2011/01/01 by Barry L. Stiefel · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Historical and Religious Studies of Rome #Archaeology and Historical Studies #Historical and Archaeological Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/leobaeck/ybr006
openalex publication_date 2011/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Throughout the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, synagogues across Christian Europe were generally small and, as far as their exteriors were concerned, they adhered to prevailing norms of vernacular architecture, so as to be “invisible” or at least unrecognizable as houses of worship.1 This was not just a defensive measure by Jews in order to avoid unwanted attention but was also a result of the restrictions placed upon the Jewish populace by the government which required that they be inconspicuous. Synagogues are important artefacts of Jewish material culture. Their size renders them immovable and they represent a substantial investment in resources. This either requires a communal investment or a significant sum from a benevolent benefactor. Like any form of art, a statement is made through the production, visibility, and maintenance of synagogue architecture. Therefore a “great synagogue” constitutes a much larger, more pronounced statement. The cultural meaning of a great synagogue can be echoed, and thus reinforced, when aspects of its architectural design are duplicated elsewhere. With the coming of Renaissance philosophy, the Age of Reason, and Jewish urbanization in Christian Europe – primarily in the seventeenth-century Holy Roman Empire, Poland-Lithuania, and the Netherlands – synagogue architecture, art, and size began to change significantly.2 The increased size and architectural splendour of these great buildings led to the development of a formal public space around the edifice, requiring additional planning and design. This changed the relationship between the synagogue and its urban environment. With room to breathe and grow, the first great synagogues paved the way for their successors’ rise in the nineteenth century to heights that would be plain for all to see on the city skyline. Most scholars agree that the Early Modern period (1400-1700) was a time of great social change, especially with respect to the urbanization of European Jewry. These changes did not occur in isolation. For instance, the Ashkenazim who participated in this urbanization were culturally tied together. In the sixteenth century, Poland-Lithuania and the Netherlands were destinations for large numbers of Jews from German states seeking a better way of life.3 These countries’ cities were the epicentres from which the first great synagogues sprang forth. Why was this so? Was population increase alone the reason for the development of great synagogues in cities during the seventeenth century? Indeed, the synagogues discussed here were not eclipsed in terms of size, stature, and architectural grandeur until more than a hundred years later, with the advent of Jewish emancipation in post-Napoleonic Europe.4 This is extraordinary when we consider that the number of urbanized Jews during the eighteenth century was higher than in the seventeenth. The aim of this article, then, is to gain a greater understanding of how the first great urban synagogues of Early Modern Christian Europe were social, architectural, and religious forerunners of communities elsewhere around the globe. Therefore, the emphasis in this analysis will be on the cultural significance of architecture rather than on aesthetics or structural innovations (the normative approach to architectural history). The question of who built these edifices and what was involved in terms of urban planning, as well as the circumstances enabling their development, will be discussed here. Dean Phillip Bell, the prominent historian of Early Modern Jewish history, has observed that “[t]he architecture of the synagogue often shared the structure and look of the general architecture surrounding it. In part, this was due to the fact that Jews did not want, or were not allowed, to have the synagogue stand out.”5 With the exceptions covered here, this was generally the case. Nevertheless, in order to appreciate the exceptional nature of the first great synagogues, an understanding of the typical, smaller, vernacular synagogue is essential. Regulation of synagogues by Christianity began in Antiquity. The Eastern Roman Emperor, Theodosius II (401-50 C.E.), prohibited the construction of new synagogues as well as decreed that Christians who vandalized a synagogue and later converted it into a church could escape prosecution. Theodosius II’s edicts came after more than a century of synagogue desecration by the same Christian mobs which desecrated pagan religious sites. Government regulations discriminating against pagans were also enacted.6 Though not uniformly enforced, thus began the move in official policy by Christian governments towards the suppression of synagogues and other non-Christian places of worship. Medieval European monarchs reused this precedent to varying degrees. Indeed, more material culture relating to synagogues survives from the Classical period (pre-sixth century C.E.), particularly from archaeological sites, than from the Early Middle Ages (sixth century to c. 1000).7 Nevertheless, during the Early and High Middle Ages (c. 1000-1300), many Christian rulers found that they needed the services of Jews for purposes of commerce, finance, medicine, etc. This was the leverage Medieval European Jewry used to bargain for synagogues, but their permissibility came with the stipulation that the building could not be larger than the churches within the city or town, nor could it be architecturally more significant. Jewish urban populations were generally smaller than they would become in the Early Modern period, so they had fewer resources to pool. Furthermore, Medieval Jewry was predominantly poor, periodically subject to extortion by its Christian rulers, and often threatened with expulsion. Christian mobs continued to desecrate synagogues just as they had in the past. Since Jews desired to avoid this unwanted attention, the incentive to build synagogues of architectural significance was stifled. Placing the building in an inconspicuous location became important. Synagogues needed to be designed small and with little exterior architectural adornment. However, innovations did appear in their interiors, such as placing the ground floor below street level in order to provide greater vertical height on the inside. Eventually these adaptations became a tradition, or minhag, for some Jewish communities in their own right even when these communities were not being directly restricted. With the coming of the Protestant Reformation and the Wars of Religion, a vernacular architectural tradition for small urban churches began in countries such as the Netherlands, England, and the Holy Roman Empire, for tolerated minority Christian sects.8 A parallel situation also existed on the frontier between Catholic and Orthodox Christianity in Eastern Europe. Vernacular churches for the official Christian sect did exist but were more common in rural areas with sparser populations and less wealth. What sets these small vernacular churches apart from the others is that generally they did not have to fear persecution from the state or the local populace. Therefore, synagogues were not alone as regards their of a vernacular tradition for the purposes of in Christian Europe. on and of Early Modern Jewish in was as a of vernacular synagogue architecture. is a from the of This city was a of during the Early Modern period, and some of the of urban to its In its Since the to the city many Jews continued to of were at least and to have had Jewish of these and was tied to and was the Jewish in began in much to the of government of Jewish were in during the seventeenth century, with a in and the first the in This synagogue first built during the sixteenth century in the The and rather was by Christian nor by the Jewish of fear or the architecture was by Jewish in order to the synagogue of the tradition of Jewish in which they in building inconspicuous synagogues in this of was but had become an Jewish tradition, in to other synagogues that were built in the of for purposes is of greater than to the of synagogue architecture from the period For in a synagogue was the this time also a as well as a In Jewish are as within the which had a population of of the Jews within is from a from c. The is not However, what is with the of of and and the is the The Jewish within was significant to the of the synagogue with the church and that the vertical height of the synagogue is not of the building is made by the with the of of and by in by and of the of with the of of and by in by and of the of In a of of some of which in The synagogues, which architecturally houses of a common in Medieval and Early Modern Christian enabling them to into the of the urban The was a building with vernacular architecture, of a The or is an vernacular construction to Europe that was in the sixteenth synagogues were in Jewish at the of the of Jews during the seventeenth century, the exterior of the Jewish communal buildings is and more than would have the had they not an This is in to with its of a Christian building in a of this The synagogues of by from of the of The synagogues of by from of the of Christian the of Jewish public space and the architecture in greater The first a within the Jewish The a of the in relationship to the to at as the Jewish in the of the and These that public space existed around the synagogues on a small This public space was by it was at the of the and for the of could the space but it was a they would have had to synagogues and the public space surrounding them were thus not particularly significant to the to the Christian of the of to the Christian of the of of the in the public space of Jewish Christian of the of of the in the public space of Jewish Christian of the of Christian great synagogues of in the cities and large of Poland-Lithuania in the and the Netherlands in the countries were a of the Early Modern period, between the and and were to Jews for by populations and was across much of Early Modern Europe as the from the of In Jewish communities within Poland-Lithuania and the Netherlands were a cultural and religious environment. with a of and by the that the was for the of Jewish architecture. and in Jewish culture during the Early Modern period a significant in the of larger With an Jewish population in urban with the of during the seventeenth century, for more synagogue The of urban Jewish communities came from a and which from countries of Jews as well as from rural in synagogues could be with either through the construction of additional such as in or larger is within Early Modern synagogues, the larger that greater attention was to space than in the with more substantial areas or to the and (the of a for architecturally into the synagogue was the increased for synagogue space to the for worship. was needed in synagogues for and to in the of and had become more with the of by the seventeenth century, Poland-Lithuania, the Netherlands, the Holy Roman Empire, and were to Jewish Indeed, Jewish in was so that it became a significant that tied Jewish communities and The much of and Eastern its the and With these Jewish populations in urban also a larger communal government – a within the synagogues the space needed for these Jewish communities required a greater of of the the of the of and of the for are of the that Jewish communal in Early Modern Poland-Lithuania, the Netherlands, and the they were all in these countries’ cities and the of and with the of in the found with Jewish and Jewry was urban and urban areas had Jewish populations of a with and as as In Jews as much as of a city or of great synagogues during the sixteenth and seventeenth made of and built of This analysis will on great synagogues with attention being to their is great synagogues built especially with respect to their size and exterior architectural design. Indeed, buildings are from the seventeenth c. c. and c. to to the and to in to and they A tradition of smaller, vernacular synagogues was also across Eastern Europe. The of the great synagogue as to its smaller, vernacular was the of which and thus on architectural and that the great synagogues from the of the seventeenth The great synagogues, such as the in the and the in are all as in the eighteenth great synagogues are found in cities and with large Jewish such as and With the of a of such as little urban planning and design in Therefore, the of these and synagogues is within a urban The restrictions size and design in the Middle Ages for continued to be in great synagogues, these In ground were below street level in Poland-Lithuania, these synagogues than churches on the This was the for the of which from but had an height of in the of the from a vernacular synagogue to a of the building are to from the to The a which was used in synagogues in Europe. is that is the to have used this In the synagogue was by years later (c. an in was to and the for were to the synagogue so that it could also as a The architecture a of and due to the made to it. and were also made to the building during the eighteenth and nineteenth synagogues, such as are as a synagogue with placed around the In buildings as great synagogues during the seventeenth century they were designed in the which placed great emphasis on this of the in of the of of the in of the of to many of synagogues was the of in a in their through the of at of the the and thus the into These the of the of the used in the in is an of how this design was historian has this to architectural by and and their (c. This design was to by the for in it became and it was in Indeed, and on architecture and urban design was and across seventeenth-century the Netherlands we see of the in of the of of the in of the of to the of and the buildings in many on great synagogues is However, on the of the and seventeenth-century great synagogues we the can be the urban Jewish communities the to synagogues of great and in the to design and build their This with However, the of and in Poland-Lithuania were the and the Catholic – not the Jews are as for Early Modern great this was significant in that Jews did with architecture, and planning, as will be discussed This in Eastern Europe and the the of the seventeenth century, the a period of due to and such as the and the and this is architecturally in the form of The of in is of that also as In to synagogues also had and designed for the development of a synagogue was as of a of against Like their Christian such as built in and in is in a design to the of in to in Jewish in Poland-Lithuania into and with the of the which until The was by a of of the by and during the and The began the in which Poland-Lithuania was with against the the of the seventeenth century, Poland-Lithuania had become and and a significant of its numbers of Jews had and many to other in of such as the The and for the construction of great synagogues as built of or Therefore, from c. to the we a of new great synagogue until the eighteenth century did but even it did not to the of is at the of the eighteenth century and later – with the of Jewry from the of that the of the seventeenth century – that the period of great synagogue development with such at c. and in synagogues, as well as the more at and in the for the purposes of relating to urban synagogues and Jewish in Poland-Lithuania from the to eighteenth could not be Synagogues of Poland-Lithuania built of This is not being a of synagogues that could be from the it a significant with in during the sixteenth and seventeenth synagogues that were after their construction in order to them Synagogues of Poland-Lithuania built of This is not being a of synagogues that could be from the it a significant with in during the sixteenth and seventeenth synagogues that were after their construction in order to them to Poland-Lithuania, the Jewish population within the Netherlands and was Jewish to the Netherlands in when the of from the to This from and Ashkenazim from and Eastern Europe. existed in – and – and all in is a for a vernacular of – as were for religious Protestant and – to a – Jews this building during this In Ashkenazim from the to form a due to in vernacular and This desired was in with the of a is that by the Ashkenazim in to the more at Jewish the had made an to build a synagogue to after Indeed, in the had a to build a synagogue for public but had from the A was thus made with the was to be built as a on that it would be by a who would it to the years later, a of for the first which was in With the of the and to form the which also in this synagogue became the religious and of This building was a larger than the by and was the the the and were The of the exterior it in the seventeenth-century as by size and architectural in to other synagogues in Christian Europe it apart as can how the architecture of their edifice, but what is is that the exterior is vernacular – as was for and synagogues in such as – nor a Jewish of a first Jewish of an in The as the built in This was designed by the in the The was of the in the Jewry also in for policy of religious The of the of the in built by of the of The of the of the in built by of the of was a with exterior architectural its a of greater synagogues came to it. its and on a city at the of and a was the in in the by by in this prominent by at its The of which architecture is generally was not the height of but also well with the Jewish of in The many exterior architectural to prominent building designed around the same time by with the built in These buildings were of being large edifices with and to the was the first to the that would become and even in the great synagogues of Europe and during the nineteenth and of the from the and by of the of of the from the and by of the of on Jewish in the city in the seventeenth century far than The within was in a by the city and development during this This urban and of the was through the of the in by it is who is with this to as city The not but also of the city to as well as design for and buildings to of urban design. The of this came from the of – the of planning – which was and at the and was as the of and be in the way Jews and other tolerated minority such as were their own their own city a or of could be of could be used on exterior for purposes of architectural and and were within a the of commerce, and within the In other was more than just the of the but also the urban and of the well as being architecturally then, other synagogue in the Christian had so within a as the century planning was also the in Europe to consider minority in a Indeed, on city for of c. in the for the is from of for the city of within the is the The is the of the of from of for the city of within the is the The is the of the of In of the to build a larger had at least had large for its but were also of at Ashkenazim were in the of the larger, more The a building and, a new of was in the – which to be just across the street from the and were to for the new and of the was of the great synagogue was to just a with for the of The and all resources were to the it was that the building was not until This synagogue came to be the the for and later as a of for others across the Netherlands and England, and their in the The the of the to a The synagogue which an city an statement within the urban of the The exterior architecture not the but also other important buildings in designed or by and the time of its construction the was not the synagogue in Europe but of the houses of in by at the – thus larger than its across the city to its size, and the became a for and Jews from all such as and and the synagogue in its urban through which were In these the apart as the synagogue of Early Modern Europe. until the nineteenth century was the by other synagogues in either or cultural of the from the and by of the of of the from the and by of the of synagogues are on the same city the public space around the the that Jews around the of their the buildings were the street to the The that the not the space from public to the size, additional synagogues were to the its the built in built in and the built in The and are smaller, vernacular buildings that stand in the However, the designed by is a significant that not with the but also architectural from across Eastern Europe are from the seventeenth century of Jews being involved in the construction of or the of was the building synagogue sixteenth and seventeenth as well as significant to the The synagogue of is to In we a to who had a Christian of to the could be found any buildings to – a the with these little is the Early Modern Jews who first in the building particularly with respect to their and with the of as was a and In the became by in and a of architectural a and a of this Since was of a structure for these were in a on seventeenth-century and the These architectural were from to Renaissance architecture and of such as by and design for the also as a cultural of for many Jews and In and of the were when were to the exterior in of architectural with a of an architectural of below by was of and was of a of Jewish in during the seventeenth of the of with a of an architectural of below by was of and was of a of Jewish in during the seventeenth of the of A Jewish in urban planning and design also on the of the This came of the for for which the Jews the the Jews needed a to especially after their from with the the of the Jewish became the within the with as its and With the to them by the the Jews their with the synagogue at the of their and The was on a which the and had a street The in was in the of a on of a at the of the is to the was the that the from and For its small size, was a and a small at which could the were to buildings within the as well as the of by of the of of by of the of on and of the that the of the have in the design of the For instance, the by The of the that the of a be the – a found in – as well as that the and church be placed on the within the Furthermore, the of the that a be built around the for defensive purposes against from around the of the are sets of that as to a that has its of is This is by the that design not the of planning as by – and in and – such as city and to minority For who were culturally and the would have a of planning it a urban of have and cities in their to their to and in particularly the would also have had to the of and on architecture and the of and on design and architecture, not the of the were architectural of are a in for had and However, design was not The architecture of the buildings was as the was a in rural The were either from the Netherlands at architectural have also Jewish aspects of planning were also of to the of appear to have adhered to the regulations from the that a synagogue to be built at the of a town, and that it be than any more than a small town, this in Jewish planning was in that it was the by a Christian government to be by Jews in the Early Modern great synagogue architecture and design in the Netherlands and Poland-Lithuania was a of to innovations were by the urbanization of The of within the Jewish communities also had a significant on the development of great synagogues during the Early Modern their of Jewish which they desired to through synagogue more space had to be for them in order to with the of within the and were the is also at this time that more space within the synagogue was being to the aspects of communal and a which was more during this Though of these first great synagogues were not the with the nineteenth and which on in and structural they were the great of Early Modern Jewry. Though a apart from their vernacular and these buildings could or would as can be in the of ground floor below street level or the of architecture. In the of the and of the Jews to build a urban the policy in the Medieval in its of a on exterior Though in some in the Netherlands, Jewry had greater to the of Christian Europe. with the of for great synagogue design they to of the significant of architecture in all of the Netherlands – the of the began continued and after the planning and construction of the The was designed by of the