Anyone who has read about or looked at Judaica quickly realizes how little knowledge we possess about these artifacts, even after decades of serious research. This is due to a variety of factors, including the absence of records, the lack of stamps or hallmarks, the lost legacy of folk traditions, which ceased to be handed down to succeeding generations, the intentional destruction of artifacts during pogroms, and finally, what could not be saved during the Holocaust. It’s moving to see the fruits of collaborative efforts by those who fervently desire to resurrect the treasures of a vanished legacy. A few have been inspired to go beyond history to create and advance new projects.

The Wooden Synagogues

Constructed during the 16th and 17th centuries by mostly itinerant artisans and carpenters, the handsome, undecorated exteriors of wooden synagogues in Poland and Lithuania contrasted with the baroque opulence of the visuals in the sanctuary, where religious and secular imagery—including botanical motifs, zodiac symbols and paintings of fantastic and real animals like unicorns, goats, squirrels, and even ostriches—covered entire surfaces like a tapestry. Copying and describing these designs, the great Russian artist El Lissitzky was among the few late 19th and early 20th century observers who contributed to our knowledge of the synagogues.

Many of these ephemeral structures were lost to natural and manmade disasters even before the Holocaust, when the remainder was destroyed. Interest in them continued and greatly increased with the 1959 publication of Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka’s milestone “Wooden Synagogues,” a detailed catalogue that included an abundance of drawings and rare photos.

Stella’s Masterworks

When architect Richard Meier gave a copy of “Wooden Synagogues” to American artist Frank Stella (1936-2024), it provided the impetus for his “Polish Village” series, masterworks which date to the early 1970s. Through a process which began with his intense study of the book’s illustrations, and then the production of detailed drawings and paintings, Stella advanced his own artistic experiments into both form and process. Mounted on the wall, the large-scale constructions which comprise the series are “translations” that convert the synagogues’ tiered and segmented architecture into intersecting, colored geometric forms; they are constructed mostly from felt and mounted on cardboard, allowing sections to jut out from the work’s surface, to cross, or to merge, the line between painting and sculpture. While some commentators have attributed meanings to “The Polish Village” series, these terrific works are, for the most part, valued precisely because they are experienced as non-referential.

Reconstruction of the Ceiling of the Synagogue in Gwoździec, Poland

Conceived in 2003 by the educational foundation, Handshouse Studio, “MAKING/HISTORY: the Wooden Synagogue Project,” achieved the miraculous: the creation of an exact replica of the roof, polychromed ceiling and bimah of the now-destroyed Poland Gwoździec Synagogue. The original building had been extensively photographed and documented prior to 1914, when it was immolated by drunken soldiers. Handshouse’s founders, Rick and Laura Brown, enlisted the help of individuals and groups worldwide, including Judaica experts and researchers, teachers, artists and conservators, architects, carpenters and about 200 student volunteers. The foundation is committed to facilitating “adventurous hands-on projects as a way to illuminate history.”

Now exhibited at the POLIN-Museum of the History of the Polish Jews in Warsaw, these artifacts, their histories, and photographs of them as works in progress can be accessed through Handshouse’s extensive educational website devoted to history and Judaica. An award-winning documentary, “Raise the Roof,” is available for streaming.

Children’s Book: “The Ceiling”

Published this spring in Israel, Wanda Peretz’s children’s book “The Ceiling” is informed by her love of Jewish history, her faith, and her decades-long study of the wooden synagogues. Here, text and image join forces to take readers back in time to tell the story of the two artisans responsible for the Gwoździec synagogue and the team effort required to build and paint it. Boris Shapiro’s illustrations, some of which pop up or fold out, embellish the narrative with magical elements.

Peretz, who made a seven-year study of the wooden synagogues before writing her book, has described the text as a narrative poem.

Published in Israel, a limited edition of “The Ceiling” can be purchased through Peretz’s website.

If you are interested in learning more about former synagogues, check out our podcast episode about the “This Used to Be a Synagogue” project, which explores the sites of former shuls in lower Manhattan.

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Cheryl Kempler is an art and music specialist who works in the B’nai B’rith International Curatorial Office and writes about history and Jewish culture for B’nai B’rith Magazine. To view some of her additional content, click here.