Born to a family of embroiderers, Abraham Hirsch (1828–1913) studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, France. Because the traditional apprentice system was often closed to Jews who faced endemic antisemitism, the burgeoning academic system offered more opportunity for aspiring Jewish architects. Hirsch was the first known Jew to have attended a Western school of architecture, and he went on to become the chief architect of Lyon. He designed numerous buildings in the city, including the Grand Synagogue of Lyon, which was completed in 1864. Designed in the neo-Byzantine style, the synagogue is now designated an official historic monument.
Johann Christoph Georg Bodenschatz’s Kirchliche Verfassung der heutigen Juden, sonderlich derer in Deutschland (Religious Constitution of Today’s Jews, Especially Those in Germany), published in…
This flute from Tel Goren at En Gedi, 4 inches long and .67 inches wide (10 × 2 cm), is made from the hollowed shaft of an animal bone. The hole near the center was probably for blowing air across the…
A halakhic decision written by Netanel Trabotto about singers [accompanying prayer in the synagogue] who repeated the word crown as well as the Name of God, and they…