during the Roman and Byzantine period. This year she has been documenting sarcophagi
from Beit She’arim, where she is also studying the burial niches and cubicula.
The Tania Finkelstein Scholarship
The Tania Finkelstein Scholarship recipient for the 1998-1999 academic year is Dalia-Ruth Levy, a graduate student in the Hebrew Illuminated Manuscript Section of the Index of Jewish Art. Her major field of interest and topic for her master’s thesis is decorative micrography on confronting pages between quires in Bibles. She presented a paper on the development of this system at the Center's Sixth International Seminar. Dalia-Ruth is currently documenting Italian and Ashkenazi Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts at the National Library in Givat Ram. She recently documented a Passover Haggadah from the Segre-Amar collection, signed and dated Vienna 1756, by Meshullam Simmel of Polna (Bohemia)
Tania and her husband Jacobo Furman, together own one of the most important collections of Judaica in the world. They are great supporters of the Center and this is the second year the Tania Finkelstein Scholarship has been granted to one of our talented graduate students.
The Asea Furman Scholarship
The Asea Furman Scholarship was established by Jacobo Furman of Santiago Chile in 1991 in memory of his late wife, Asea, who was a collector of Jewish Art and a dedicated friend of the Center. The 1999 scholarship recipient is Arina Laura Peri a graduate student in Art History and a new member of the Ritual Object Section of the Index of Jewish Art. Arina is working on her Master’s degree in Art History and specializing in ancient art. Since joining the Ritual Objects Section of the Index, she has participated in the project to document synagogues and ritual objects in the Lev Ha-Ir neighborhood of Jerusalem, particularly of the Aleppo community, whose Ades Synagogue in will soon be celebrating its 100th anniversary.
The Albert E. and Eva Holland Scholarship
Professor Eva Engel Holland established a
scholarship fund in memory of her late husband, Albert, in 1998. Eliad Moreh a researcher
in the Ritual Objects Section of the Index of Jewish Art, is the second recipient of this
scholarship. Eliad is currently working towards a master's degree in Art History with an
emphasis on Modern Jewish Art. An immigrant to Israel from Paris, Eliad holds a B.A. from
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Art and English Literature. This year Eliad has been
documenting ritual objects of Syrian and Lebanese communities in various places around the
country.
Professor Engel Holland, a renowned scholar of German literature is the editor of the complete writings of Moses Mendelssohn. This work which began in 1929 and interrupted in 1938, was resumed in 1972 and today numbers 33 volumes. Professor Engel Holland, who just celebrated her 80th birthday, was recently awarded Germany's "Cross of the Order of Merit, First Class" for her work on Moses Mendelssohn. Her husband, Albert, was a great educator and humanitarian who served as Vice-President of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, President of Hobart and William Smith Colleges as well as Vice-President of Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts.
The Leona Rosenberg Scholarship
Leona Rosenberg of Chicago has
been a great friend of the Center for many years. She has participated in several of the
Center's educational symposia abroad and has donated six scholarships to the Center. Irina
Chernetsky is the 1999-2000 recipient of the Leona Rosenberg Scholarship. Irina immigrated
from Moscow in 1990 and received her bachelor's degree in Art History and Sociology from
the Hebrew University. A researcher in the Index's Ritual Objects Section, Irina has been
working this year on the documentation of ritual objects of Syrian and Lebanese
communities. Irina completed her teacher's certificate this year and is working on her
master's degree in Medieval and Renaissance Art. This past summer Irina participated as a
lecturer at the Center’s summer course Teaching Jewish Tradition and Values through
Art, organized for art teachers and educators from Russia.
The Trudy Wyler-Bloch Scholarship
Erica Gideon of Zurich, a
longtime friend of the Center, recently established a scholarship in memory of her late
mother Trudy Wyler-Bloch. As a leading member of the Swiss Jewish Community, Mrs. Gideon
is helping the Center carry out a survey of synagogues in Switzerland. The recipient for
the 1999-2000 academic year is researcher Boris Khaimovich. Boris, a Ph.D. candidate has
been part of the Center’s research team since 1994 and specializes in iconography of
tombstones and synagogue decoration. He has participated in many of the Center's
documentation expeditions to Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, most recently
returning from southern Ukraine. At the Center's Sixth International Seminar he presented
a lecture on wall painting in the Chernowitz synagogue. He is currently working on the
second volume of Historical Guide to 100 Shtetls in Ukraine, which will be
published in Russian.
The Michael and Judy Steinhardt Scholarship
The Steinhardt
Scholarship in 1999 has been granted to Efrat Asaf Shapira, researcher in the Ritual Arts
Section of the Index of Jewish Art. Efrat began as a researcher for the Center for Jewish
Art after completing a bachelor's degree in Art History and Literature at Hebrew
University, and teaching art to children in and around Jerusalem for two years for the
Bronfman Foundation. She is currently completing a Master's degree at Hebrew University,
with a focus on Jewish art and iconography. Efrat's work for the Section consists of
research and documentation of sacred and ceremonial objects, which takes her to synagogues
around Israel as well as to museums, libraries and private homes. In the past year she has
worked extensively documenting synagogues and ritual objects in Jerusalem's Lev Ha'Ir
neighborhood. Efrat participated in the Center’s documentation expedition to the
island of Djerba, Tunisia in 1997, and has since been working on the research and
computerization of the material gathered.
Michael and Judy Steinhardt, Jewish art enthusiasts from New York, are dedicated to pluralistic Jewish education, and Jewish continuity. They have been great supporters of the Israel Museum and established the Steinhardt Family Foundation in Israel, which supports projects to assist children at risk. Their love and knowledge of Jewish art is reflected in their collection of Judaica. This is the third scholarship they have awarded to the Center.
The Sam and Sonia Shultz Scholarship
Aletha Simon, a long time friend of the Center, and her brothers Norman, Michael and William Schultz, have established the Sam and Sonia Shultz Scholarship in memory of their parents. Aletha first met Professor Narkiss in Kansas City in 1995. Her personal and academic interest in Jewish art led to an instant connection to the Center and she has supported the Center ever since. She has participated in two of the Center's symposia in Prague and Moravia, and in Greece.
The Sam and Sonia Shultz Scholarship has been granted this year to Einat Ron, a researcher in the Ritual Objects Section of the Index for Jewish Art. Einat participated in the Center's documentation expedition to Bulgaria in summer 1998 and has been working on inputting this and other material into the Index. In addition to her documentation work, Einat is responsible for the slide archive. Earlier this year she organized an intensive two-week course for graduate students on documenting Jewish art. During the Passover Seminar on Superstitions in Jewish Art Einat presented a lecture on "Seasons of the Year in the Book of Evronot."
Scholarship of the North American Friends of the Center for Jewish Art
In 1999, an
active group of the North American Friends of the Center for Jewish Art got off the
ground, steered by veteran friends, Marcia and Ralph Preiss, Stanley and Donna Batkin, Joe
and Sandy Lepelstadt, Henry and Sophie Olshin, Elaine and Sohier Marks, Ita and Josh Aber,
Rabbi Maurice and Ruth Corson and Reva Kirshberg. The first fruits of their efforts is the
establishment of a scholarship in Jewish Art which has been awarded to Ricki Morgenstern.
Ricki, an Art History master's degree student, has been interning at the Center since
1998. In the past year, she has been working on the computerization of the Index and her
quick and insightful grasp of the subject matter has been a great asset. Ricki has decided
to move to the Ritual Objects Section so that she can be involved in hands-on
documentation as well as research.
The highlight of the past year's activities of the North American Friends of the Center for Jewish Art was the Israeli art tour in Manhattan's Soho in October 1999. Forty participants, coming from as far as California, Washington D. C., and Pennsylvania, were given an intimate glimpse of the work of four Israeli artists while visiting their studios and a gallery. Elaine Marks noted, "Each shared some personal insight into their involvement to their present art forms. This enhanced our appreciation of their journeys and made it more meaningful to us." The wonderful afternoon concluded with a special surprise: Stanley Batkin, who organized the tour, donated a piece of Israeli art from his private collection as a door prize.
The Morris D. Baker Endowment Fund for Student Scholarships
Beverly Baker, a veteran friend of the Center, has established an Endowment Fund in memory of her husband Morris D. Baker. Beverly has already given numerous annual scholarships to the Center and decided to establish an Endowment Fund marking in perpetuity her husband’s dedication to Jewish culture and education. Morris Baker graduated from the University of Michigan's School of Architecture and was a successful developer in Windsor, Ontario. He was a serious amateur photographer as well as collector of art and photography. His involvement with Jewish causes extended to memberships of the National Executive of the Zionist Organization of America, the Jewish Community Council Unity Committee in the Detroit area, and the National Board of CLAL, the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. Beverly and her husband participated in the Center's symposia in Turkey and Provence, and Beverly participated in the Center's most recent symposium "The Ingathering of the Nations" held in Israel.
The Jack Gardner Scholarship
Jack Gardner, of Victoria, B.C.,
Canada has recently established a Family Endowment in blessed memory of his late wives,
Chaja Gardner-Jachniuk and Goldie L. Gardner. With a deep commitment to preserving the
memory of lost Jewish culture of Eastern Europe, Gardner has contributed a major gift to
student scholarships to carry out their preservation activities. Mr. Gardner who was born
in Stary Sambor, a shtetl in Ukraine, is committed to honoring the lost communities of
Ukraine by documentation, preservation and restoration of their synagogues and cemeteries.
The Lorna Scherzer Scholarship for the Preservation of Jewish Art
Lorna Scherzer of Montreal and Palm Beach, a dear friend of the Center, has recently given the Center a major gift for student scholarships. Lorna, who established the Cecile and Michael Greenberg Endowment Fund together with her siblings, is deeply committed to the preservation of Jewish culture. Her generous support of student scholarships is an expression of that dedication.
The Lillian and Harry Freedman Scholarship
Harry and Lillian Freedman of Newton, Massachusetts, ardent supporters of the Hebrew University, made a significant gift for student scholarships in 1999. The Freedmans first met Professor Narkiss in 1993 in Florida where they spontaneously pledged support of the Center's documentation work in Poland. Since then, they have given scholarships as a way of supporting the Center's efforts to preserve endangered Jewish heritage.
The Evelyn Stieber Bernstein Scholarship
Evelyn Stieber Bernstein, a great friend and supporter of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has established a scholarship in Jewish Art this year in honor of her granddaughter Deborah Putnoi who is a gifted artist in her own right. Evelyn established a chair for cancer research in honor of her first husband, Otto Stieber. In addition, she has given generously to many university programs, including the Melton Center for Jewish Education, the Rothberg International School, and the Lafer Center for Women's Studies. Her late second husband, Sol Bernstein, continued the tradition of generosity to the University and became a Founder. Evelyn, today, is an active leader in the Hollywood/Hallandale Chapter of the Florida Region of the American Friends of the Hebrew University. Her most recent significant involvement with the Hebrew University was the dedication of the Evelyn and Otto Stieber Observation Plaza for which she was a major contributor along with the Florida Friends of the Hebrew University.
|
Scholarship recipient Michal Sternthal with Evelyn Stieber Bernstein |
The recipient of the Evelyn Stieber Bernstein Scholarship for the 1999-2000 academic year is Michal Sternthal, Head of the Hebrew Illuminated Manuscript Section of the Index of Jewish Art. Michal was the recipient of the 1997 Mordechai Narkiss Prize for Outstanding Research in Jewish Art. She has been a member of the Center’s research staff for five years and is writing her master’s thesis on the Regensburg Pentateuch, which was produced in southern Germany in c.1300. Michal spent two weeks last summer at the Austrian National Library in Vienna where she documented the rare Ashkenazi Ketubbah of Krems, and significant thirteenth and fourteenth-century manuscripts attributed to two important schools of Medieval Hebrew and Latin manuscripts: the school of filigree manuscripts of the Upper Rhine region and that of manuscripts from around Lake Constance.
The Madeleine and Albert Erlanger Scholarship
Professors
Madeleine and Albert Erlanger of Zurich, Jewish art enthusiasts, have been devoted
supporters of the Center for Jewish Art for many years, donating six scholarships since
1995, as well as supporting the Center's Save-a-Synagogue project. Orit Sehayek-Avital, a
master's student in Art History and researcher in the Ancient Art Section of the Index of
Jewish Art, is the 1999-2000 recipient of the Madeleine and Albert Erlanger Scholarship.
Orit has a B.A. in History of Art and Archeology from the Hebrew University, and is
studying for her master’s degree in the art of Ancient Israel and the surrounding
areas during the Roman and Byzantine period. This year she has been documenting sarcophagi
from Beit She’arim, where she is also studying the burial niches and cubicula.
The Tania Finkelstein Scholarship
The Tania Finkelstein Scholarship recipient for the 1998-1999 academic year is Dalia-Ruth Levy, a graduate student in the Hebrew Illuminated Manuscript Section of the Index of Jewish Art. Her major field of interest and topic for her master’s thesis is decorative micrography on confronting pages between quires in Bibles. She presented a paper on the development of this system at the Center's Sixth International Seminar. Dalia-Ruth is currently documenting Italian and Ashkenazi Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts at the National Library in Givat Ram. She recently documented a Passover Haggadah from the Segre-Amar collection, signed and dated Vienna 1756, by Meshullam Simmel of Polna (Bohemia)
Tania and her husband Jacobo Furman, together own one of the most important collections of Judaica in the world. They are great supporters of the Center and this is the second year the Tania Finkelstein Scholarship has been granted to one of our talented graduate students.
The Asea Furman Scholarship
The Asea Furman Scholarship was established by Jacobo Furman of Santiago Chile in 1991 in memory of his late wife, Asea, who was a collector of Jewish Art and a dedicated friend of the Center. The 1999 scholarship recipient is Arina Laura Peri a graduate student in Art History and a new member of the Ritual Object Section of the Index of Jewish Art. Arina is working on her Master’s degree in Art History and specializing in ancient art. Since joining the Ritual Objects Section of the Index, she has participated in the project to document synagogues and ritual objects in the Lev Ha-Ir neighborhood of Jerusalem, particularly of the Aleppo community, whose Ades Synagogue in will soon be celebrating its 100th anniversary.
The Albert E. and Eva Holland Scholarship
Professor Eva Engel Holland established a
scholarship fund in memory of her late husband, Albert, in 1998. Eliad Moreh a researcher
in the Ritual Objects Section of the Index of Jewish Art, is the second recipient of this
scholarship. Eliad is currently working towards a master's degree in Art History with an
emphasis on Modern Jewish Art. An immigrant to Israel from Paris, Eliad holds a B.A. from
the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Art and English Literature. This year Eliad has been
documenting ritual objects of Syrian and Lebanese communities in various places around the
country.
Professor Engel Holland, a renowned scholar of German literature is the editor of the complete writings of Moses Mendelssohn. This work which began in 1929 and interrupted in 1938, was resumed in 1972 and today numbers 33 volumes. Professor Engel Holland, who just celebrated her 80th birthday, was recently awarded Germany's "Cross of the Order of Merit, First Class" for her work on Moses Mendelssohn. Her husband, Albert, was a great educator and humanitarian who served as Vice-President of Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, President of Hobart and William Smith Colleges as well as Vice-President of Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts.
The Leona Rosenberg Scholarship
Leona Rosenberg of Chicago has
been a great friend of the Center for many years. She has participated in several of the
Center's educational symposia abroad and has donated six scholarships to the Center. Irina
Chernetsky is the 1999-2000 recipient of the Leona Rosenberg Scholarship. Irina immigrated
from Moscow in 1990 and received her bachelor's degree in Art History and Sociology from
the Hebrew University. A researcher in the Index's Ritual Objects Section, Irina has been
working this year on the documentation of ritual objects of Syrian and Lebanese
communities. Irina completed her teacher's certificate this year and is working on her
master's degree in Medieval and Renaissance Art. This past summer Irina participated as a
lecturer at the Center’s summer course Teaching Jewish Tradition and Values through
Art, organized for art teachers and educators from Russia.
The Trudy Wyler-Bloch Scholarship
Erica Gideon of Zurich, a
longtime friend of the Center, recently established a scholarship in memory of her late
mother Trudy Wyler-Bloch. As a leading member of the Swiss Jewish Community, Mrs. Gideon
is helping the Center carry out a survey of synagogues in Switzerland. The recipient for
the 1999-2000 academic year is researcher Boris Khaimovich. Boris, a Ph.D. candidate has
been part of the Center’s research team since 1994 and specializes in iconography of
tombstones and synagogue decoration. He has participated in many of the Center's
documentation expeditions to Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, most recently
returning from southern Ukraine. At the Center's Sixth International Seminar he presented
a lecture on wall painting in the Chernowitz synagogue. He is currently working on the
second volume of Historical Guide to 100 Shtetls in Ukraine, which will be
published in Russian.
The Michael and Judy Steinhardt Scholarship
The Steinhardt
Scholarship in 1999 has been granted to Efrat Asaf Shapira, researcher in the Ritual Arts
Section of the Index of Jewish Art. Efrat began as a researcher for the Center for Jewish
Art after completing a bachelor's degree in Art History and Literature at Hebrew
University, and teaching art to children in and around Jerusalem for two years for the
Bronfman Foundation. She is currently completing a Master's degree at Hebrew University,
with a focus on Jewish art and iconography. Efrat's work for the Section consists of
research and documentation of sacred and ceremonial objects, which takes her to synagogues
around Israel as well as to museums, libraries and private homes. In the past year she has
worked extensively documenting synagogues and ritual objects in Jerusalem's Lev Ha'Ir
neighborhood. Efrat participated in the Center’s documentation expedition to the
island of Djerba, Tunisia in 1997, and has since been working on the research and
computerization of the material gathered.
Michael and Judy Steinhardt, Jewish art enthusiasts from New York, are dedicated to pluralistic Jewish education, and Jewish continuity. They have been great supporters of the Israel Museum and established the Steinhardt Family Foundation in Israel, which supports projects to assist children at risk. Their love and knowledge of Jewish art is reflected in their collection of Judaica. This is the third scholarship they have awarded to the Center.
The Sam and Sonia Shultz Scholarship
Aletha Simon, a long time friend of the Center, and her brothers Norman, Michael and William Schultz, have established the Sam and Sonia Shultz Scholarship in memory of their parents. Aletha first met Professor Narkiss in Kansas City in 1995. Her personal and academic interest in Jewish art led to an instant connection to the Center and she has supported the Center ever since. She has participated in two of the Center's symposia in Prague and Moravia, and in Greece.
The Sam and Sonia Shultz Scholarship has been granted this year to Einat Ron, a researcher in the Ritual Objects Section of the Index for Jewish Art. Einat participated in the Center's documentation expedition to Bulgaria in summer 1998 and has been working on inputting this and other material into the Index. In addition to her documentation work, Einat is responsible for the slide archive. Earlier this year she organized an intensive two-week course for graduate students on documenting Jewish art. During the Passover Seminar on Superstitions in Jewish Art Einat presented a lecture on "Seasons of the Year in the Book of Evronot."
Scholarship of the North American Friends of the Center for Jewish Art
In 1999, an
active group of the North American Friends of the Center for Jewish Art got off the
ground, steered by veteran friends, Marcia and Ralph Preiss, Stanley and Donna Batkin, Joe
and Sandy Lepelstadt, Henry and Sophie Olshin, Elaine and Sohier Marks, Ita and Josh Aber,
Rabbi Maurice and Ruth Corson and Reva Kirshberg. The first fruits of their efforts is the
establishment of a scholarship in Jewish Art which has been awarded to Ricki Morgenstern.
Ricki, an Art History master's degree student, has been interning at the Center since
1998. In the past year, she has been working on the computerization of the Index and her
quick and insightful grasp of the subject matter has been a great asset. Ricki has decided
to move to the Ritual Objects Section so that she can be involved in hands-on
documentation as well as research.
The highlight of the past year's activities of the North American Friends of the Center for Jewish Art was the Israeli art tour in Manhattan's Soho in October 1999. Forty participants, coming from as far as California, Washington D. C., and Pennsylvania, were given an intimate glimpse of the work of four Israeli artists while visiting their studios and a gallery. Elaine Marks noted, "Each shared some personal insight into their involvement to their present art forms. This enhanced our appreciation of their journeys and made it more meaningful to us." The wonderful afternoon concluded with a special surprise: Stanley Batkin, who organized the tour, donated a piece of Israeli art from his private collection as a door prize.
The Morris D. Baker Endowment Fund for Student Scholarships
Beverly Baker, a veteran friend of the Center, has established an Endowment Fund in memory of her husband Morris D. Baker. Beverly has already given numerous annual scholarships to the Center and decided to establish an Endowment Fund marking in perpetuity her husband’s dedication to Jewish culture and education. Morris Baker graduated from the University of Michigan's School of Architecture and was a successful developer in Windsor, Ontario. He was a serious amateur photographer as well as collector of art and photography. His involvement with Jewish causes extended to memberships of the National Executive of the Zionist Organization of America, the Jewish Community Council Unity Committee in the Detroit area, and the National Board of CLAL, the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership. Beverly and her husband participated in the Center's symposia in Turkey and Provence, and Beverly participated in the Center's most recent symposium "The Ingathering of the Nations" held in Israel.
The Jack Gardner Scholarship
Jack Gardner, of Victoria, B.C.,
Canada has recently established a Family Endowment in blessed memory of his late wives,
Chaja Gardner-Jachniuk and Goldie L. Gardner. With a deep commitment to preserving the
memory of lost Jewish culture of Eastern Europe, Gardner has contributed a major gift to
student scholarships to carry out their preservation activities. Mr. Gardner who was born
in Stary Sambor, a shtetl in Ukraine, is committed to honoring the lost communities of
Ukraine by documentation, preservation and restoration of their synagogues and cemeteries.
The Lorna Scherzer Scholarship for the Preservation of Jewish Art
Lorna Scherzer of Montreal and Palm Beach, a dear friend of the Center, has recently given the Center a major gift for student scholarships. Lorna, who established the Cecile and Michael Greenberg Endowment Fund together with her siblings, is deeply committed to the preservation of Jewish culture. Her generous support of student scholarships is an expression of that dedication.
The Lillian and Harry Freedman Scholarship
Harry and Lillian Freedman of Newton, Massachusetts, ardent supporters of the Hebrew University, made a significant gift for student scholarships in 1999. The Freedmans first met Professor Narkiss in 1993 in Florida where they spontaneously pledged support of the Center's documentation work in Poland. Since then, they have given scholarships as a way of supporting the Center's efforts to preserve endangered Jewish heritage.
JEWISH ART IN ISRAEL:
The Ingathering of the Nations – A Symposium
The Center for Jewish Art has conducted educational symposia in Europe and Turkey since 1987 to explore the Jewish art treasures and visual traditions of regions where large Jewish communities once thrived. In celebration of Israel’s 50th anniversary, the Center for Jewish Art held its seventh symposium in Israel in October 1998, where participants were given the opportunity to view the wide variety of Jewish art, artifacts and synagogues in eight intensive days of lectures and touring. Thirty-five people from abroad joined scholars and students of the Hebrew University to visit some of the oldest synagogues in Israel, from the ancient synagogue in Susiya, to Mario Botta's Cymbalista Synagogue at Tel Aviv University. They were treated to an intimate picture of the artistic traditions of the mosaic of cultures which make up the modern State of Israel. One of the participants, Rita Rosen Poley, wrote the following article which was published in the Jewish Exponent, Philadelphia.
I am not a person who enjoys organized travel. I have always sought the path less traveled and have especially reveled in private moments spent discovering new territory with only my nearest and dearest along for the journey. However, last fall–reluctantly, and with a great deal of trepidation–I decided to jettison my independence for the experience of group travel.
What could tempt me to embark upon a trip with strangers replete with bus schedule, lectures and organized tours? That is easy to answer. As much as I love the serendipity of traveling alone, I also love Israel, art, archaeology and Jewish art history. Therefore, when another travel brochure arrived in the mail from the Center for Jewish Art of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, I was hooked.
For many years, I had collected the Center's travel brochures. I fantasized about seeing Turkey, Greece or Prague in search of Jewish art treasures, guided by experts in the field. After the fact, I eagerly read accounts of these trips in the Center's newsletters, a bit sorry that I had missed an opportunity. But no, I would remain independent.
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Participants of the Ingathering of the Nations Symposium in front of the Cochin synagogue of the Indian community at Moshav Nevatim |
Finally, here was my chance. I was ready for a different type of travel. I would learn as well as play, meet new people and experience Israel in a way I had not before. After taking 18 trips to the Holy Land, perhaps even I had something to learn.
The weeklong trip was a learning seminar, "Jewish Art in Israel: The Ingathering of the Nations." It was timed to take advantage of the beautiful fall season and was organized as part of the nationwide celebration of Israel's 50th anniversary.
An international mix
My first hurdle was meeting my fellow travelers. Who would I spend this next week with, night and day? Happily, the different personalities of the 20 or so participants contributed to the wonderful experience of that week. They were an international mix of curious people. Some were serious collectors of Judaica in search of a deeper understanding of their precious objects. Some were museum professionals seeking a new perspective on their fields. Others were frequent visitors to Israel, with no particular interest in art, but in search of a new way to experience Israel. They came from places as diverse as Montreal, Amsterdam, South Africa and the United States. Many were repeat travelers with the Center. They had taken those trips to Turkey, Greece and Prague that I had passed up. They were eager for more.
The Center provided a schedule that was a masterful combination of experiences of the new and the old. Our daily log consisted of visits to sites as modern as the Israel today and as old as the Israel of the Bible. Our guides were as mindful of our collective intellectual appetites as they were of our appetite for gastronomic delights. Happily, Israel is no longer a gourmet’s idea of exile.
Each day began with a short formal lecture that set the tone for the trip. A centerpiece of the program was our many visits to synagogues of the various communities that make Israel such a fascinating culture.
While we were all familiar with the Ashkenazic synagogues of Mea She’arim and the mystical, jewel-like synagogues of Safed, we were surprised by the synagogues of more recent immigrants to Israel.
Our visit to an Ethiopian synagogue and our meeting with the communal leader, the Kes, was one highlight. We also visited the Libyan synagogue in Moshay Zetan, and the Cochin synagogue of the Indian community at Moshav Nevatim. There, we were served a traditional Indian dessert consisting of cakes and an almost ambrosial elixir, a rice tea infused with spices and honey.
Visit to the Cochin Synagogue in Nevatim.Pictures, Ariella Amar, Head of the Ritual Art Section of the Index, with symposium participants |
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Another treat was the informative knowledge of our lecturers. In every case, we learned how the customs, architecture and art of immigrant communities were being adapted to life in Israel.
At the Italian synagogue in Jerusalem, we were lucky to be able to attend a Shabbat service. The service was true to the Italian prayer style, and was melodic and graceful in a strangely beautiful way.
The interior of the synagogue, reconstructed from its previous incarnation in Italy, is now part of a complex that once was the site of a German school. Visitors may also visit the adjacent museum of Italian Judaica.
Moving away from religious sites, we traveled north to Kibbutz Ein Harod's art museum. For those interested in the history of contemporary art, this museum is a must see. It was the first rural museum in the country and the first museum of the kibbutz movement, established before the founding of the modern state of Israel.
The Ein Harod Museum was the vision of artist Chaim Atar. Its first incarnation was as an "art corner" in the artist's small wooden studio. Both he and the kibbutz membership were visionaries in seeing the importance of art to this developing nation under siege.
The current museum building was started in 1948 and has become a site for international pilgrimage among architects. The collection consists of some 10,000 objects and a large research library.
As we approached the end of our trip, we once again were surprised by a decidedly different turn in the agenda. We visited the new headquarters of Sotheby's auction house in Tel Aviv. The building is a wonderfully restored former historic residence. While there, we were treated to a delicious lunch buffet, a behind-the-scenes lecture and a preview tour of Judaica and Israeli auctions.
If you choose, you can recreate much of my trip. Safed is there for all to see, as are Mea Shearim, the synagogues at ancient Susiya and Beit Alpha, and even the museum at Ein Harod. However your trip will pale in comparison to mine. As much as my fellow travelers contributed to my enjoyment of this trip, our guides and lecturers –– the scholars of the Center for Jewish Art – are true ambassadors of Israel.
The Center is actively engaged in the education of a new generation of scholars in the field of Jewish art. As such, along with its activities to preserve and document Jewish treasures throughout the world, it fills a gap that was left by the Holocaust.
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Symposium participants enjoy performance by Bukharian dancers at festive evening at the Hebrew University |
Graduates of the Center are in important positions in museums and universities throughout the world. Others are among the staff of the world's most important auction houses, Christie's and Sotheby's. For one precious week, I was lucky to be able to soak up their knowledge.
Now, to plan for that trip to Alsace, France that the Center is sponsoring in September 2000....
Rita Rosen Poley
Professor Bezalel Narkiss:
A National Treasure
On Independence Day, April 21, 1999, our own Professor
Bezalel Narkiss founder of the Center for Jewish Art and its Director for over a decade,
was awarded the Israel Prize for Art History. This prestigious award is in recognition for
his life achievements in the field of Jewish art and for his prolific work in the area of
Medieval and Renaissance Hebrew illuminated manuscripts.
Currently the Nicolas Landau Professor Emeritus of Art History at the Hebrew University and the Chairman of the Center for Jewish Art's academic committee, Prof. Narkiss began his academic career in the Department of History at the Hebrew University. He turned to the study of art history upon his father's death in 1957. The elder Narkiss was the founder and director of the Bezalel Museum, a collection which later served as the base for the founding of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Intent on enlarging upon his knowledge of art, Narkiss pursued a course of study in Medieval art at London University's Warburg Institute. After receiving his Doctorate in 1963, he returned to the Hebrew University and became one of the founders of the Department of Art History.
Prof. Narkiss' work in Jewish art has established this field as a true academic discipline. Among his most important works are Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts (1969), The Golden Haggadah (1970), Armenian Treasures of Jerusalem (1979), Hebrew Illuminated Manuscripts in the British Isles: Spanish and Portuguese Manuscripts (1982), The Kennicott Bible (1985), The Worms Mahzor (1985), and Illuminations of Hebrew Bibles of Leningrad (1990).
In 1968 he established together with Prof. Gabrielle Sed-Rajna the Index of Jewish Art, starting with manuscripts, the first volume of which was published in 1976. In 1974, he founded and edited the Journal of Jewish Art, an annual which continues to publish the latest work in the field. In 1979 Prof. Narkiss established the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University, a project encompassing all aspects of Jewish material culture from ancient times to the present. The Index currently includes documentation of tens of thousands of objects ranging from illuminated manuscripts, ritual objects, archaeology modern art, funerary monuments and architecture of synagogues.
An ambassador of scholarship and methodology in the field of Jewish art, Prof. Narkiss has been a Senior Fellow at Harvard University's Dumbarton Oaks Center for Byzantine Study in Washington, D.C., at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and the CNRS in Paris. He was a guest professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York and at Brown University. In 1997-98, Prof. Narkiss was the Samuel H. Kress Professor in the Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. and in 1998-99, a visiting professor at Princeton University.
In addition to scores of articles and books on art – and Jewish art, in particular – Prof. Narkiss has inspired hundreds of students, curators and collectors to pursue excellence in the field of Art History. The Israel Prize is a fitting recognition of Prof. Narkiss' multi-faceted role in preserving the rich artistic heritage of the Jewish people.
The Sixth International Seminar on Jewish Art
Scripture and Picture:
The Bible in Jewish, Christian and Islamic Art
The Sixth International Seminar of the Center for Jewish Art, which took place in Jerusalem from June 13-17, 1999, explored the use of Biblical images and themes in Jewish, Christian and Islamic Art. Some five hundred scholars, researchers, educators and curators from twenty countries, including the United States, Canada, France, Italy, Russia, Turkey, as well as countries as diverse as Mexico, Korea and Zimbabwe, attended 140 engaging lectures in which scholars discussed the ways the three faiths have interpreted the message of Biblical revelation in their art.
"By searching our own artistic roots and examining the influence of the Bible on the visual heritage of other cultures and faiths, we affirm what we have in common rather than what divides us," said Dr. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, Director of the Center for Jewish Art. "In this way we are building bridges between nations towards a new culture of religions."
The extensive range of themes addressed by the conference chaired by Professor Elisheva Revel-Neher, of the Department of the History of Art of the Hebrew University, included topics such as: The Origins of Bible Illustration; the Bible in Medieval Christian Iconography; Biblical Figures in Jewish, Christian and Islamic Art; Women in the Bible, Women and the Bible; Biblical Inspiration in Architecture; and The Bible as Inspiration in Modern Jewish Art.
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Prof. Gabrielle Sed-Rajna and Prof. Elisheva Revel-Neher, Chairperson of the Sixth International Seminar on Jewish Art, with President Ezer Weizman at a reception for Seminar participants at the President’s residence. |
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The sessions devoted to The Bible in Islamic Art were among the highlights of the seminar and, for the first time, Islamic scholars from Turkey participated in one of the Center’s international seminars. Professor Priscilla Soucek of New York University, a member of the Steering Committee presented the keynote lecture titled: Signs and Symbols: Biblical Traditions in Islamic Art. Dr. Serpil Bagçi of Hacettepe Üniversitesi, Ankara, presented a lecture titled: Solomon in Ottoman Visual Culture, in which she explored the particularly “Ottoman” image of Solomon as it developed in conjunction with Ottoman textual images. Professor Zeren Tanindi from Uludag Üniversitesi, Bursa, Turkey discussed the images of Maryam (Miriam) in three fourteenth century Qur’ans. According to Tanindi, the illustrations reflect a particular fascination with this Biblical figure during this period.
A special session was held on June 15, to honor Professor Bezalel Narkiss, 1999 Israel Prize laureate, and founder of the Center for Jewish Art. Following the warm address by Ambassador Moshe Arad, Vice President, the Hebrew University, Dr. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin payed homage to Narkiss, with a historical overview of the Center for Jewish Art. Also contributing to this session was Professor C. Michael Kauffmann, former director of the Courtauld Institute of Art in London who lectured on: The Old Testament in Anglo-Saxon Art. Citing the recently published Byzantine Octateuchs by the late Kurt Weitzmann and himself, Professor Massimo Bernabo of the University of Florence noted that this cycle, which originated in a Christian milieu, included a number of early Jewish pictorial models.
Among the other highlights of the five-day Seminar, was the plenary session devoted to the Origins of Bible Illustration. In his lecture Jewish Sources of the Ashburnham Pentateuch, Professor Narkiss discussed the influences present in the Ashburnham Pentateuch, proposing that this early Latin manuscript containing many midrashic iconographical elements may have been modeled on a Jewish manuscript, an illuminated Aramaic Pentateuch or its paraphrase. In the same session, Professor Gabrielle Sed-Rajna of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris, spoke about the development of biblical illustration in her lecture: Thoughts on the Origins and the Formation of Bible Illustration.
Also addressing the plenary session were Professor David Wright of the University of California, Berkeley, in a lecture titled: The Quedlingburg Itala and the Beginnings of Illustrated Biblical Manuscripts, and Josef Engemann of the University of Salzburg, lecturing on: Methodological Problems Regarding the Interpretation of Biblical Scenes in Early Christian Art.
A very interesting session dedicated to the Song of Songs, featured two lectures entitled: The Liturgy of Love: Song of Songs in Italian Art. Princeton University Professor Marilyn Aronberg Lavin discussed the works of Cimabue located in the apse of the Church of San Francesco in Assisi, and Professor Irving Lavin of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, examined the work of Michelangelo in the Medici Chapel of San Lorenzo in Florence.
Architecture was a subject featured in some of the lectures. Professor Walter Cahn of Yale University, a leading member of the Steering Committee, explored in his lecture: Architecture, Exegesis, Symbol, the relation between biblical interpretation and the practice of architecture, particularly in works connected with the circle of the Victorines in the twelfth century. In a lecture titled: The Temple Vision of Ezekiel and the Russian Sculptural Decoration of the 12th Century, Dr. Alexei Lidov of the Centre for Eastern Christian Culture, Moscow, hypothesized that the appearance of an unusual architectural type of Russian church in the mid-twelfth century in the capital city of Vladimir, was inspired by the symbolic image of the Heavenly Jerusalem in the vision of Ezekiel.
The sections devoted to biblical images in contemporary art included a lecture by University of California, Los Angeles Professor Albert Boime: Belshazzar’s Feast: Anglo-American Visions of the Apocalypse. Professor Boime presented the work of two artists, John Martin and Washington Allston, and discussed the influence of the prophet Daniel in their interpretations of Belshazzar’s feast. Professor Matthew Baigell of Rutgers University in his lecture Ben Shahn’s Biblical Imagery, discussed Ben Shahn’s work after 1948, suggesting that the artist experienced a spiritual crisis after the founding of the State of Israel which was reflected in his work.
In addition to the lectures, the seminar participants attended workshops with international educators and artists all of whom integrate biblical images in their artistic expression. Tours led by experts in the field, were conducted in and around the Old City of Jerusalem. They included visits to the recent excavations south of the Temple Mount, the City of David, Mt. Zion which is important to the three monotheistic religions, and the Armenian Church St. Jacob which is decorated with biblical scenes.
Additional tours took our visitors to the Great Yeshiva in the Mea She’arim Neighborhood, the Wolfson Museum’s rich collection of Jewish ceremonial objects and the Islamic Museum.
Venturing to Tel Aviv, a group of seminar participants visited the Eretz Israel Museum, and the Cymbalista Center of Tel Aviv University where they viewed the new exhibit, A Mirror on Jewish Life, which featured a selection of the Moldovan family Judaica collection.
A visit to the Zippori National Park was organized for the foreign participants of the Seminar. The tour of the excavations of this ancient Galilee village which contains rich remnants of Sepphoris from the Roman and Byzantine periods, was led by archaeologist Dr. Zeev Weiss of the Hebrew University.
Special Seminar events included the opening ceremony at the Israel Museum. Participants gathered for cocktails in the sculpture garden of the Israel Museum, toured the Shrine of the Book, and heard a lecture by Professor Yair Zakovitch, Dean of the Faculty of the Humanities, the Hebrew University. Zakovitch discussed the absence of descriptions in the Bible which provoked a wealth of varied artistic interpretation.
A reception was also held at the residence of the President of Israel, where participants meeting with President Ezer Weizman enjoyed his warm personality.
The Festive Closing Ceremony was held at the Rockefeller Museum. Participants toured the museum’s exhibits and then joined together for dinner surrounding the pool in the central courtyard–a truly exquisite setting on a balmy summer eve. Greetings to the assembled guests by Professor Avigdor Posèq, Head of the Department of the History of Art, were followed by an address by Dr. José-Maria Ballester, Head of the Cultural Heritage Department of the Council of Europe which gave patronage to the seminar. Immersed in a mood of celebration and warm feeling, Professor Narkiss and Professor Revel-Neher presented their closing remarks.
Citing the tremendous success with which the past two Seminars have focused on the interrelationship of Jewish, Islamic and Christian art, Dr. Cohen-Mushlin announced that the next Seminar in the year 2002 will also address a subject common to all: Sacred Spaces in Jewish, Christian and Islamic Cultures.
The seminar was made possible by grants from:
The Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung, Essen
The Beracha Foundation
Special thanks to the following institutions for their assistance:
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee; Austrian Embassy, Tel Aviv; The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Conference Committee; Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel; Ministry of Tourism, Israel; The Clarice and Robert Smith Center for the History of Art, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The address of Dr. José-Maria Ballester, head of the Cultural Heritage Department of the Council of Europe in the closing ceremony of the seminar:
The Council of Europe enjoys a close relationship with the Center for Jewish Art and with its Director, Dr. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin. Let me say here how important this cooperation is for us. We appreciate this dialogue among religions, based on the recognition of our cultural heritage. I am particularly glad to have the opportunity to recall this dialogue, launched by the Council of Europe, right here in Jerusalem, sacred city for three monotheistic religions, where our common roots, our memories and our reference systems all come together.
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Prof. Bezalel Narkiss, Dr. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin and José-Maria Ballester |
The subject you have chosen "Scripture and Picture: The Bible in Jewish, Christian and Islamic Art" seeks to enhance the knowledge, interpretation and influence of the Bible, the pivotal reference of our civilization. You approach the subject from different perspectives in an evolutionary fashion: moving from the word, which lies at the foundation of our conscience and of our value systems, to written language, be it handwritten or printed, on to the plastic representation of this word, be it ancient or contemporary. You have accomplished this using a common Jewish, Christian and Islamic approach, which–quite independently of the scientific value of your studies–is of the highest interest to the Council of Europe.
Our organization is the oldest of all European institutions. Counting forty-one member states, forty-seven states, parties to the European cultural convention, and five observers including Israel, we are facing today a major historical challenge: turning our continent, once it has overcome its division in geopolitical blocs, into a vast space of democratic security. The notion of a common cultural heritage, enriched by its diversity, plays a key role in this process.
Cultural heritage, which comprises not only material assets, but also intellectual, ethical and spiritual values, should not become a source of self-assertion and conflict, but should help communities and individuals to discover and accept one another: a space for comprehension, search and discovery of otherness. That is why the dialogue amongst religions on the values and the assets that make up our common cultural heritage forms an essential element in such a process.
We belong to a civilization with deep religious roots, religion being an essential component in the affirmation of our own identity. We are, however, increasingly confronted with a major fallacy: that of confusing the practice of religion–which as we all well know belongs to the sphere of the individual's conscience and liberty–with the culture of religions. We are as a consequence about to lose one of the fundamental keys to the understanding of our identity and of the identity of others. Worse, we deprive future generations of such a key.
The Council of Europe will launch in the year 2000 an awareness campaign on the theme: " Europe, A Common Heritage" following a decision taken by the heads of state and government at their last summit in Strasbourg. The ambition of the campaign is to trigger a dynamic of peace, an appeal to solidarity, an invitation to living together, in short, prompt a feeling of common belonging as Europeans. One of the campaign's major transnational projects will concern precisely religious building complexes and sites. It is within this project that the development of a culture of religions will be pursued.
The way is long and arduous in the pursuit of our common humanistic goals of peaceful congress. But walk along this path we must, and with your efforts you are leading the way. A poet of the Spanish language, Luis Cernuda, has written: ' I believe in myself, because one day I shall be all that I love.' Allow me to paraphrase the poet and invite all of us to say 'We believe in the other because one day we will be all that we love.' "
CENTER FOR JEWISH ART IN THE INTERNATIONAL FORUM
The international community has recently placed the preservation of Jewish cultural heritage on the world agenda. Acknowledged as a leader in the field, the Center for Jewish Art has participated in the following major international events:
World Bank–UNESCO: "Understanding Culture in Sustainable Development" Washington, D.C., September 28-29, 1998
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Dr. Ismail Serageldin (World Bank), Dr. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, Prof. Harmen Thies (Technische Universität-Braunschweig), Prof. Bezalel Narkiss, Dr. Michael Cernea (World Bank) at the symposium in Washington: "Preserving the Architecture of Historic Cities and Sacred Places." |
Dr. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, Director of Center for Jewish Art, was one of the main speakers at the prestigious World Bank-UNESCO conference on the crucial place of cultural heritage in the rapidly changing world. Cohen-Mushlin, joined by Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, World Bank President James Wolfensohn, UNESCO Director-General Federico Mayor, Britain's Lord Rothschild and other luminaries in two days of discussions.
"The material culture is most susceptible to change and destruction in today’s rapidly changing societies," said Cohen-Mushlin. "Special effort must therefore be invested to protect or at least record it as it is the most effective tool for educating our younger generation about its tradition and history."
Cohen-Mushlin specifically spoke about the Center’s documentation philosophy and methodology to “virtually” preserve Jewish art, which is technologically possible and economically viable. She stressed that this approach to cultural preservation can be applied to developing countries throughout the world and that cooperation with the international community is essential.
As a result of this meeting, the World Bank, the Center for Jewish Art and other world institutions co-sponsored a four-day symposium, from May 3-7, 1999, on Preserving the Architecture of Historic Cities and Sacred Places. Held at the headquarters of the World Bank, the symposium involved 17 institutions and brought together 300 participants from over 40 countries. Underlying the event was the belief articulately stated by World Bank President James Wolfensohn in the Opening Plenary, "Development must relate to the national histories and cultures…It has to have a sense of identity linked with the past and with cultural history… It is through the knowledge of their past that people can proceed creatively towards the future."
The first two days were comprised of plenary sessions in which Center founder Professor Bezalel Narkiss made two presentations on The Synagogue and its Sacred Space and another on Church-Synagogue-Mosque: A Comparison of Typologies.
The last two days included Expert Gatherings, of which two sessions were planned by the Center for Jewish Art.
In the Expert Group on Technical Applications, the Center’s partners and other participants, such as the Getty Conservation Authority, presented state-of the-art technologies being implemented in measuring, recording and computerizing synagogues, churches and mosques. One extra day was devoted entirely to Jewish Heritage, bringing the Jewish built heritage to the attention of cultural leaders throughout the world by way of presentations of the work being carried out worldwide in synagogue documentation and preservation.
Travel grants provided by Yad Hanadiv, the World Bank and the Alfred Freiherr von Oppenheim Foundation allowed the Center for Jewish Art to invite its documentation partners from Israel, Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union for exposure to innovative technologies.
Council of Europe, November 1998
Dr. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin led a Jewish delegation to the Council of Europe’s November 1998 meeting on Illicit Trafficking in Cultural Property.
Other participants included representatives of the Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Reform churches and the Muslim community. While the Council has already worked with the European Union, UNESCO, customs officials and police, this was the first time that religious communities gathered to discuss the issue of art theft and its illicit trafficking.
In addition, the group discussed the enhancement and conservation of sacred art. Each of the seven delegations presented a report on each of these issues. In Dr. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin’s presentation she pointed out how the meticulous records kept in the Center’s Index of Jewish Art helped retrieve sacred objects after they had been stolen.
Dr. José Maria Ballester, Head of the Cultural Heritage Department of the Council of Europe, stressed the importance of the European religious heritage and Europe’s role in promoting tolerance and understanding. Europe’s diverse religious heritage has not only shaped present day Europe but has enriched the European cultural scene.
The conference resulted in a Final Declaration, including eleven recommendations to protect, conserve and develop cultural property of a religious nature, even if the community now lives outside the political boundaries of the state in question.
Dr. Cohen-Mushlin also made a presentation at the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly's Sub-Committee on Cultural Heritage in Avila, Spain in March 1999 on the subject of Conservation of Major Religious Buildings. Cohen-Mushlin discussed the devastation of thousands of synagogues throughout the world due to the last century of wars, revolutions and mass immigration, and called upon the parliamentarians to take responsibility for the minority cultures within their countries.
In response to the Council of Europe's commitment to creating awareness of its common culture and UNESCO's efforts to save endangered culture throughout the world, both the Council's Secretary General, Mr. Daniel Tarschys, and UNESCO's Director General Mr. Federico Mayor gave their patronage to the Center’s two 1999 international events: The symposium co-sponsored by the World Bank on Preserving the Architecture of Historic Cities and Sacred Places held in Washington, D.C. in May 1999; and the Sixth International Seminar on Jewish Art, Scripture and Picture: the Bible in Jewish, Christian and Islamic Art held in Jerusalem a month later.
International Conference on Jewish Heritage in Europe, January 1999
Dr. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin and Boris Khaimovich were invited to participate in this three-day conference in Paris which was organized by Max Polonovski in charge of Jewish patrimony in the French Ministry of Culture. Organizers brought together Jewish and non-Jewish experts from all over West, Central and Eastern Europe involved in the preservation of Jewish culture in Europe. The main issues discussed were inventories, conservation, protection and accessibility of the Jewish material heritage to the public. Cohen-Mushlin talked about the Rescue Operation of Synagogues and Ritual Objects and Khaimovich discussed Jewish Monuments of Romania.
European Council of Jewish Communities, January 1999
As a result of the Center's intensive documentation of Jewish art and architecture in Europe, an ongoing working relationship has been established with the European Council of Jewish Communities. The Center's director, Dr. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, and researcher Boris Khaimovich participated in the Council's meeting in Paris, during which they discussed future efforts to preserve and promote Jewish heritage in Europe. The meeting's recommendations included as top priority continued inventory and documentation, exchange of information, and training programs for field workers.
Council of Europe, January 2000
Dr. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin led the Jewish delegation at a meeting of the Council of Europe which was held in Strasbourg from January 24-26, 2000. This was the second official meeting of representatives of the Churches and Religious Denomination and Communities of the Council of Europe’s Cultural Heritage Department.
The meeting again discussed illicit trafficking in cultural property in preparation of a pan-European forum to take place on this issue later this year.
TEACHING JEWISH TRADITION AND VALUES THROUGH JEWISH ART A special course for Russian-speaking educators from both Israel and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was held in Jerusalem from July 5-26, 1999. Given in joint cooperation between the Center and the Jewish University in St. Petersburg, the program, Teaching Jewish Tradition and Values Through Jewish Art, is part of an eight-year ongoing project of Jewish art education for teachers, curators, students and Jewish community leaders in the former Soviet Union. Due to its original success in the summer of 1997, this specific course is to be given in Jerusalem biennially. Of the forty educators and artists participating in the Seminar, twenty-one were from the CIS, eighteen were new Israeli immigrants from the CIS and one Russian-speaking teacher was from Berlin. Set within the context of the broad diversity of Jewish communities in Israel today, this year’s seminar was devoted to the study of the Exodus from Egypt, with special focus on the Passover Haggadah. The course culminated in a model Passover seder, with all the trimmings, which was for some their very first experience of this celebration. Supplementing the many lectures by experts from Israel and abroad in the fields of Jewish art, thought and the Bible, were educational and artists’ workshops. Participants also had guided tours to museums and synagogues in and around Jerusalem, as well as a synagogue tour of the Galilee and Golan. Since many of the participants were accomplished artists, an exhibition of works by the artists and their students was held from July 18-25 at the Jerusalem Municipality. Response to the course was so enthusiastic that the participants resolved to conduct regional seminars on subjects of Jewish art and tradition in a variety of locations: St. Petersburg, Moscow, Kiev, different locations in Israel, as well as in Germany, where there is a large Russian-speaking population. |
