Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is observed next week and inaugurates the Jewish High Holy Days — a month of observances that mingle prayer, reflection and repentance with celebration as we begin the new cycle of the seasons.
As a sign of beginnings — and new beginnings — a number of synagogues over the decades were either inaugurated when newly built or rededicated after a restoration around (or on) Rosh Hashanah.
This year, we thought we would highlight a few of them in the days and weeks around the holiday.
Today we note the synagogue in Versailles, France, designed by the architect Alfred-Philibert Aldrophe and inaugurated on September 22, 1886 with both a religious ceremony and a high-profile public event that was reported in the mainstream press.
With a tripartite facade with a raised center section and big rose window, the synagogue is still used — though the congregation today is composed of Sephardic Jews with origins in Morocco, rather than the Ashkenzazic Jews who built it and originally worshiped there.
What makes the inauguration of this synagogue so special is that an enormous book with ornately carved wooden covers, hand-painted pages and luscious photographs, was commissioned for the event.
As the on-line exhibition “Life of the Synagogue,” mounted by the special collections department of the College of Charleston, SC’s, Addlestone Library, which owns a copy of the book, puts it:
While it was created for the dedication, the volume’s true purpose is to honor the woman whose generosity enabled the synagogue to come into being: Cécile Furtado-Heine (1821–1896), a philanthropist who fully funded the construction. Two marble plaques located next to the synagogue’s main entrance, one in Hebrew and one in French, commemorate her munificence: “Ce temple dédié à l’Éternel a été édifié par Madame Cécile Furtado-Heine, que son nom passant de génération en génération soit béni, Septembre 1886.” Furtado-Heine’s generosity was so central to the construction of the synagogue that this inscription is rendered in a beautiful hand-painted illustration included in the dedication book.
The Life of the Synagogue web site — and also the Addlestone Library blog — publish each page of the book in digital form, so that each can be admired with the click of a button.
The digitized pages also include the text of speeches given by the Grand Rabbi of Paris Zadoc Kahn, Rabbi Emmanuel Weill, and Rabbi Mahir Charleville at the the synagogue’s inauguration. Rabbi Kahn’s speech praised Madame Furtado-Heine for her generosity, stating that her name should be “among the list of pious Jewish women to be remembered by history.”
Other pages of the book include the seating plan of the synagogue and the handwritten scores for two pieces composed by Jules Cohen, including a new setting of the Shema.
Do take a look at the links and marvel at this magnificent book!
Life of the Synagogue online exhibition
Addlestone Library Special Collections Blog
.