Opening Event for New Exhibit: A Sacred Space: Synagogue Architecture and Identity
Date: Oct 26, 2023
Time: 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm
Sponsor: The Library
Location: JTS
Category: Library Events Visit Library Exhibits
Opening Event: A Sacred Space: Synagogue Architecture and Identity
Thursday, October 26, 2023
Samuel D. Gruber will present a lecture entitled “The Image of the Synagogue in Prints: Architecture and Identity” and will talk about the new JTS exhibit he co-curated with Sharon Liberman Mintz.
Guided Tours of the Exhibit
The JTS Library will offer a series of guided tours of the exhibition on its campus.
- Wednesday, November 29, 5:00 p.m.
- Thursday, December 14, 5:30 p.m.
- Monday, January 8, 5:00 p.m.
- Tuesday, February 6, 5:00 p.m.
About the Presenter
Samuel D. Gruber is an American art and architectural historian and historic preservationist. He has written extensively on the architecture of the synagogue and is an expert and activist in the documentation, protection and preservation of historic Jewish sites and monuments.
Gruber is the author of American Synagogues: A Century of Architecture and Jewish Community (2003), Synagogues (1999), and many reports and articles. Since 2008, he has written the blog Samuel Gruber’s Jewish Art and Monuments.
Gruber received his BA in Medieval Studies from Princeton University and his PhD in Art and Architectural History from Columbia University. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Rome, where he won the prestigious Rome Prize in Art History. Since 1994, he has taught art history and Jewish Studies at Syracuse University and other colleges.
About the Exhibit
The JTS Library exhibit, “A Sacred Space: Synagogue Architecture and Identity” (October 26, 2023, to March 7, 2024), offers an exciting opportunity to view a large selection of rare prints depicting historic synagogues. The exhibit, co-curated by Samuel D. Gruber and Sharon Liberman Mintz, will trace the history of European synagogue styles from the 17th to the 19th century, exploring how the image of the synagogue was used by Christians and Jews to present often conflicting ideas of Jewish identity. The 42 prints on view—selected from books, art prints, magazines, and newspapers—showcase a wide range of synagogue types. Notably, the pace of production of these images accelerated in the 19th century, when we first encounter Jewish architects of synagogues, along with the Jewish artists who depicted them.
The exhibit will feature images of synagogues from the Netherlands, England, France, Austria, and Germany, ending on American shores. Images of the latter will allow us to consider how this pictorial tradition would evolve in a country of immigrants that boasted of religious freedom and cultural pluralism.
