The Synagogue »

Synagogues, their history and decoration, represent an illuminating record of the cultural and artistic history of the Jewish people. As a focal point for the community as well as a spiritual centre, the synagogue has both a symbolic and a practical significance. From its origins in the Tabernacle, through the exuberant Venetian synagogues of the Renaissance, to the often stark simplicity of modern buildings, H A Meek examines the fascinating story of the building central to every Jewish community. His spirited narrative shows the ways in which a vast array of cultural influences have merged to produce a rich and coherent heritage in the fields of architecture and decoration.

Publishers Weekly

More than a gloriously illustrated celebration of the Jewish synagogue, this stirring album charts Jewish history, culture and worship through the prism of Jews' houses of worship. Beginning with Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, completed in 950 BCE, British architectural historian Meek surveys early synagogues of the Greco-Roman world, ornate Islamic-style temples built under Moslem rule in Spain, Renaissance and Baroque prayer-houses of Venice and Padua. We visit the Great Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam (1671-75), spiritual center of western Sephardim, the extraordinary wooden temples of Poland, built as early as 1642 (all torched by the Germans in WWII), Marc Chagall's stained-glass windows depicting the Twelve Tribes of Israel in a Jerusalem synagogue and modernist temples in the U.S. designed by Walter Gropius, Philip Johnson and Frank Lloyd Wright. More than 200 prints, architectural drawings, paintings and photographs, most in color, complement an informal text to evoke the synagogue as a reservoir of spiritual strength and renewal. (June)