Old Wooden Synagogues in Polish Lithuania

Maximilian Syrkin

1910

Illustration of wooden building. — Drawing of a wooden synagogue from Maximilian Syrkin’s 1910 article, “Drevníya derevyannyye sinagogi v pol’she litve” (Wooden Synagogues in Polish Lithuania). Wooden synagogues were a common form of vernacular architecture in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth beginning in the sixteenth century. Almost all of them were destroyed in World War II, though a few have survived.

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Creator Bio

Maximilian Syrkin

1858–Date Unknown

Born in Ponevezh, Russian Empire (today Panevėžys, Lithuania), Maximilian G. Syrkin received his legal degree in St. Petersburg and made his career in law. He worked for a time with the Society for the Promotion of Culture among the Jews (OPE) and served as editor for the Russian-language journal of Jewish affairs Voskhod. Alongside his legal career, Syrkin wrote works of art history and criticism, including this pioneering study of the beautiful and now no-longer-extant wooden synagogues of early modern Poland-Lithuania.