Wooden Synagogues Exhibition

Wooden Synagogues: Recovering History through Art and Architecture, an exhibition coordinated by Rick and Laura Brown of Handshouse Studio in Norwell, Massachusetts, will be displayed on the Main Level of Mudd Center from Wednesday, September 2 to Friday, November 20, 2009. The exhibition, which features artwork completed by Oberlin students, illustrates an exceptional flowering of synagogue architecture that took place in Jewish market towns in Poland from the 16th century until the Holocaust.

Enter here to see the slide show of this exhibit...

The exhibition focuses on two synagogues built in Zabludow (1637) and Gwozdziec (1731). Both are outstanding examples of the hundreds of wooden synagogues constructed and remodeled in Poland from the 17th century until their destruction by the Nazis following Germany’s invasion of Poland in World War II. According to the Browns, "the synagogues, with elaborately painted interiors, are among the finest and most complete creations of Jewish art and architecture."

The objects in the exhibition, which were created by students participating in workshops at the Massachusetts College of Art and at Oberlin, include two large-scale construction models of both synagogues and a full scale model of the Zabludow synagogue log wall and entry door. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a full-scale replica of the Gwozdziec synagogue’s wooden bimah (platform for reading the Torah) and eight half-scale replicas of painted ceiling panels from the same synagogue. The replicas of both the entry door and the bimah were hand-made using traditional materials and techniques of carving, turning, joinery, and steam bending. The exhibition also includes architectural drawings, historical photographs, diagrams, maps, and text descriptions.

Two of the colorful, elaborately-painted ceiling panels were created by Oberlin students during Winter Term projects in 2005 and 2009. The panels, which include zodiac symbols, arabesques, animal images, and floral designs divided by white strips inscribed with Hebrew text, were painted by the students using 18th century processes under the Browns’ direction.

Rick and Laura Brown are professors of sculpture at the Massachusetts College of Art and founding directors of Handshouse Studio, a nonprofit organization that educates students in history, science, and the arts through innovative, hands-on reconstruction projects of lost historical objects. The Browns' work has been featured on the Discovery Channel, television stations in England and France, on the PBS program Nova, and in National Geographic and Smithsonian magazines. Their replica of the Zabludow synagogue was displayed in Mudd Center in 2005 along with photographs and drawings of the Gwozdziec synagogue (see Perspectives, Spring 2005).

The Friends of the Library will sponsor an opening reception and lecture by the Browns on September 2. The exhibition is being coordinated in conjunction with Associate Professor of History Shulamet Magnus’ course on East European Jewery.

The Wooden Synagogues: Recovering History through Art and Architecture exhibition is made possible by a generous gift from the Ring Family.