The Israel Museum.photo credit:PR

Lacking a body of historical precedents, creating a ‘Jewish’ architecture simply isn’t possible. Yet any true Israeli architecture would have to give expression to our Jewish identity and values.

There’s no such thing as “Jewish” architecture.

Most synagogues in the Diaspora weren’t designed by Jews and mainly resembled the architecture of their host countries. Until modern times, the synagogues of Europe were built by Christian architects. Fear of idolatry and transgressing the second commandment limited Jewish artistic activity for generations to the adornment of ritual objects.Judaism has always been mainly a literary culture in which the height of achievement was to be a scholar of the Torah. Moreover, in Judaism, the emphasis is placed not on the physical but on the spiritual. Lacking a body of historical precedents, a Jewish architecture could not possibly have flowered.......Continue Reading

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