jewish cemeteries, synagogues, and mass grave sites in ukraine

The wooden synagogues of Poland (including much of Ukraine) remain for many scholars and
architects the high point of synagogue architecture. These splendid buildings, however, were
almost entirely destroyed during this century, mostly by German troops during the Second World
War. They are known today mostly through photographs and measurements made in the
interwar period by Polish architects led by Szymon Zajczyk, who did not survive the war. Many
of these lost buildings were subsequently reconstructed on paper by the Polish architects Maria
and Kazimierz Piechotka, whose drawings continue to influence synagogue designers today. 30
Only one wooden synagogue is known to survive in Ukraine today, and this a simple building of
relatively late date recently documented by the Center for Jewish Art. Located in the small town
of Skhidnytsia (about 30 km from Drohobych), it was built in the late 19 th century and used until
the Second World War. Now used as a sewing factory, it is one story tall and has external signs
of what was once a women’s gallery. In the tradition of the earlier wooden synagogues, the
building had a high roof and twelve windows. 31
In the late 19 th century and early 20 th century, a large number of masonry synagogues were built
in cities throughout Ukraine. These were often three-aisle basilicas, with a theatrical-style
seating arrangement where the congregants face the Ark located at the far end of the sanctuary,
which is usually substantially longer than it is wide. Elevated galleries along three sides of the
sanctuary served as seating for women, who were encouraged during this period to participate in
synagogue activities. These synagogues include the majority of those in use today, and of those
returned to Jewish communities. Some of these structures, such as the enormous synagogue in
Drohobych, were already overly large at the time of their construction, and they far exceed the
needs of any community today. Elsewhere, however, the synagogues of this period, such as
Brodsky Synagogue and the synagogue at 29 Shchekavytska Street in the Podil District in Kyiv,
admirably serve the needs of substantial congregations. For the most part, these structures were
decorated in an eclectic manner, deriving decorative patterns from historical styles, particularly
the Romanesque, but adapting them in new fanciful ways reminiscent of some of the commercial
buildings of Eastern Europe in the late 19 th century.
An exception to this trend can be found in a group of late 19 th century synagogues designed in a
more pronounced Moorish style, reflective of popular trends in Central Europe in the third
quarter of the 19 th century. The style began in Dresden, where architect Gottfried Semper
employed a rich combination of decorative forms inspired from medieval Spanish sources –
especially the Islamic decorations from the Alhambra at Granada – in the interior of the new
synagogue. While the Alhambra was hardly an appropriate Jewish provenance, neither was it
Christian in origin. Better, it recalled the “Golden Age” of Jews under Islamic Spanish rule.
Semper’s attempt to identify and create a new Jewish style resonated. Over the next halfcentury,
this new Spanish or “Moorish” style became increasingly prominent in synagogue
design and decoration. It quickly migrated from the interior, as at Dresden, to synagogue
exteriors, as in Vienna, Budapest, Berlin, Zagreb, and elsewhere. The Moorish style was widely
30
See Maria & Kazimierz Piechotka, Wooden Synagogues (Warsaw: Krupski i S-ka, 1959) and a new edition,
Bramy Nieba: Boznice Drewniane (Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Budownictwo i Architektura, 1996). For a discussion
of the decorative programs of some of the wooden synagogue of Ukraine, see ibid, “Polichromie Polskich Boznic
Drewnianych” in Polska Sztuka Ludowa, XLIII:1-2 (1989), 65-87, and Thomas Hubka, “Jewish Art and
Architecture in the East European Context: The Gwozdziec-Chodorow Group of Wooden Synagogues,” Polin
(Volume 10, 1997).
31 “In Search of Jewish Art in Western Ukraine,” Newsletter of the Center for Jewish Art, 14 (1998), 9.
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