Freighted Legacies Webinar

Lost Synagogues of Europe recreates in vivid color paintings and chronicles the life stories of nearly eighty majestic— and destroyed— European synagogues, each one a testament to the approximately 17,000 synagogues decimated during the Third Reich and early takeover of the Communist regimes. After WWII only about 3,300 buildings remained standing, and just 700+ are still in use as synagogues. This exquisite and significant work of historical preservation collects, organizes, and documents their stories.

Freighted Legacies has invited Andrea Strongwater to focus on the synagogues in the Polish Lands which include close to 20 locations. The imagination is drawn into a reflection of the missing material culture of Jewish life.

In four chapters organized by inauguration dates (1600s, 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s), author and artist Andrea Strongwater shines light on seventy-seven synagogues built from the early 1600s to 1930 and spanning sixteen European countries where destruction was rampant: Austria (6 synagogues), Belarus (3), Croatia (2), the Czech Republic (5), Estonia (1), France (2), Germany (26), Italy (1), Latvia (2), Lithuania (5), Luxembourg State (1), The Netherlands (1), Poland (15), Russia (1), Slovakia (2), and Ukraine (4). She lovingly illustrates their exteriors and/or interiors and tells stories of their history, Jewish community, and architectural significance. These synagogues were considered important enough to have been documented in their time, and so here they do double duty: reminding us of the many thousands of other synagogues that were obliterated without having left any historical record.

A Foreword by Jewish Theological Seminary Chancellor Emeritus Ismar Schorsch examines the evolution of the synagogue “from a sacred place to a sacred book.” A map, “2024 Political Landscape of Europe (with Pale of Settlement and Russian Poland, mid 1800s)” helps readers to locate each city, town, and country; and a cross-reference guide, “Synagogue Locations by Country,” enables them to find synagogues in the cities and towns of their ancestors.

In all, Lost Synagogues of Europe helps to revive a thriving European Jewish culture and heritage that needs to be remembered today.