A merica Awish periodical CeNter
CLIFTON ATINU1 - CINCINNATI 30, OHIO
HRONICL -
11EbETROIX
5686
THE ONLY JEWISH NEWSPAPER PRINTED IN MICHIGAN
DETROIT, MICHIGAN, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1925
VOL. XVIII. NO. 17
Section Two
Towards a Modern Synagogue Architecture
• ■ •••
••• ■ •
SEASON'S (MEETINGS
By LEWIS MUMFORD
Rosh Hashonah Greetings to Our
Many Friends from
Watkins
Cigar Stores Co.
Wholesale and Retail
Among the wide assortment of Cigars you
will find here are:
I Desire to Wish All My Jewish Friends
A Happy and Prosperous New Year.
duced to its essence: the esthetic ex- function—if nothing more than shade
I.
faced by the pression of a clearly determined against the sun—is the basis of all
is
The
problem
that
Jew in his buildings is similar to that function; and these buildings have buildings; but it is not, of course, the
which confronts every old culture therefore a universal quality which all of building. Every monument
puts them above the eddies of custom and edifice is also the expression of
en-
when it is brought
into
new must
vironment,
and when
its a forms
and fashion and creed: even their an idea. This idea has two aspects:
ac - it has an esthetic aspect which de-
be adapted to new needs and circum. ruins can nowadays be mistaken,
stances. But with the Jew this prob. cording to Professor W. R. Lethaby, rives from the architect's attempt to
lem is chequered by a multitude of for new buildings not yet completed. lift the practical demands into the
I historical influences which have med.! We call this mode Byzantine, because realm of design, as that the structure
Jewish culture itself as many-sided in the hundred little experiments in will hold together and communicate
some respects as the lands in which Syria and Egypt were finally crowned a significant impression even to one
the Jew has dwelt since the Disper. in the great church of St. Sophia at who does not use the building; and it
sion. To single out the valid and Byzantium; but the elements of this has a cultural aspect, in that the
vital elements in Jewish culture and style have lingered on in I'alestine building must convey symbolically the
to establish them securely in the through all the vicissitudes of the last purpose for which it is used. There
1,500 years; one may see them still, is a sense, of course, in which every
midst
ob- ' in the Arab villages, where the sim- building is an "expression:" a Bronx
viously of is the
no Machine
easy task Age—this
for the archi-
tect: indeed, it is only as the Jewish' pie cubical masses are capped here tenement expresses the apathy of the
community itself approaches a soli- and there by domes; and the heritage newspaper reader towards the enter-
tion that he himself will be able to is plainly much broader than that of nal world and the greed of the land-
I use expression
embody it tentatively in his buildings. any one community, even as the be- lord for rents. But
here in a more restricted sense; and
lief in a single deity is common to
I
mean
the
architect's
attempt to
Still, with old structures wearing 1 Jew, Christian and Mohammedan.
In architecture, said the sage his- make the utilitarian elements of a
out and with new congregations
0111.1.0.1
HAROLD M. DAVIS
—
MAX BROOCK, INC.
— WITH
REALTORS
3.234 GENERAL MOTORS BUILDING
Phone Empire 8783
needing a new home, the quest fns' torian, Viollet-le-duc, only primitive' building convey certain esthetic and
an appropriate form for synagogues, sources supply the energy for a long . cultural meanings, even as the homely
and temples has become an urgent career. If we noun by primitive an, words of a parable may convey an
Langsdorf Selection
Bering&
one; and the problem cannot be put . architecture which springs from fun- abstract dictum or truth or virtue
,
La Primadora
aside until the general relation of damental forms and not from eater-, Better a blank wall than a meretrici-
Cressida
1=110 01=101=01=10=101=01
Jewish culture to Western civilize- nal methods of treatment, we may be , ous or insincere expression!
Nottingham
Cortez
(ion has been
adequately
examined ' confident that we can still build vie• Now, it is conceivable that all the
hed out.
The architectural
modern building
Horse Heads
El Tyco
and shoes
of the Jew in fact give a co 1- rously and freshly from the basis requirements of a
"Byzan- could be met by putting the roof at
needs
Ottina
Ignacia Haya
crate basis for working out the prob- tine"
' laid builder.
down by This
the original
I
i
the street level and excavating down-
is a point that
lem. What are the resources of tea• shall return to later in my discussion. , wards; sonic of our more Ingenious
Ilow f
; architects and engineers actually look
Remember That
ditional Jewish culture?
III
David Whitney Building
forward to a time when office work
can they be utilized tod ay? Should
O
a synagogue be in harmony with the I While oriental architecture con- , shall be done entirely under artificial O
buildings around it, or should it stand I timed its development, the locus of light in buildings which are without
Wolverine Hotel
Majestic Building
out and proclaim the cultural indi-lJewish culture ceased to be in Pales-! windows, and perhaps, from the re-
viduality of the Jewish community? ! tine alone; and instead of finding a stricted standpoint of need, these
These are some of the questions we', single path in Jewish architectural, buildings would be admirable exam-
must ask when we sit down with the tradition, we presently become lost
architect and confront the situation ; in the same wilderness of historic ' the
the standpoint
of modern of
architecture.
expression, From
how-
with as it were, a blank sheet of pa- I styles that the Gentile finds himself d ever such structures would be nil.
•
ti
Specializes In
In architecture men are able to ex-
00-00tX)**0-00-000000{}8}000 1:100*OCH040-0-0-0-0-0-00,0.0000*0 per in front of us. More or less in. The lack o
O
masons in many of the communities ternalize the spirit and declare it to
overtly, these questions are aske
each time a building committee calls of the Middle Age, the mere fact that the world, so that even if they are
A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW
in an architect; and so, when we an-lit was necessary, quite o ten, o co -
underground, a s the Chris-
teal the external evidences of Jewish driven under
swer them, we shall perhaps be in al
— FROM —
better position to appraise the sync- I practice and ritual, caused the archi., tians of Rome were driven into
the
ess
in
gogues and community houses that I tecture of the synagogue to be sub-' catacombs, they must expreelings
have recently been constructed in merged into that of the rest of the I painting and sculpture the f,
community. Hence in Venice and ;intuitions, ideas and concepts that
, would otherwise have embodied
America. .
Rome we find synagogues in the Ren- I the)
in the snore comprehensive and syn-
II.
is h I aissance tradition, as we do in Amer- I
ew
What are
strands of the
traditions
in the
architecture?
The J can-' ica in our own Newport; in Germany I thetic form of building.
Architecture, let me repeat, is not
A. MAURO
there are "Gothic" synagogues that I
•
tral expression of ancient Jewis
from the Middle Ages, and in the mere trick of enclosing space: if
it were, a sheet-iron shed might be
architecture was, of course, the . Tern- ' date
1, seventeenth century Germany Ren- as effective as the Pennsylvania . sta-
ple of Solomon, u
sance synagogues with maske
restorations of that temple give us rbusiness fronts;" while in Poland lion in New York. Nor is arc itee-
rn
but little insight into the modern
Russia one finds wooden build- ture "expression" by itself; for plus-
4122
CHERRY
1044 CASS AVENUE
problem of housing a congregationt,
with multiple eaves, in the style tic expression alone is painting or
, local wooden architecture. sculpture, and if this were all one du- O
and
even
if
we
knew
in
detail
the
I
ings
of
the
"PHONE US FOR BIDS"
plan, the style and the mode of deco-
will b little Jewish modifier'. manded in architecture, the baroque
ration we should not have established tions
h
and excrescences in these build- architects who concealed little ut - 0
a useful point
departure,
for
the
ings, of
perhaps,
and the internal ar- rings behind
huge facades
(like ' the
temple was in reality a meeting ran ementf the ark, alrnemor and , stores on Gopher Prairie!) would
g will of course reflect the have achieved a maximum de r ee
place like the whole Acropolis he-
at congregation
necessities of Jewish ritual; while the success with a minimum effort. All
Athens: it was adapted to the
ing of a great concourse of people, !l decoration itself will be modified by sound architecture contrives to unite
the M en Dovid, form and function. To pay attention
to the sacrifice of animals and to a
introduction
ritual which necessarily took place, in t.h e Lion,
same other .lowish motif. to the material needs without rear-
good part, in the open air. The prob.. th On the o whole, however, the multi- ganizing them estheticaly is the weak-
lem of adapting such an architecture lode of Europea'n precedents are Eu-; ness of the engineer. To deal alone
recedents: they recall a time, with the expression of the building,
to the manners of a modern commun•
precedents:
ity would be so great that it is per- r when it was difficult or impossible for with its outward masque and orna-
haps fortunate no sufficient tradition the Jew to exhibit externally the ment, without regard to its inherent O
marks of his culture and when ex- functions, is the fallacy of the
has been handed down!
—Sanitary, Modern Devices.
With the Roman occupation of Pal-1 ternal concealment was the price of 'i esthete, and it has been the fallacy
estine, the oriental note in the achl-; internal freedom. To seek any guide , of perhaps a majority of cultivated
—Every Joint Tight.
tecture of the region must largely , for modern Jewish architecture in architects since the Renaissance. We
have disappeared, except in the small- these precedents is simply to fail to' see this attitude at its worst, perhaps,
—Expert Work by Experienced
er and more homely sort of building: profit by the liberation of the last 1001 in the baroque architects of Spain
d was one of I years. An architecture that does not lie and Italy, but there are plenty of ex-
l
mpl e of iero
the Tepond
Plumbers.
erous i nane buildings that , I recognize the reintegration of the mples in the post-medieval architec-
those
the Roman architects scattered , .lewish culture and Jewish civilize- tare of every country— domestic
—Quick Repairs.
through the empire with the same lion, the reuinion, on a different level I buildings that look like official estab-
sort of bored military precision that from that of the restricted Ghetto, of lishments, churches whose internal
as those
—Water Mains and Connections
the soldiers themselves applied to the, the inner and the outer life of the decorations are as frivolous
hundred
inevitable square layout of the camp. i Jew—such an architecture is archaic, of a dancing pavilion, and a
Our Specialty.
Nevertheless, an oriental tradition did I for it seeks, if I may use the tritest other similar ineptitudes, including
A survive the Roman occupation, and 1 of metaphors, to pour new wine into bad internal arrangement of rooms
as the roofs of the street-arcades be- I old bottles, and bottles, moreover, and windows for the sake of the for-
LET US INSTALL YOUR HEATING PLANT
A can to leak and the wilderness of pit- I with deceptive labels! The new mal elevation.
Whether the architect emphasizes
lured facades showed signs of delapi- 1 Temple Beth El in Detroit is a well-
dation, a simple and rigorous archi- , proportioned and carefully designed in his own approach the formal or
tecture made its appearance from Ibuilding, one would judge from its the functional requirements, he is
Egypt to Asia Minor; particularly in „ photograph; but for all its external , successful only when he has fused
"The Fuel Without a Fault."
shows it might as well be these two ends in a single conception.
the new Christian churches. this
architecture, however, was not the the public library or the county court • The amount of energy it takes to
property of any sect; if it was Chris- house. That is assimilation with a effect the fusion, however, is almost
too great for a single man unless a
A flan from the fourth to the seventh vengeance!
O
large part of his problems have al O
centuries when these communities
IV
During the last few generations, ready been explored in a traditiona
flourished and needed new places of
worship it became Mohammedan the Jewish community, in common style; and the result is that the cap-
when it was the Mussulman's turn to ; with the rest of Western Europe, has able conventional architect—and we
been suffering from a series of archi- cannot hope that the run of our build-
embody his ideals in buildings.
Architecture in this tradition is re- i tectural revivals. In these revivals inga will be conceived only by gen-
7015 HARPER
there has been a dim groping towards iuses!—the capable architect concen-
WOMS,WisCVW ■W‘SCVM`t
%' , architectural forms a little more con- trates his attention on the interior
.IM.WW‘WisIMIMIASW<W4..104.N%•A
NICIOSVIMSNWSIMISAWSWLVANSVIsISWIMISMAISMs
Call Lincoln 2774, 4752, Day or Night.
sonant with Jewish tradition than the , plan and layout of the building, and
littgIMMICIMWOIMICIWOOMM.1‘.
, cold classicisms of the Renaissancei leaves the external expression with
INSISWOMISISISNIOSNISWMICSISWMICIMMAISIMIS
O
ptSWISSAISIMICIMINSIWCIOCWSNISVSSAISISW
but for the most part the actual some variation of a successful build-
buildings themselves, like the Plum, mg—the Pallazzo Riccardi, the Bib-
Street Temple in Cincinnati, are as liotheque Nationale, or some other
!far away from a coherent architec-
tural treatment as the mid-Victorian,
gothic of the Christian churches of
the same period (1866). If this hap-
hazard eclecticism is not to continue
we must search out some unifying
principle in Jewish culture and archi- ,
tecture which will place the Jew
I above the futile and capricious battle'
of the styles.
I To establish such a principle, we
must go back to the essential basis
of architecture itself.
When we leave our historic investi-
gation of actual buildings, and con-
eider the uses of architecture, we dis-
cover that there are only two essen-
tial styles of building, the functional
and the fortol, or what Claude Brag-
don has colt i with perhaps greater
precision the organic and the ar-
ranged. These +tyles derive from the
two ends that a.•c fulfilled, more or
less, in all built's' ng. The first of I
these is the encloioire of space, and
the housing of man,. material wants.
Apartments Managed On An Economical Basis.
This end is so famil'ar to us that it
Call Us for Information on Heated Apartments, Houses, Flats, Rooms.
is only by an effort of the imagina-
[.
tion that we can conceive of its being
altogether neglected; and yet we in-
stantly recognize any m` nor violation
I
of it, and are Irritated by it; for if
INVESTMENTS
SUBDIVISIONS
[ the architect builds a bedroom on the
Improved Property
Land Contracts, Second
ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN
1 scale of a reception hall, the bleak-
Mortgages Bought
Listed and Sold in all parts
' ness of the room makes us uncom-
SECTION
of the city.
and Sold.
I fortable; and if an auditorium has'
FORD DEARBORN
SHORT TIME LOANS
Our Branch Office is near
an echo we do not fancy that any ,
SECTION
excellence of decoration will enable'
7 0 ..
as better to understand a speech or
a sermon. It makes to difference,
615 STEVENS BLDG. — 1258 WASHINGTON BLVD.
from the functional point of view,
that the architectural error may have
Cadillac 6371 •6372 - 6373
been committed, no to speak, in net-
feet form, and in deliberate fulfill-! i
ment of an esthetic purpose.
MMWSIMICIM.
4..WG.S.WIMNIKNVOMLIMWMIKVO
•
.
VSV
The performance off a practical
S.N
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•
• SS , •
=
6rertittgti
lqw311
a
I
d
YEAR
f
ar sans
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Rosh Hashonah Greetings
to the entire
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We Wish All Our Jewish Friends and
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New Year.
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We wish all our Jewish I
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