Download or read book Eric Mendelsohn s Synagogues in America written by Ita Heinze-Greenberg and published by Lund Humphries Publishers Limited. This book was released on 2019 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In America between 1946 and 1953, the German-Jewish architect Eric Mendelsohn planned seven synagogues, of which four were built, all in the Midwest. In this book, photographer Michael Palmer has recorded in exquisite detail Mendelsohn's four built synagogues in Saint Paul, Saint Louis, Cleveland, and Grand Rapids. These photographs are accompanied by an insightful contextual essay by Ita Heinze-Greenberg which reflects on Eric Mendelsohn and his Jewish identity. Mendelsohn's post-war commitment to sacred architecture was a major challenge to him, but one on which he embarked with great enthusiasm. He sought and found radically new architectural solutions for these "temples" that met functional, social, and spiritual demands. In the post-war and post-Holocaust climate, the old references had become obsolete, while the founding of the State of Israel in 1948 posed a claim for the redefinition of the Jewish diaspora in general. The duality of Jewish and American identity became more crucial than ever and the congregations were keen to express their integration into a modern America through these buildings. Hardly anyone could have been better suited for this task than Mendelsohn, as he sought to justify his decision to move from Israel and adopt the USA as his new homeland. The places he created to serve Jewish identity in America were a crowning conclusion of his career. They became the benchmark of modern American synagogue architecture, while the design of sacred space added a new dimension in Mendelsohn's work.
Download or read book The Architecture of Modern American Synagogues 1950s 1960s written by Anat Geva and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2023-12-14 with total page 463 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the aftermath of World War II, the United States experienced a rapid expansion of church and synagogue construction as part of a larger “religious boom.” The synagogues built in that era illustrate how their designs pushed the envelope in aesthetics and construction. The design of the synagogues departed from traditional concepts, embraced modernism and innovations in building technology, and evolved beyond the formal/rational style of early 1950s modern architecture to more of an expressionistic design. The latter resulted in abstraction of architectural forms and details, and the inclusion of Jewish art in the new synagogues. The Architecture of Modern American Synagogues, 1950s–1960s introduces an architectural analysis of selected modern American synagogues and reveals how they express American Jewry’s resilience in continuing their physical and spiritual identity, while embracing modernism, American values, and landscape. In addition, the book contributes to the discourse on preserving the recent past (e.g., mid 20th century architecture). While most of the investigations on that topic deal with the “brick & mortar” challenges, this book introduces preservation issues as a function of changes in demographics, in faith rituals, in building codes, and in energy conservation. As an introduction or a reexamination, The Architecture of Modern American Synagogues, 1950s–1960s offers a fresh perspective on an important moment in American Jewish society and culture as reflected in their houses of worship and adds to the literature on modern American sacred architecture. The book may appeal to Jewish congregations, architects, preservationists, scholars, and students in fields of studies such as architectural design, sacred architecture, American modern architecture and building technology, Post WWII religious and Jewish studies, and preservation and conservation.
Download or read book Synagogue Architecture in America written by Henry Stolzman and published by Images Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This full colour publication explores the rich and diverse response to the quest to sustain the Hebrew heritage that has resulted in prominent designs.
Download or read book The Synagogue in America written by Marc Lee Raphael and published by NYU Press. This book was released on 2011-04-18 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chronicles the history of the Jewish synagogue in America over the course of three centuries, discussing its changing role in the American Jewish community.
Download or read book Eric Mendelsohn s Park Synagogue written by Walter C. Leedy and published by Sacred Landmark. This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Eric Mendelsohn's modernist building, The Park Synagogue in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, is one of the most significant post-World War II buildings in the United States. Notable for its magnificent dome and its natural wooded setting, it also had an immense architectural influence on other religious structures in the Midwest. Erected during the late 1940s, the Synagogue was built in response to a large majority of the downtown Cleveland Jewish population moving to the eastern suburbs. In 1934, under the leadership of Rabbi Armond Cohen, the struggling Anshe Emeth Beth Tefilo congregation bought the twelve-acre property of the defunct Park School in Cleveland Heights and later purchased an additional twenty-one acres of land adjacent to the Park property owned by John D. Rockefeller. Plans were developed for a new synagogue to be designed and built by the famous European architect Eric Mendelsohn. Today The Park Synagogue, dedicated in 1950, is home to one of the nation's major Conservative congregations. Eric Mendelsohn's Park Synagogue tells the story of the construction of The Park Synagogue and examines how Mendelsohn consciously sought to express the ideals and traditions of the congregation and Judaism in its architectural forms. From one of the world's largest copper-clad domes weighing 680 tons to the shape of the sanctuary and spectacular bimah, Mendelsohn sought to incorporate the architecture into Jewish ritual and worship. He favored dramatic curves of glass walls, circular stairwells, and porthole windows, and he used the circle as a dominant form throughout his career. The Park Synagogue is one of the few Mendelsohn buildings that remains virtually as it was built. Author Walter C. Leedy Jr. discusses how the construction of The Park Synagogue solidified the congregation, attracted new members, and set the stage for expansion into the next century. Eric Mendelsohn's Park Synagogue brings unique insight into the development of the American Jewish community during the post-World War II period and into the evolution of Mendelsohn's architecture.
Download or read book American Synagogues written by Samuel Gruber and published by Rizzoli International Publications. This book was released on 2003 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American Synagogues is the first book to explore the exceptional architecture of modern American synagogues in the twentieth century, and this intriguing book relates the fascinating history of the Jewish people in America and how it is expressed in twentieth-century synagogue design. The book features all new photography of synagogues in many styles from a dozen states, many never before published in any form. The synagogues were designed by European masters, the best-known modern American architects, and by important contemporary architects including Frank Lloyd Wright, Philip Johnson, and Minoru Yamasaki.
Download or read book Modernism and American Mid 20th Century Sacred Architecture written by Anat Geva and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-10-08 with total page 667 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mid-20th century sacred architecture in America sought to bridge modernism with religion by abstracting cultural and faith traditions and pushing the envelope in the design of houses of worship. Modern architects embraced the challenges of creating sacred spaces that incorporated liturgical changes, evolving congregations, modern architecture, and innovations in building technology. The book describes the unique context and design aspects of the departure from historicism, and the renewal of heritage and traditions with ground-breaking structural features, deliberate optical effects and modern aesthetics. The contributions, from a pre-eminent group of scholars and practitioners from the US, Australia, and Europe are based on original archival research, historical documents, and field visits to the buildings discussed. Investigating how the authority of the divine was communicated through new forms of architectural design, these examinations map the materiality of liturgical change and communal worship during the mid-20th century.
Download or read book In the Spirit of Our Age written by Kathleen James-Chakraborty and published by Missouri History Museum. This book was released on 2000 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text celebrates the B'Nai Amoona Synagogue, a landmark of the city of St Louis, designed by the architect Eric Mendelsohn. The synagogue currently houses the Center of Contemporary Arts (COCA).
Download or read book At Home in Exile written by Alan Wolfe and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2014-10-28 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An eloquent, controversial argument that says, for the first time in their long history, Jews are free to live in a Jewish state—or lead secure and productive lives outside it Since the beginnings of Zionism in the twentieth century, many Jewish thinkers have considered it close to heresy to validate life in the Diaspora. Jews in Europe and America faced “a life of pointless struggle and futile suffering, of ambivalence, confusion, and eternal impotence,” as one early Zionist philosopher wrote, echoing a widespread and vehement disdain for Jews living outside Israel. This thinking, in a more understated but still pernicious form, continues to the present: the Holocaust tried to kill all of us, many Jews believe, and only statehood offers safety. But what if the Diaspora is a blessing in disguise? In At Home in Exile, renowned scholar and public intellectual Alan Wolfe, writing for the first time about his Jewish heritage, makes an impassioned, eloquent, and controversial argument that Jews should take pride in their Diasporic tradition. It is true that Jews have experienced more than their fair share of discrimination and destruction in exile, and there can be no doubt that anti-Semitism persists throughout the world and often rears its ugly head. Yet for the first time in history, Wolfe shows, it is possible for Jews to lead vibrant, successful, and, above all else, secure lives in states in which they are a minority. Drawing on centuries of Jewish thinking and writing, from Maimonides to Philip Roth, David Ben Gurion to Hannah Arendt, Wolfe makes a compelling case that life in the Diaspora can be good for the Jews no matter where they live, Israel very much included—as well as for the non-Jews with whom they live, Israel once again included. Not only can the Diaspora offer Jews the opportunity to reach a deep appreciation of pluralism and a commitment to fighting prejudice, but in an era of rising inequalities and global instability, the whole world can benefit from Jews’ passion for justice and human dignity. Wolfe moves beyond the usual polemical arguments and celebrates a universalistic Judaism that is desperately needed if Israel is to survive. Turning our attention away from the Jewish state, where half of world Jewry lives, toward the pluralistic and vibrant places the other half have made their home, At Home in Exile is an inspiring call for a Judaism that isn’t defensive and insecure but is instead open and inquiring.
Download or read book The Synagogues of London written by Paul Lindsay and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book In Search of American Jewish Culture written by Stephen J. Whitfield and published by UPNE. This book was released on 1999 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A leading cultural historian explores the complex interactions of Jewish and American cultures.
Download or read book Louis I Kahn s Jewish Architecture written by Susan G. Solomon and published by Brandeis University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-01 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1961, famed architect Louis I. Kahn (1901-1974) received a commission to design a new synagogue. His client was one of the oldest Sephardic Orthodox congregations in the United States: Philadelphia's Mikveh Israel. Due to the loss of financial backing, Kahn's plans were never realized. Nevertheless, the haunting and imaginative schemes for Mikveh Israel remain among Kahn's most revered designs. Susan G. Solomon uses Kahn's designs for Mikveh Israel as a lens through which to examine the transformation of the American synagogue from 1955 to 1970. She shows how Kahn wrestled with issues that challenged postwar Jewish institutions and evaluates his creative attempts to bridge modernism and Judaism. She argues that Kahn provided a fresh paradigm for synagogues, one that offered innovations in planning, decoration, and the incorporation of light and nature into building design.
Download or read book Jewish Frontier written by and published by . This book was released on 1958 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Encyclopaedia Britannica written by and published by . This book was released on 1973 with total page 1310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Makers of 20th Century Modern Architecture written by Donald Leslie Johnson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-05-13 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Makers of 20th-Century Modern Architecture is an indispensable reference book for the scholar, student, architect or layman interested in the architects who initiated, developed, or advanced modern architecture. The book is amply illustrated and features the most prominent and influential people in 20th-century modernist architecture including Wright, Eisenman, Mies van der Rohe and Kahn. It describes the milieu in which they practiced their art and directs readers to information on the life and creative activities of these founding architects and their disciples. The profiles of individual architects include critical analysis of their major buildings and projects. Each profile is completed by a comprehensive bibliography.
Download or read book Jewish Dimensions in Modern Visual Culture written by Rose-Carol Washton Long and published by UPNE. This book was released on 2010 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating look at key aspects of visual culture in modern Jewish history
Download or read book Jewish Religious Architecture written by Steven Fine and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jewish Religious Architecture explores ways that Jews have expressed their tradition in brick and mortar and wood, in stone and word and spirit. This volume stretches from the biblical Tabernacle to Roman Jerusalem, synagogues spanning two millenia and on to contemporary Judaism. Social historians, cultural historians, art historians and philologists have come together here to present this extraordinary architectural tradition. The multidisciplinary approach employed in Jewish Religious Architecture reveals deep continuities over time, together with the distinctly local— sometimes in surprising ways.
