Samuel Gruber
New York Landmarks Conservancy
Common Bond Vol. 11, No. 1 / May 1995
American Religious Buildings
Reflecting a rich variety of styles, the American synagogue has responded to the changing architectural landscape and the challenges faced by Judaism.
AMERICAN SYNAGOGUE ARCHITECTURE
Although New York's first Jewish congregation was established a little less than 25 years after the Dutch founded New Amsterdam, it was not until 1730 that its first synagogue was built. The Mill Street Synagogue, North America's first, would set the tone for many of the state's future synagogues, incorporating as it did the fashionable architectural motifs popular during the era with the elements common to synagogues for centuries.
From the Greek word synagein "to bring together," a synagogue requires only an enclosed space to allow a congregation to assemble for prayer and to hear the Torah (Five Books Of Moses) read. The interior requirements are the Ark, which houses the Torah scrolls, and the bima, or platform the leader of the service stands to read the Torah. The bima was traditionally located in the center of all Ashkenazic (eastern branch of European Jews) synagogues before the nineteenth century and remains so in most Orthodox synagogues. In the Sephardic (western branch of European Jews) tradition, it is often located next to the wall opposite the ark. In the nineteenth century, reforms led to the placement of the bima in front of the ark, combining both features into one element. Seating can be arranged in many Ways, though in Orthodox synagogues separate seating is required for women. Traditionally this is provided in a gallery, but a barrier (mechitzah) can also be used to divide sections.
The first Jewish communities in America accepted prevailing architectural styles, as can be seen in the Georgian classicism of Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island (1753), America's oldest surviving synagogue. In the nineteenth century, synagogue design reflected the country's fascination with styles inspired by previous eras -Italianate, Renaissance, Queen Anne, or even Egyptian. However, the Gothic style, so popular for churches, was the one style rarely employed, as it was closely associated with Christ -ianity.
Shearith Israel Synagogue, Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, New York City (Brunner
& Tryon, 1896-97)
An example of the classical, the design of this magnificent building was inspired
by the discovery of classical synagogue remains in the Galilee. Shearith Israel,
founded in 1654 by Sephardic Jews, is the oldest Jewish congregation in North
America. This is the fourth building designed to house the congregation.
The Moorish style became popular in the post-Civil War period. By the late nineteenth century, however, assimilated Jews increasingly found it too exotic and deemed it "un-American." New classical style edifices----dignified, austere, monumental, and reflecting the favored style of America's cultural elite were built at a time when many, including established American Sephardic and German Jews, were lamenting the cultural differences of the newly-arriving Eastern European Jews. In 1897, Arnold Brunner designed a new home for Shearith Israel. While overtly responding to the revival of classicism largely fostered by the 1893 Columbian Exposition, Brunner justified its use by citing discoveries in Palestine of ancient synagogues-all classical buildings.
In the opening years of this century, the Byzantine Revival style was increasingly employed and became especially popular after World War I. During this period, the central dome over the sanctuary space became a common feature. An urban variation of this type emphasized a single giant facade portal, as at New York City's B'nai Jeshurun (Herts & Schneider, 1918) and Temple Emanu-El (Kohn, Butler, Stein & Mayers, Murray & Philip, 1929).
Jewish communities were quicker to embrace Art Deco and other variants of modernism than other religious communities, but few synagogues were built in the 1930s. Immediately after World War II, the demand for new synagogues in the suburbs created a building boom of modern style community centers, designed to serve a variety of the social, educational and religious needs formerly met in the coherent, essentially homogenous urban neighborhoods. These buildings, which gave special attention to school facilities, were intended as bastions against the assimilation of post-war suburban life. The success of Jewish Americanization and the trauma of the Holocaust encouraged congregations to cast off European historical styles and embrace new architectural forms.
Forsaking the use of styles to evoke historic ties and instead employing the manipulation of form for symbolic purposes, the design of contemporary synagogues often recalls forms such as the mountains or tents associated with the nomadic tribes of ancient Israel.
Inspired by developments in Central Europe during the first half of the nineteenth century, the Moorish style was adopted in the United States in the post-Civil War years for synagogues by first-generation German Jews who had arrived in large numbers in the 1840s. Contrary to popular notions, Sephardic congregations, which had origins in Spain never, used the Moorish style. Instead, it was an invention of nineteenth
Century Europe partially inspired by the Jewish past in Spain and a taste for exotica.
Developed by Christian architects to distinguish synagogues from churches, the style's most, significant characteristic is the horseshoe-shaped arches found in Islamic architecture. These are substituted for the round and pointed arches frequently employed on Christian houses of worship. Intricate, abstract geometric patterns are a frequent decorative motif associated with many Moorish style synagogues. Remaining examples include New York City's Central Synagogue (1.8 72, cover and above).