Wide-ranging study, enhanced with over 250 illustrations, offers a fascinating history of the Jewish house of worship from antiquity to modern times. Describes their functions, furnishings, and architectural changes through the centuries, with specific accounts of individual European synagogues and insightful discussions of fortifications, materials of construction, women's galleries, and more.

Art and Judaism During the Greco-Roman Period explores the Jewish experience with art during the Greco-Roman period-from the Hellenistic period through the rise of Islam. It starts from with the premise that Jewish art in antiquity was a "minority" or "ethnic" art and surveys ways that Jews fully participated in, transformed, and at times rejected the art of their general environment. Art and Judaism focuses upon the politics of identity during the Greco-Roman period, even as it discusses ways that modern identity issues have sometimes distorted and at other times refined scholarly discussion of ancient Jewish material culture. Art and Judaism, the first historical monograph on ancient Jewish art in forty years, evaluates earlier scholarship even as it sets out in new directions. Placing literary sources in careful dialogue with archaeological discoveries, this "New Jewish Archaeology" is an important contribution to Judaic Studies, Religious Studies, Art History, and Classics. The Revised Edition includes a new introduction, additional images, and color plates.

The religious buildings of the Jewish community in Britain have never been explored in print. Lavishly illustrated with previously unpublished images and photographs taken specially by English Heritage, this book traces the architecture of the synagogue in Britain and Ireland from its discreet Georgian- and Regency-era beginnings to the golden age of the grand "cathedral synagogues" of the High Victorian period. Sharman Kadish sheds light on obscure and sometimes underappreciated architects who designed synagogues for all types of worshipers--from Orthodox and Reform congregations to Yiddish-speaking immigrants in the 1900s. She examines the relationship between architectural style and minority identity in British society and looks at design issues in the contemporary synagogue. Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

"The Görlitz synagogue was inaugurated in 1911. The 600-seat Jewish house of prayer with its magnificent blend of neoclassical architecture and Art Nouveau interior was set on fire during the Night of Broken Glass, but not destroyed. The book tells the story of this architectural jewel, the players, problems, and finally the completion of its rescue."--Page 4 of cover.

An architectural history concentrating on the contribution of the Jewish community to Britain's urban landscape. Ten architects and art scholars offer essays on all the major Jewish building types, including synagogues, cemeteries, mikvaot (ritual baths) and social architecture.