Born to a family of embroiderers, Abraham Hirsch (1828–1913) studied architecture at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lyon, France. Because the traditional apprentice system was often closed to Jews who faced endemic antisemitism, the burgeoning academic system offered more opportunity for aspiring Jewish architects. Hirsch was the first known Jew to have attended a Western school of architecture, and he went on to become the chief architect of Lyon. He designed numerous buildings in the city, including the Grand Synagogue of Lyon, which was completed in 1864. Designed in the neo-Byzantine style, the synagogue is now designated an official historic monument.
In this photograph of Israeli beatniks in a night club, Paul Schutzer captured a different side of Israeli life from that usually portrayed in the Israeli and international media. His partying…
This page from a Haggadah produced in Amsterdam is an example of the work of Joseph Ben David Leipnik, a prominent eighteenth-century scribe and artist known particularly for his illustrated Haggadahs…
Frydlender uses digital technology to create panoramic photographs, taking as many as a hundred individual photographs and assembling them into one image. While his photographs accurately reproduce…