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