Showing Results 101 - 110 of 251
In 1670, Amsterdam’s Portuguese Jewish community commissioned a new synagogue, which, when finished, was the largest in the world. The master mason Elias Bouman (ca. 1636–1686), a non-Jew, who had…
It was quite an adventure. The night was moonless and cool. The children had heard that demons lurk outside, ready to attack those who dare to go out on a dark night. There was also talk of corpses…
Mah Tovu notes our coming into the house of God, symbolized by the words “tents” and “tabernacles.” Mah Tovu begins with a passage from the Torah (Num. 24), in which the pagan prophet Balaam blesses…
Though construction ended in 1888 after eight years, the neo-Byzantine and Moorish revival Grand Choral Synagogue in St. Petersburg was not consecrated until 1893. The grand, imposing building, which…
The Lazar Brodsky Choral Synagogue is built in the Romanesque revival style, with elements of Moorish revival. It is known as the Brodsky Choral Synagogue because it was built on the estate of the…
The wooden synagogue in Jabłonów was built in the second half of the seventeenth century. Its walls were covered in colorful paintings. It was burned down at the beginning of World War I by Russian…
Édouard Moyse’s paintings of Jewish religious life earned him the nickname “the painter of rabbis.” His paintings often depict an idealized Judaism not situated in a specific place or time. The…
In 1903, the paintings of Abel Pann had helped draw attention and international outrage to the Kishinev pogrom. Pann again used his art to document the devastation of Jewish communities in Eastern…
For decades, my efforts have been directed at purifying the old modes [die alten Weisen]. Through [general] use and arbitrary treatment they have suffered tactless changes and distortions. I…
Everyone who passes among those numbered from twenty years old and upward shall give his tribute to the Lord.
. . . As we number the congregation and lament that the young do not always take the…