From time to time we signal new publications on Jewish built heritage. This time — here is information on two books; one a new publication for the anniversary of a synagogue, the other a new edition of one of the most influential books on synagogue architecture to be published after World War II.
New edition of “Heaven’s Gates” (Bramy Nieba)
By Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka
The POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, in collaboration with the Polish Institute of World Art Studies, has published a new, extended edition — in English and Polish — of the book Heaven’s Gates: Wooden Synagogues in the Territories of the Former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The book was published in the late 1990s, as an updated reprint of the Piechotkas’ first, landmark book on wooden synagogues that had been published (in Polish) in 1957, with an English version released two years later. It is one of the most important research resources on the history and heritage of Polish Jews. The new re-publication was undertaken in connection with the exhibit at the POLIN museum: Frank Stella and Synagogues of Historic Poland.
The exhibit presents a collection of works by the contemporary American painter that were inspired by the Polish wooden synagogues that were destroyed by the Nazis during the Holocaust — his interest was sparked, in fact, by the the Piechotkas’ book.
Along with Stella’s works, historic photographs and architectural drawings of the synagogues and other material will be shown.
Golders Green Synagogue: the First 100 Years
By Helen Fry
Halsgrove. ISBN 978 0 85704 280 4, hardback, 297x210mm, 160 pages. Published January 2016.
A fully illustrated history of the Golders Green Synagogue in London, founded in 1915 during the First World War. At the turn of the 20th century, Golders Green comprised mainly open fields but the coming of the underground precipitated rapid development. Jews began to move into the area from places like Kilburn and Cricklewood. Most of the land was owned by Church Commissioners from whom the congregation eventually purchased its plot in Dunstan Road to erect the first purpose-built synagogue in Golders Green, consecrated in 1922. From small beginnings of circa. 20 members, it soon became a thriving congregation with over 1,500 members at its peak. In recent times, the Grade II Listed synagogue underwent refurbishment and was transformed from a tired, dilapidated building to a modern, regenerated place of prayer.