?..:'
Above: Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959),
Congregation Beth Sholom in Elkins Park, a suburb of
Philadelphia, was the last work by the great American
master. He died shortly before the official opening. Wright was
a designer not just of buildings but of furnishings as well.
Far left: The Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, on the
Register of National Historic Buildings, was designed by architect A.
W Edelman, presumably a descendant of the rabbi with the same
name who conducted the first Jewish services in Los Angeles in 1854.
Left: The interior of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple is unique for its
Warner Memorial Murals, painted by Hugo Bailin (1879-1956).
Bailin was a stage designer, writer, and silent movie producer and
director. The murals, which cover the base of the sanctuary's 100-foot
dome with imagery of the Old Testament, were sponsored by the
motion picture Warner Brothers — Jack, Harry and Abe.
PIEUITERFUL
N
ALAN ABRAMS
Special to the Jewish News
311
5/31
2002
68
•
of every Jewish congregation
can claim its synagogue was
designed by Frank Lloyd
Wright, arguably America's
most pre-eminent architect. But members
of Congregation Beth Sholom in Elkins
Park, a northern suburb of Philadelphia,
have earned those bragging rights.
And when Michigan-based architectural
photographer Laszlo Regos read about
Beth Sholom, he knew he had to add it
to the portfolio of American synagogues
he is photographing to prepare for even-
tual book publication.
"My goal is to produce a coffee-table
book with quality photographs," said Regos.
So far, he has photographed 15 syna-
gogues in such cities as Detroit, Pittsburgh,
Las Vegas and Washington, D.C., as he
travels across the country on commercial
photo assignments. In the next few weeks,
he'll be adding synagogues in Savannah,
Miami and Miami Beach to the collection.
Next month, Regos, 53, hopes to photo-
LEJ
graph New York's Central Synagogue, built
in 1872 by the Prussian-born Henry
Fernbach, thought to be the first practicing
Jewish architect in the United States.
Regos was surprised to learn that no one
has published a photographic history of
America's historic synagogues before. "I am
using a book called Synagogues of the United
States by Oscar Israelowitz as my main
source," he said.
"It is a pretty good architectural and his-
torical overview, but the photography in it
is terrible — mainly black and white pho-
tos from archives and amateurish snap-
shots, besides renderings and floor plans.
"What I am doing is putting together a
collection, and after that I will try to
impress a writer and a publisher with it,"
Regos continued. "I want to do it with
class, not just publish it."
An Unexpected Find
When he finds a synagogue he wants to
photograph, Regos writes a letter in
advance and gets permission. But some-
times, he just gets lucky.
"Last fall," he said, "I had been working in
the Upper Peninsula and drove by this small
and beautiful synagogue in Hancock. It is
called Temple Jacob, and there was a phone
number on the door. I called, and they gave
me permission to shoot the next day."
Regos learned that Temple Jacob had
been built in 1912. It was constructed in
classic synagogue design of the era, and is
believed to be modeled after a synagogue in
Detroit or Chicago. He was unable to dis-
cover the name of the architect.
"The temple was named after Jacob
Gartner of [Hancock's] Gartner
Department Store," Regos said. "At one
time there were more than 200 member-
families. Now they conduct services only
on the High Holidays."
Photographing the Frank Lloyd Wright-
designed Beth Sholom was probably the
closest Regos has come to duplicating his
day job. He photographs commercial
buildings and residences around the world
on commission from their architects as well
as from design firms.
His commercial work has been included
in books such as the recently published