Curator's Corner #21-30
#21 Shining Stars
One of the first features noticed by many entering the imposing interior of The Great Synagogue in Sydney are the golden stars sprinkled high on the cobalt blue ceiling. Their origins are still a bit of mystery and subject of local stories but it seems that they were not part of the Thomas Rowe design in 1878. Whether the starry ceiling dates to the early 1900s or later, it joins a centuries-old tradition of depicting the heavens under which one prays. From the Sydney's Great Synagogue and St Andrew's Cathedral to the little village synagogues in Southern Bohemia (Kasejovice, Čkyně), or a large Jewish temple in Vienna (Stadttempel Synagogue) and a Christian royal chapel in Paris, shiny stars have been bringing hope and solace to the worshipers for centuries.
Happy New Year 2022
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#22 On this Day in Prague: 14 February 1945
On this day we celebrate the people we love but also remember the buildings that were once loved. Towards the end of WWII, there were no Jews left in Prague, and the city’s largest synagogue was used by the Nazis to store confiscated Jewish property. By tragic accident, Prague was bombed by the allied armies on 14 February 1945 and the Vinohradska Synagogue’s interior burned down. It was demolished in 1951. The design of The Great Synagogue in Sydney manifested the monumental style of the European ‘cathedral synagogues’ decades earlier, and today we will love the building even more.
Photos from the Jewish Museum Prague
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#23 Happy Birthday Great
Happy 144th Birthday to us!
The Great Synagogue Sydney 4 March 1878
Detail, Ark Curtain by June Fiford, Australian goldwork artist, 1998
#24 Purim
Today, our museum objects mark the upcoming holiday of Purim, a celebration of the deliverance of the Jews from the Haman’s murderous plot. The dramatic story of Esther will be read from a special scroll on parchment, Megillat Esther. Unlike the Torah, which is never decorated, some of the renditions of the Book of Esther include rich embellishments and are rolled onto a single roller. More affluent Jewish families commissioned a silversmith to fit the illuminated scroll into a fine filigree silver case.
Purim is one of the happiest Jewish holidays ... and also the noisiest. A grogger, best described as a rattling noisemaker, is another museum item. Whenever the name of Haman is read, the noise of spinning grogger chases the evil away.
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#25 The Gates of Sydney's Great
For over a century, those who walked through the portico of Sydney’s Great Synagogue often stopped and marvelled at the mighty, dark green iron gates. Wrought and cast iron had been a feature of Victorian suburbs but we would hardly find another synagogue in the world with such imposing gates.
With their restoration underway, some new findings have surfaced. For example, the gates were not part of the original design in 1874. Moreover, they were still “missing” when the foundation stone was laid a year later. And when the gates finally emerged in 1878, their decoration became sought-after backdrop for many happy occasions ever since.
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#26 On This Day, 31 May, 40 Years Ago...
The first of its kind in Australia, The AM Rosenblum Jewish Museum was officially opened at The Great Synagogue in Sydney on 31 May 1982.
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#27 Ceremonial Synagogue Textiles
Ceremonial textiles are one of the most striking features of a synagogue sanctuary. Usually made of luxurious fabric and embroidered with silver or gold thread, they include Ark curtains, Torah mantles, bimah covers and other ritual pieces. Over the centuries and continents, Jewish tradition witnessed exquisite golden thread embroideries as well as simple stitches and reused fabric. Yet, they are all united by one purpose, hiddur mitzvah, a commandment to affirm the sanctity of Torah scroll by beautification.
The Great Synagogue‘s ceremonial textiles are presently on display at the Gallery 76 in Concord West as part of the Goldwork Festival where they complement historical and cultural survey of ecclesiastical goldwork embroidery and vestments.
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#28 Dr Helen Light AM z"l
Together with the museum community around Australia, the A. M. Rosenblum Jewish Museum at The Great Synagogue in Sydney is saddened by the recent passing of Dr Helen Light AM, 73, z’l.
Dr Light was the inaugural director of the Jewish Museum of Australia in Melbourne in 1982. She initiated and curated many exhibitions and edited accompanying catalogues. She strived to enhance visitors' understanding of Jewish art, Judaica and the cultural history of the Jewish community. Her focus was theoretical insight as well as work with local material. Dr Light was also a great supporter of designers creating contemporary Judaica. Always willing to share her knowledge, her encouragement to other Jewish curators will be much missed.
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#29 Levi’s Yad: a new Torah pointer for The Great Synagogue
Over the centuries, in Anglo-Jewish communities, Torah pointers were made of silver. The more rare, wooden pointers, have their origins in synagogues in Eastern Europe. Commonly referred to as a ‘yad’ (hand in Hebrew), what they all have in common is an outstretched finger on a hand that tracks the text when reading from the Torah.
Traditionally, as with other silver Torah ornaments donated to the synagogue, making a pointer was commissioned from a local craftsman. The silversmith would work from a common pattern or to a particular design and inscription, requested by the donor.
The Levi’s Yad – recently donated in memory of Rev A A Levi – breaks this tradition. The donor, Zac Levi, a young computer artist and emerging silversmith, created the pointer using a live model to design and shape the arm. Further, he developed a method to visualize the anatomically precise form before painstakingly crafting it in silver. Highlighting the historical context and silversmithing skills of the congregation, the new yad will be used during the Great Synagogue’s weekday Shacharit and Mincha, Shabbat Mincha, and other services.
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#30 New Acquisition
A striking photo portrait of a young soldier, Lieut Abraham Rothfield MC and Bar (1890 – 1968) was recently donated to The Great Synagogue Museum collection from the NSW Archives of the Australian Jewish Historical Society.
Rothfield was born and educated in England. He started a successful career in Jewish education in Sydney in 1924 and was a much-loved teacher of Bat and Bar Mitzvah boys and girls at The Great Synagogue in the 1930s. This photo shows him as a young, decorated soldier, a distinguished Australian Jew who served the country and the community.
Equally amazing was the discovery that the photographer, Gladys Jacqueline O’Brien, later Merchant (1894-1954) was a woman photographer, famous in Sydney under her professional name Dorothy Welding in the 1930s. She was known for her studio portrait of celebrities, Pacific royals and – soldiers. The soft pastel-quality of her photographs brings back the unmissable romance of a bygone era.
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