Samuel D. Gruber
By Samuel D. Gruber
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The Schmooze Former Syracuse Synagogue Opens as a ‘Green’ Hotel
Crossposted from Samuel Gruber’s Jewish Art & Monuments In August 2009 I wrote (and posted photos) about plans to transform the former Temple Adath Jeshurun in Syracuse, into a new “boutique” hotel. This week the hotel opened. The building is still an impressive presence on Syracuse’s University Hill, though inside nothing of the old sanctuary…
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The Schmooze Torah Arks Like Towers
Crossposted from Samuel Gruber’s Jewish Art & Monuments Bar-Ilan University professor Ilia Rodov has written an important and useful article on medieval Torah Arks, especially those tall tower types, well known from representations in many illuminated medieval manuscripts. The article, “Tower-like Torah Arks, the Tower of Strength and the Architecture of the Messianic Temple,” was…
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The Schmooze Remembering My Mother, Artist Shirley Moskowitz
“Old Jewish Cemetery, Prague” (1966). Sepia and ink drawing by Shirley Moskowitz. Crossposted from Samuel Gruber’s Jewish Art & Monuments It is hard for me to accept that it has been four years this weekend since my mother, artist Shirley Moskowitz, died in Santa Monica, Calif., at the age of 86. I’ve written about some…
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The Schmooze The New Ars Judaica Has Arrived
Crossposted from Samuel Gruber’s Jewish Art & Monuments The seventh volume of the excellent art journal Ars Judaica has been published by Bar-Ilan University. Editors Bracha Yaniv, Mirjam Rajner and Ilia Rodov have done it again, producing a rich selection of well-research articles, beautifully illustrated and presented. Older readers will remember that from the 1970s…
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The Schmooze Baytown, Texas Celebrates Historic Synagogue Restoration
Crossposted from Samuel Gruber’s Jewish Art & Monuments On March 27, residents of Baytown, Texas celebrated the restoration of their 80-year-old synagogue, Congregation K’nesseth Israel. The building was designed by Houston architect Lenard Gabert in 1930, and after suffering limited damage in the destructive Hurricane Ike of 2008, has now been repaired and restored. The…
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Culture A Sukkah Bound For New York
New Yorkers have gotten used to the celebration of Jewish holidays in public places. The 32-foot-tall Hanukkah menorah lit regularly at Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza isn’t as tall as the spires of nearby churches (or hotels), but it is still a pretty assertive statement of Jewish presence and pride. Once the city opened the door…
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Culture Synagogues in the Garden
In the early 13th century, Rabbi Isaac ben Moses of Vienna wrote, “…whoever pays attention to a beautiful tree doesn’t concentrate on his study and interrupts it. All the more so in prayer, which needs greater concentration; one cannot concentrate as required when looking at trees drawn on the wall.” Today, with the “greening” of…
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Culture Jews on the Altar: MOBIA Exhibition Examines Images on Spanish Altarpieces
Jewish Spain is a world of which many have heard, but few actually know. Popular and even scholarly Jewish discourse is full of rumor and exaggeration, and interpretations of scattered facts vary widely. Since 1992, however, when Spain began a rapprochement with Jews and Judaism on the 500th anniversary of the expulsion, more and more…
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