Judaism is the oldest of the ‘religions of the book,’ monotheistic belief systems originating in the ancient Middle East. The Torah (first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Bible) forbids making graven images of God. This prohibition (plus the vagaries of time, competing religions, occupation, and exile) has left us with extremely little representational art from Biblical Israel and Judea.

After the fall of the Second Temple (70 C.E.), Jewish devotional life changed from focusing on the Temple and its rites to focusing on the Hebrew Scriptures – the word of God (as conveyed to his chosen and as interpreted by his rabbis [teachers]). Simultaneously, Jewish people were again exiled (the first being to Egypt, the second being the Babylonian exile, c. 550 B.C.E.) and dispersed throughout Mesopotamia and Europe. Because Jews lived on the margins – subject to further persecution and further exile – they developed art traditions that were portable and adaptable. Foremost among these were manuscript illumination and artistic metalwork in precious materials.

In many European countries (and in North America), overt persecution of Jews ended by the 19th century. Thus artists did not feel as much of a needto hide their religious/ethnic origins, although very few ‘advertised’ their Jewishness, due to ongoing prejudice. This relative acceptance crashed and burned with Nazi Germany’s hegemony, during which Jewish ancestry per se was seen as a reason for annihilation. Some Jewish artists escaped the Holocaust (often to the U.S.), but many did not. In parallel fashion, most European monuments of Jewish culture, like synagogues and ritual art, were destroyed.

In the post-WWII world, simply ‘being Jewish’ does not (in most places) hinder success. Thus, there are proportionately more known Jewish artists from 1945 to the present then were previously recorded. This disproportion reflects changed opportunity horizons: Jews today can aspire to follow their dreams and talents without being held back by punitive laws and virulent ‘racism.’ Nonetheless, few modern Jewish artists have focused primarily on Jewish themes, Marc Chagall being the major exception.

Most archeological objects from ancient Israel and Judea are clay ostraca (inscribed tablets) and potteryvessels. The jug (below left) was unearthed in Jerusalem; it dates from the 7 th century BCE -- the timeof the prophet Isaiah – and has an inscription in Proto-Hebrew.

At right is a reconstruction of the Second Temple, which would have held Israel’s most sacred objects. Thesewere looted in 70 CE and the Temple was destroyed. Below right shows a panel from the Arch of Titus, Rome, erected in 82 CE to commemorate Titus’s victories; it details the spoils of war removed from the Temple, centralamong them being the golden Menorah (7-branched candelabrum).

As Jewish groups moved throughout the Mediterranean, they established synagogues, often using architecturalstyles they encountered. In 244 CE, a congregation in Dura Europos, Syria, embellished their synagogue withtempera-over-plaster wall paintings. Shown below middle are scenes from the book of Esther, Dura Europos.Far below, left, is a mosaic floor from the synagogue at Beit Alpha, Israel, early 6 th c. CE. It follows theByzantine model of using mosaics for surface decoration. In this case, the central mosaic is a diagram of the Zodiac; it’s bordered by mosaics of Jewish ritual symbols and of the Binding of Isaac.

The Torah forbids ‘graven images’ of God. Within the European diaspora, this prohibition was interpreted in different ways by scribes and illuminators. Some Southern European Jewish communities, where the influence of Islam was strongest, tended to avoid representing the human figure, whereas Northern European communities interpreted the prohibition as applying only to images of God.

Some of the most lavishly illustrated manuscripts are Haggadot, collections of prayers and readings to accompany the Passover seder. Most were commissioned for use in private homes. The Bird’s Head Haggadah, Franconia, 13th c. (upper right) shows an interesting solution to the figural question: men (here depicted baking matzot) have birds’ heads rather than human faces. The Barcelona Haggadah, Catalonia, Spain, 14th c. (below right) shows full human figures plus fanciful creatures and foliage.

Beautifully Illuminated Scriptures and Psalters also exist, as do wedding contracts (Ketubot), like the 18th-c. Italian Ketubah illustrated below, middle. An interesting feature of some manuscripts is the use of micrography, or miniature writing, to form decorative motifs as well as to record pronunciation notes and Rabbinic commentary. The example below left is from a German Pentateuch, c. 1300 CE, that also contains the Five Scrolls and readings from the Prophets (shown is Ecclesiastes)..

During most of the European Diaspora, Jews were prohibited from many lines of work. Often open to them, however, were occupations having to do with finance, precious metals, and gems. This state of affairs had to to with Christian rulers’ ideas that working with ‘money’ and precious commodities was sinful (but they still needed bankers and goldsmiths and gem merchants). Consequently, Jewish artists were able to develop the highest levels of craftsmanship in decorative gold- and silver-work.

Not only did Jewish artists make items for the Christian and Islamic communities in which they lived; they also made items that enhanced communal and private devotions. For example, Torah scrolls – as the focus of public services – were adorned with beautiful finials, crowns, and breastplates. Pointers (yad) were also crafted so that people reading from the Torah did not soil the hand-written scriptures. These often terminated in a pointing finger. (upper left, upper right, middle right, middle middle).

For other observances, Jewish craftsmen created items such as Kiddush cups (the cup reserved for Elijah during Passover), silver boxes for the etrog (citron) used during Sukkot (Tabernacles), and spice containers. Menorahs were made for both public and private use. (middle left, lower photos).

A synagogue (from Greek, place of assembly) is both a house of worship and a place of study. As we’ve mentioned, before the fall of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Judaism was focused on the Temple and its rites. After 70 CE, not only was the center of worship destroyed; Jews were dispersed throughout the Middle East and, subsequently, Europe. This situation contributed greatly to the rise of Rabbinic Judaism, in which the object of veneration became the Torah, Rabbis (teachers) replaced Temple priests as religious leaders, male congregants’ duties included study of the Hebrew Scriptures, and important religious observances (like Passover and Sukkot, as well as the Sabbath) were often celebrated at home, often under the direction of women, which in part accounts for the markedly higher rate of literacy for Jewish women than for Christian or Muslim women in the Middle Ages and beyond.

Synagogues, then, needed to have space enough to hold a congregation (often small) and space for study. Their ritual requirements were few: an identifiable wall indicating the direction of Jerusalem, a visually prominent place to store Torah scrolls (the Ark), a bimah (pulpit/reading desk), an eternal light, and often two entrances (and two seating areas) for women and men. Otherwise, synagogue architecture mostly imitated the prevailing architecture of the region in which they were located. (This is true even of the early synagogues shown in Slide 2).

World War II destroyed many European synagogues, including almost all of the Eastern European wooden synagogues, the most creative and unique type of religious architecture developed by Jewish artisans. Post-World War II synagogues often reflect modernist architecture and include community centers as well as spaces for worship and spaces for learning.

Top Left: Belz Synagogue, Poland/Ukraine, 1843Top Right: Belz Synagogue, Jerusalem, 2000Belz was the home of a thriving Hasidic community headed by the Belzer Rebbe. The synagogue resembled a fortress, with thick stone walls and crenellations toppedby copper balls; it could seat 5000 worshippers. In 1939, the Nazis invaded the town and tried to burn the synagogue. That didn’t work, so they tried dynamite. That didn’t work either, so they conscripted Jewish men to dismantle the building stone by stone.Although many people from Belz fled across the Russian border, most of the remaining Jews were eventually deported to Sobibor death camp. The 4th Belzer Rebbe escaped toIsrael in 1944 and established a new community there. The Great Belz Synagogue, a larger version of the original building (its main hall can seat 6000 worshippers), is thebiggest synagogue in the world, with an Ark that can hold 70 Torah scrolls.

Middle and Lower Left: Volpa Synagogue, Volpa, Poland [now Belarus], 1643Volpa was considered the most beautiful of Eastern European wooden synagogues. Its exterior, with its multiple tiers and carved corbels, was imposing, but the interior was glorious. Columns, domes, and vaults enhanced the space, particularly over the centrally placed bimah; interior walls and the Torah Ark were decorated with paint and woodcarving. Unlike in other areasof Europe, Jews in most of Poland were permitted to build with wood from the abundant forests surrounding their villages.

Volpa Synagogue was burned in 1941. The village’s Jews (over half the population of 2000 +) were deported to a nearby town, from where they were shipped to Treblinka death camp. Three residents of Volpa survived the war; today there are no Jews living in Volpa.

Bottom: The New Synagogue, Berlin, 1859-66During the 19th century, Jews in major European cities – prospering from their newly emancipated status – set about building ‘Great Synagogues’ as signs of community pride and solidarity (as many rural Jews from different areas had migrated to cities in search of better opportunities). One such building was The Great Synagogue of Berlin, built 1859-66.An imposing Moorish revival structure, it could seat 2000 people.

During Kristallnacht, 1938, Nazi mobs tried to burn the synagogue, but it wasn’t completely destroyed until 1943. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, efforts were made to restore the Synagogue (it’s located in what had been East Berlin). Its magnificent façade has been rebuilt, as the photograph indicates, but very little of the interior has been restored. Small rooms like offices and storage closets are useable, however, and it is there that religious services are once again held in The New Synagogue.

By the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Jewish artists usually did not have to conceal their heritage. In Europe, many aspiring artists gravitated to Paris, where they encountered Cubism, Expressionism, and other avant garde movements. Some emigrated to the United States, Canada, or Israel either before or after WWII. Many contemporary Jewish-American artists, born in the U.S., have parents who emigrated from Eastern Europe or who escaped the Holocaust.

Among modern and contemporary Jewish painters and sculptors are: Camille Pissarro, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani, Jules Pascin, Chaim Soutine, Jacques Lipchitz, Jacob Epstein, Max Ernst, Man Ray, Louise Nevelson, Ben Shawn, Julien Freud, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Raphael & Moses Soyer, Morris Louis, Roy Lichtenstein, Helen Frankenthaler.

Among modern andcontemporary Jewisharchitects are: FrankGehry, Louis Kahn, MarcelBreuer, Richard Meier,Daniel Liebeskind, andMoshe Safdie.

Bottom, left to right:--Raphael Soyer, “Men at the Mission,” oil, 1935--Louise Nevelson, “White Vertical Water,” painted wood, 1972--Jacques Lipchitz, “The Reader,” bronze, 1919.

Marc Chagall was one of the 20th century’s greatest artists. He is known as a modernist (he moved from Russia to France after WWI) who synthesized major artistic styles like Cubism and Fauvism with distinctive subject matter drawn from his Russian-Jewish childhood and his interest in religious narrative. During his long life (1887 – 1985) he worked ceaselessly in a variety of media, including oil, stained glass, printmaking, and book illustration. He was admired as a brilliant colorist and for his singular, usually joyous visions of magical vanished worlds. Despite the dream-like quality of his symbolic vocabulary, he was an assiduous life-long student who traveled the world to study art, landscape, and people. He escaped Vichy France for the U.S. in 1941, but retained his loveof France, and of Russia, until he died.

Clockwise, from left:--”Ceiling of the Paris Opera,” 1963, oil on canvasses--”The Twelve Tribes of Israel,” stained glass installation at Hadassah Hospital’s Synagogue, Jerusalem--”Les Maries de la Tour Eiffel,” oils, 1939--”The Circus Rider,” lithograph after a 1970 oil painting--”The Fiddler,” oils, 1912