Abstract
There are approximately ten historical synagogue buildings left in Ukraine today which continue, to varying extents, to preserve their original wall paintings and decoration. A number of these were only recently discovered. The attempts underway, beginning in the early 2000s, to preserve as well as uncover old paintings often produce the opposite effect, destroying authentic works. The cultural significance of these historical landmarks requires that they be included in a single international register, along with supervision and an agreed upon preservation program designed individually for each. Synagogue wall paintings will inevitably perish unless ways of transferring this heritage are sought that will move these works to a different and more reliable “medium of cultural memory”. Different, innovative approaches to museum preservation and ways of presenting these works to public view are called for. Among the tried and tested options are: reconstructing old synagogue interiors which contain wall or ceiling paintings; using motifs taken from the original paintings in new works being produced for the Jewish community; and work on exhibition projects, catalogues and two-dimensional reconstruction models.
Highlights
To the blessed memory of Scholar, Professor of Architecture, Head of the Committee on Preserving the Jewish Heritage of Ukraine Genrikh Iosifovich Filvarov (1927–2015)
Synagogue Decorations in Present-Day Ukraine: Practice in Preservation of Cultural and Artistic Heritage There are approximately ten historical synagogue buildings left in Ukraine today which continue, to varying extents, to preserve their original wall paintings and decoration
Synagogue wall paintings comprise a relatively unknown – and, a nearly erased – element of Jewish culture and art; yet the world of Eastern European Jewry of the pre-Nazi period remains inconceivable without it. It is only in the last few decades that contemporary research has begun to delve into this area, attempting to bridge the chasm separating our understanding of this tradition, its evolution, hermeneutics, iconography and styles, from the potential originally invested in synagogue mural painting decoration in the past
Summary
1930s; before this discovery was made, the synagogue had seemed one of a kind, with the regional origins of its painting decoration impossible to trace. Two other recently discovered Chernivtsi synagogues display a similar thematic and compositional approach in their. These fragments shows them to be kin to the traditions of the wider region, such as the wall paintings of the synagogue in Khust mentioned above.18 The discovery of these paintings has provided researchers with unique material, suddenly opening the eyes of the public to the very existence of synagogue decoration as a practice, an artistic field that has not received much recognition or attention in the past. This has highlighted the critical importance of giving some thought to other surviving synagogue buildings in which paintings may be concealed beneath later layers of plaster.
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