Blog 8: Synagogues

I honestly can’t believe I did not think of it to begin with. When going through different culturally significant art forms, a synagogue just did not cross my mind.  Sometimes, the things you know the best, that are so ordinary to you, can in actuality be something extremely significant.

And boy do I know synagogues, or as I call it, “shul”.  Every holiday my family attends, and my father goes every single day of the week. It is a place where Jews congregate to pray. They date back all the way to around 70 CE when the 2^nd Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and the Romans sent the Jews to Diaspora.  Jews everywhere began to set up synagogues to pray in.

It is not just the fact that Synagogues are a center for Jewish prayer, for thousands of years they have been a center for Jewish life. There are old synagogue still standing all over the world, each one containing its own rich history. Additionally, they have artistic accents and architectural designs; depending on what time period they were made.

I was thinking about why synagogues are so artistically significant. Then I realized, any country I have ever visited, I have gone to the old and new synagogues in that place. There is something beautiful about being able to connect to Jews from hundreds of years ago through a building and to bear witness to the thriving culture of that time.

This summer my friend Jacqueline and I went to Italy.  It was my first time so I was basically a slave to my maps and Frommer’s guidebook. Yet in every city, we made it our prerogative to visit the Synagogue there. The one in Rome was especially noteworthy. It was huge and towering. Inside there was a museum created, with artifacts from Jewish life in Rome throughout the years. It was crazy to see what other Jews had used to observe and how rich the Jewish life had been there before WWII. What was even crazier was the actual Synagogue, which had been redone in the early 1900s, was still there as well; people still prayed there. The guide told us stories about how during the war the Nazis did not bomb it because it was considered one of the beautiful pieces of architecture in the city of Rome.

Not only are Synagogues significant to the Jewish community all over the world for their architectural beauty and their artistry (many old synagogues have beautiful mosaics with symbols of astrology, as well beautiful decorative walls and windows), but also they sadly symbolize, in many places, a community that once was. A community that at a point was thriving and now has been completely decimated.

This past year, I took a gap year and studied in Israel.  At the beginning of the year, you have the option to go on a week trip to Poland and learn about the holocaust that took place there. I went on this trip in late October, as did many other people in my school. It was probably one of the most significant experiences in my life thus far. On the trip, not only did we visit concentration camps that the Nazis set up to annihilate the Jews of Europe, but we also visited many synagogues that were still standing from before the war. Seeing all these synagogues was bitter sweet. They were so beautiful and rich with history culture and art, but it also made me realize what no longer existed in all these cities in Poland, and really most of Eastern Europe. There was such a rich life, it thrived and encapsulated joy and exuberance. Now, the remnants are these beautiful, dainty artifacts. There was one synagogue we visited that was no longer recognizable. The government turned it into a library. As we entered the area with all the bookshelves, we were told to look at the wall that the shelves were thrust against. There, hidden, were beautiful paintings that were once where the Torah, the scroll with the Old Testament in it, was placed. Now, all that remains is a wall with paint and multiple bullet holes, for Nazis would take Jews there to murder them.

Writing this blog has brought back memories from my Poland trip and has really reminded me of the significance of synagogues to the Jewish community all over the world. Sometimes, the things you know best, the places that are most ordinary to you, can in actuality, be extremely extraordinary and significant.