Recent Issues
By: Rabbi Mark Goldsmith, Alyth –
North Western Reform Synagogue
, Temple Fortune, London, UK
Twitter: @alythsyn @rabbimarkg
Building a Synagogue
Every modern synagogue has its own style. Sometimes it comes about by accident, sometimes by design, sometimes pushed in a particular way by the most active members or donors, and sometimes the whole community comes together to pool ideas and values to see realized in brick and mortar. But since the building of the Tabernacle, the
Mishkan
, or dwelling place of God, no synagogue or Jewish place of worship has had God as its Chief Designer.
The
Liberal Jewish Synagogue
(LJS) in St John’s Wood, London was rebuilt twenty-five years ago. It is grand and impressive, as was the 1925 building that it replaced. It incorporates some inspiring touches in its design, including a sanctuary built out of Jerusalem stone, and it was designed to create both a feeling of intimacy for a low-key Shabbat evening service, and a sense of grand occasion when the sanctuary is full, as it no doubt will be when LJS hosts the Shabbat morning service for the
European Union for Progressive Judaism
(EUPJ) Conference in April this year.
Back in 1995, I worked at LJS as a Youth Director. One of our most successful sessions in the “12-15 Club” that I ran was a meeting with Les Koski, the architect of LJS, to talk about his design plans and ideas for the space. As he sat us down in the sanctuary, Les showed us how he incorporated lighting, and the ideas of light, into his designs; specifically, showing us how lighting contributed the right atmospheres for different kinds of services and activities in the space. Following his walk-through and demonstration, we returned to our youth room and every club member was challenged with designing his or her ideal synagogue. Money was no object, and plans could be as practical or fictitious as participants wanted.
There were many ideas, some practical and others imaginary. One example, was a “shul in a pool”, where a
bimah
literally floated in a pool of water and was surrounded by congregants enjoying the warm water or sitting on lounge chairs in the sun, as they held Kiddush cocktails – Shabbat rest taken to extreme. Another example was “a shul in a mall”, this one quite a serious idea, where the synagogue was situated on the top floor of a shopping centre so that its facilities could be woven seamlessly into the everyday lives of its congregants.
Almost every one of the teenagers’ designs included a café as an informal meeting space, so that the synagogue would have a real role as a
Bet Knesset
, a place of social meetings as well as religious purposes – a feature incorporated nowadays into hospitable synagogues for example.
Les Koski’s own money-no-object, architectural re-design of LJS was as an anchoring point for an “air ship”: During services, congregants would enter the gondola of the “air ship” and, through prayer, float up into the air to worship God and experience a panoramic view of God’s world at their feet. Their thoughts both elevated and directed downward toward the lives going on below them. The “air ship” would then return to St John’s Wood Road for
kiddush
.
Not all the designs presented by Youth Club members were that outlandish, but I found this exercise to be most interesting in demonstrating how young people envision interactions and daily use of synagogue spaces. In the end, the success or failure of a synagogue is directly related to how well the space stands up to the uses which are demanded of it, and to the changing nature of those uses as a community thrives and develops.
Halachically
, the requirements for what makes a synagogue a synagogue are not detailed. We know there must be a
ner tamid
, an eternal candle; a
bimah
, altar; and an
aron kodesh
, or ark for the Torah; prayer must face Jerusalem; and windows link congregants to the world outside. Most of the rest is up to the taste and requirements of the congregation. Incidentally there is no record in Jewish legal sources of separate accommodation being provided for women until a few hundred years ago.
The Tabernacle, or
Mishkan
, which we have been hearing about in the last four weeks’ Torah portions, was a unique piece of worship architecture. It was designed, as it were, by God for man to make, beginning in Exodus 25:8 with the words, “Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.” The
Mishkan
was designed for a very specific form of worship based on the sacrifice of animals and other substances by an appointed caste of priests. Its design, with large parts of it hidden from the view of the worshippers, created an air of mystery. Its construction befitted a nomadic people, as its materials were to be the best of the best obtainable in the wilderness environment.
German scholar Martin Buber noted that the Hebrew words used for the commands to make the sanctuary, recorded in this week’s Torah portion,
Vayakhel
, have a direct correspondence with the words used to describe God’s creation of earth. Both the
Mishkan
and the Earth are: created with the words
asah
; performed on the seventh days; completed with the words
calah
; and are seen carefully by God before blessed.
When we create our synagogue, we too are creating our own microcosm of the world – the world as we would like to see it. While God is able to create the world in a single chapter of the Torah, it takes the Israelites five Torah portions worth of instructions, distractions, and execution time to make a
Mishkan
for God. Our synagogues too, are often very long, drawn-out building processes: Alyth’s current building project will take years from inception to reality.
A synagogue reflects the style and values of the community that builds it whether by intention or accident. The synagogue is there to fulfil the community’s needs. It does not have to look or be shaped in a particular way. There are few restrictions upon it other than conforming to the vision and enthusiasm of the community that creates it.
Every modern synagogue has its own style. Sometimes it comes about by accident, sometimes by design, sometimes pushed in a particular way by the most active members or donors, and sometimes the whole community comes together to pool ideas and values to see realized in brick and mortar. But since the building of the Tabernacle, the
Mishkan
, or dwelling place of God, no synagogue or Jewish place of worship has had God as its Chief Designer.
The
Liberal Jewish Synagogue
(LJS) in St John’s Wood, London was rebuilt twenty-five years ago. It is grand and impressive, as was the 1925 building that it replaced. It incorporates some inspiring touches in its design, including a sanctuary built out of Jerusalem stone, and it was designed to create both a feeling of intimacy for a low-key Shabbat evening service, and a sense of grand occasion when the sanctuary is full, as it no doubt will be when LJS hosts the Shabbat morning service for the
European Union for Progressive Judaism
(EUPJ) Conference in April this year.
Back in 1995, I worked at LJS as a Youth Director. One of our most successful sessions in the “12-15 Club” that I ran was a meeting with Les Koski, the architect of LJS, to talk about his design plans and ideas for the space. As he sat us down in the sanctuary, Les showed us how he incorporated lighting, and the ideas of light, into his designs; specifically, showing us how lighting contributed the right atmospheres for different kinds of services and activities in the space. Following his walk-through and demonstration, we returned to our youth room and every club member was challenged with designing his or her ideal synagogue. Money was no object, and plans could be as practical or fictitious as participants wanted.
There were many ideas, some practical and others imaginary. One example, was a “shul in a pool”, where a
bimah
literally floated in a pool of water and was surrounded by congregants enjoying the warm water or sitting on lounge chairs in the sun, as they held Kiddush cocktails – Shabbat rest taken to extreme. Another example was “a shul in a mall”, this one quite a serious idea, where the synagogue was situated on the top floor of a shopping centre so that its facilities could be woven seamlessly into the everyday lives of its congregants.
Almost every one of the teenagers’ designs included a café as an informal meeting space, so that the synagogue would have a real role as a
Bet Knesset
, a place of social meetings as well as religious purposes – a feature incorporated nowadays into hospitable synagogues for example.
Les Koski’s own money-no-object, architectural re-design of LJS was as an anchoring point for an “air ship”: During services, congregants would enter the gondola of the “air ship” and, through prayer, float up into the air to worship God and experience a panoramic view of God’s world at their feet. Their thoughts both elevated and directed downward toward the lives going on below them. The “air ship” would then return to St John’s Wood Road for
kiddush
.
Not all the designs presented by Youth Club members were that outlandish, but I found this exercise to be most interesting in demonstrating how young people envision interactions and daily use of synagogue spaces. In the end, the success or failure of a synagogue is directly related to how well the space stands up to the uses which are demanded of it, and to the changing nature of those uses as a community thrives and develops.
Halachically
, the requirements for what makes a synagogue a synagogue are not detailed. We know there must be a
ner tamid
, an eternal candle; a
bimah
, altar; and an
aron kodesh
, or ark for the Torah; prayer must face Jerusalem; and windows link congregants to the world outside. Most of the rest is up to the taste and requirements of the congregation. Incidentally there is no record in Jewish legal sources of separate accommodation being provided for women until a few hundred years ago.
The Tabernacle, or
Mishkan
, which we have been hearing about in the last four weeks’ Torah portions, was a unique piece of worship architecture. It was designed, as it were, by God for man to make, beginning in Exodus 25:8 with the words, “Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them.” The
Mishkan
was designed for a very specific form of worship based on the sacrifice of animals and other substances by an appointed caste of priests. Its design, with large parts of it hidden from the view of the worshippers, created an air of mystery. Its construction befitted a nomadic people, as its materials were to be the best of the best obtainable in the wilderness environment.
German scholar Martin Buber noted that the Hebrew words used for the commands to make the sanctuary, recorded in this week’s Torah portion,
Vayakhel
, have a direct correspondence with the words used to describe God’s creation of earth. Both the
Mishkan
and the Earth are: created with the words
asah
; performed on the seventh days; completed with the words
calah
; and are seen carefully by God before blessed.
When we create our synagogue, we too are creating our own microcosm of the world – the world as we would like to see it. While God is able to create the world in a single chapter of the Torah, it takes the Israelites five Torah portions worth of instructions, distractions, and execution time to make a
Mishkan
for God. Our synagogues too, are often very long, drawn-out building processes: Alyth’s current building project will take years from inception to reality.
A synagogue reflects the style and values of the community that builds it whether by intention or accident. The synagogue is there to fulfil the community’s needs. It does not have to look or be shaped in a particular way. There are few restrictions upon it other than conforming to the vision and enthusiasm of the community that creates it.