The Carved Wooden Torah Arks of Eastern Europe

The Carved Wooden Torah Arks of Eastern Europe
Author: Bracha Yaniv
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2017-08-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1786948524

Monumental carved wooden Torah arks were an outstanding feature of east European synagogues between the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries, yet virtually none survived the Second World War. Bracha Yaniv therefore breathes a new life into a lost genre with this extensively researched, meticulously documented, and richly illustrated book. She is the first to paint a vivid portrait of their history and to offer a detailed explanation of the motifs that adorned them.

Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses

Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses
Author: Murray Zimiles
Publisher: UPNE
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2007
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9781584656371

A richly illustrated volume celebrating Jewish carving traditions from the Old World to the New

A Nation of Refugees

A Nation of Refugees
Author: Assistant Professor of History and Jewish Studies Polly Zavadivker
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2024-10-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 0197629350

Though the Holocaust has been documented in depth, historians and the public know very little about the experience of Eastern European Jews during the preceding world war. A Nation of Refugees tells the story of how ordinary Jewish people in the Russian Empire survived World War I as refugees and civilians. It focuses on the resilience and organized campaigns of humanitarian war relief that countered violence and victimization. Above all, it captures the voices and experiences of refugees at a time of upheaval and war through first-hand accounts.

Categorically Jewish, Distinctly Polish

Categorically Jewish, Distinctly Polish
Author: Moshe Rosman
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 549
Release: 2022-03-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1800859074

Moshe Rosman's revolutionary approach has become a cornerstone of Polish Jewish historiography. Challenging conventions, he asserts that the 'marriage of convenience' between the Jews and the Polish--Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dynamic relationship that, though punctuated by crisis and persecution, developed into a saga of overall achievement and stability. With that fundamental message this book forges a thematic survey of Jewish history in early modern Poland. These essays, written by Rosman over the course of a distinguished career, have all been updated and enhanced with new detail and nuanced arguments, taking account not only of new archival material and research but also of the ongoing evolution of the author’s own knowledge and perspectives. Some appear here in English for the first time. The volume's structure highlights key topics for understanding the Polish Jewish past: relations between Jews and other Poles; Jewish communal life; Polish Jewish women; and hasidism. One section analyses how this past has been presented in both scholarly and popular modes. The essays are crafted to place them in dialogue with each other. Analytical introductions weigh their significance in the light of modern and postmodern Jewish and Polish historiography. An extensive general introduction sets the context of the history portrayed here, while a thoughtful conclusion elucidates the larger motifs that emerge.

Ceremonial Synagogue Textiles

Ceremonial Synagogue Textiles
Author: Bracha Yaniv
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 489
Release: 2019-03-14
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 178962505X

A richly illustrated and documented survey of the evolution of synagogue textiles spanning fifteen centuries, offering a detailed analysis of the design and production of mantles, wrappers, Torah scroll binders, and the Torah ark curtain and valance, including the text of inscriptions marking the circumstances of donation.

The Torah Ark in Renaissance Poland

The Torah Ark in Renaissance Poland
Author: Ilia M. Rodov
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2013-02-01
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 9004242848

The book explores the patronage, formation, and symbolism of the Renaissance Torah ark in Polish synagogues.

Richard Freund’s Legacy of Ideas, Research and Teaching about the Holocaust

Richard Freund’s Legacy of Ideas, Research and Teaching about the Holocaust
Author: Philip Reeder
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2023-10-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 1527530205

This book highlights the Holocaust-related research of the historian, archeologist, and professor, Rabbi Richard A. Freund. Richard was a pioneering force in non-invasive archaeology, wherein geophysical techniques adapted from the oil and gas industry are used at Holocaust sites to collect data used in concert with testimony and archival research to write or rewrite the history of the Holocaust. The chapters’ authors span the breath of Holocaust studies and science, and include geophysicists who are experts in applying geophysical techniques in a historical context, geographers skilled in mapping and spatial analysis, filmmakers and film students, archaeologists that focus on the Holocaust, and academics specializing in Judaic studies, Jewish life and the Holocaust. It is comprehensive but non-technical and is a resource for anyone interested in melding science with history and uncovering the often lost or hidden aspects of the Holocaust.

Rediscovering Traces of Memory

Rediscovering Traces of Memory
Author: Jonathan Webber
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2018-06-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1786949946

This much-updated edition of a ground-breaking book expands the broad coverage of its stimulating approach. With forty-five new photographs and accompanying essays, it convincingly demonstrates the complexity of the Jewish past in Polish Galicia and the attempts to memorialize its heritage, as well as the unexpected revival of Jewish life.

Catalog of Catalogs: A Bibliography of Temporary Exhibition Catalogs Since 1876 that Contain Items of Judaica

Catalog of Catalogs: A Bibliography of Temporary Exhibition Catalogs Since 1876 that Contain Items of Judaica
Author: William Gross
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 879
Release: 2019-09-16
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004406980

Catalog of Catalogs provides a comprehensive index of nearly 2,300 publications documenting the exhibition of Judaica over the past 140 years. This vast corpus of material, ranging from simple leaflets to scholarly catalogs, contains textual and visual material as yet unmined for the study of Jewish art, religion, culture and history. Through highly-detailed, fully-indexed catalog entries, William Gross, Orly Tzion and Falk Wiesemann elucidate some 2,000 subjects, geographical locations and Judaica objects (ceremonial objects, illuminated manuscripts, printed books, synagogues, cemeteries et al.) addressed in these catalogs. Descriptions of the catalog's bibliographic components, contributors, exhibition history, and contents, all accessible through the volume's five indices, render this volume an unparalleled new resource for the study of Jewish Art, culture and history.

Resplendent Synagogue

Resplendent Synagogue
Author: Thomas C. Hubka
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2022-11-02
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1684581338

"A provocative interpretation of the art and architecture of a pre-modern wooden synagogue. Thomas C. Hubka immersed himself in medieval and early-modern Jewish history, religion, and culture to prepare for this remarkable study of the 18th-century Polish wooden synagogue in the town of Gwoździec, now in present Ukraine"--