Willy Graf (from 1919 known as William Ritter von Graf) was a German architect based in Stuttgart. During World War I, Graf served in the Prussian army and was ennobled for his heroism. His firm Graf & Roeckle designed a number of notable buildings in Germany, including synagogues. He also designed a plaque honoring Jewish soldiers from Stuttgart who had fought in World War I. The august synagogue he designed in Mainz, erected on Hindenburgstrasse in 1911–1912, included a central, circular nave with a large dome and side wings housing a weekday synagogue, community rooms, wedding hall, and a Museum of Jewish Antiquities. It was looted and burned on Kristallnacht in 1938. Graf continued to live and work in Germany during the Nazi period and afterward.
The Torah ark in the synagogue of Mariampol was surmounted by tablets of the law flanked by rampant lions and topped with a crown, with hands making the priestly blessing. After World War II, Soviet…
This engraving depicting a Jewish man in Cairo, Egypt is from Cornelis de Bruyn’s travelogue, Reizen van Corn. de Bruyn door de vermaardste deelen van Klein Asia, de eylanden Scio, Rhodus, Cyprus enz…
Twelve-year old Ivan Demitrov, a fourth-grade student in the Bulgarian school, was scolded by his Bulgarian teacher for not sitting still in school on Friday, the tenth of this month. After playing in…