Press / The Gwozdziec Synagogue Replication
NEW YORK 3.22.18 The most stunning exception to the digital presentations is the painted vault of a wooden seventeenth-century synagogue from the town of, faithfully recreated from architectural drawings by the Handshouse Studio in Massachusetts, an organization devoted to the reconstruction of historical objects… Read More from the New York Review of Books
Photos of 18th century Polish wooden synagogue discovered
ISRAEL 4.21.17 –The photographs were discovered in the estate of the rabbi and researcher Shmuel Poznanski. They contain meticulous and unique documentation of the interior of the wooden synagogue, the dome of its magnificent Ark, and the Women's gallery.
RThe most stunning exception to the digital presentations is the painted vault of a wooden seventeenth-century synagogue from the town of Gwoździec, faithfully recreated from architectural drawings by the Handshouse Studio in Massachusetts, an organization devoted to the reconstruction of historical objects.ecently discovered rare World War I-era pictures of an all-wood synagogue from Śniadowo, Poland, have been published for the first time. The unique structure was built in 1768, but burnt down, leaving no trace.
Śniadowo synagogue
Taube Philanthropies Names Maria Piechotka as a 2016 Irena Sendler Memorial Award Recipient
WARSAW 9.20.16 – Polish architect Maria Piechotkowa, renowned Polish architect and author of several groundbreaking publications upholding the architectural memory of buildings destroyed in WWII, especially synagogues, was honored for her commitment to preserving Poland’s Jewish heritage, on September 16, at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Taube Philanthropies presented its 2016 Irena Sendler Award to Piechotkowa at a ceremony under the museum’s replica of the 18th-century Gwoździec wooden synagogue.
Said Shana Penn, Executive Director of Taube Philanthropies, who presented the award to Piechotkowa, “We come together under this magnificent synagogue replica and intricate painted ceiling to honor Maria Huber Piechotkowa because this replica – and the phenomenon of today’s Jewish cultural revival in Poland that it exemplifies – would not have been possible without the pioneering vision, passionate interest, and dedicated research that Maria and her husband, the late Kazimierz Piechotka, pursued over many decades. Together, the Piechotkas rescued from virtual oblivion the wooden synagogue’s architectural significance and beauty and established its place in the histories and heritages of Poland and of Jews for generations to come.
The completed replication on a billboard at the Warsaw airport. Photo by Ed Mitukiewicz
3.4.16 “The museum is magnificent - not only the wonderful architecture of the building, but above all the exhibition, which shows 900 documented years of shared history,” President Andrzej Duda said.
10.1.15 The “Raise the Roof” project began in 2003 when a traditional carpenter who also teaches at New York University showed the Browns a photograph of one of these vanished wooden synagogues:…
9.29.15 “It’s not the first time we’ve done a project like this. We went to a conference in Poland where one man had great intentions but didn’t know how to organize…"
9.30.15 “Raise the Roof” has filmmakers Yari and Cary Wolinsky documenting how the traditional wooden synagogue of Gwoździec in Poland was lovingly restored by students, traditional artisans and builders…
9.30.15 It’s been almost one year since Israeli president Reuven Rivlin delivered a stirring speech at the opening ceremonies of Warsaw’s glistening new POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews…
9.27.15 Out of the ashes…a synagogue is reborn in Poland. Documentary "Raise the Roof" premiers October 8 in Tucson.
Read More from the Arizona Jewish Life
9.27.15 Eight of Tucson’s long-running film festivals have come together to create the Tucson Festival of Films, a three day event showcasing features, documentaries and shorts from Oct. 8-10…
4.29.15 More than a decade ago, art professors Rick and Laura Brown posted a flyer advertising a new studio art class…The poster featured an old photograph of an unusual looking 18th-century Polish wooden building, and posed an intriguing invite: “Who wants to build this synagogue?”
1.30.15 The Browns' unlikely odyssey to bring back to life on of the most significant synagogues is told in "Raise the Roof," a documentary by the award-winning father-son filmmaking team of Cary and Yari Wolinsky…
Read More from the Atlanta Jewish Times
1.29.15 The tale of how, over a decade, the reconstructed roof, cupola, and bimah was built and then came to sit in the Jewish Historical Institute of Poland in Warsaw is told in the beautifully illustrated book “Gwoździec Re!construction”…
Read More from The Jewish Journal, MA
March/April 2015 Raise the Roof "highlights the cautious optimism of a new generation and a growing dialogue between Jews and Poles about the past and the future, providing a unique and positive way to connect with Jewish history…”
Read More from the Jewish Georgian
2.20.15 Norwell sculptors Rick and Laura Brown are both college professors at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, but they don’t consider themselves teachers.
1.22.15 Rick and Laura Brown are neither Polish nor Jewish. Their religion is making things…
1.3.15 “Resplendent” is an apt description for the synagogue interior, which is covered from floor to ceiling with snippets of Hebrew liturgy, zodiac signs, messianic symbols, and a fabulous array of animals…
12.12.14 At the heart of the evocation of this "golden age" of the museum sits the event: a replica of the wooden synagogue (near Lviv, now in Ukraine), built in 1650, decorated with exuberant paintings…
10.30.14 The important task, and also a chance for our museum, lies in the goal of depicting how, for centuries, Jewish history was intertwined with Polish history, and how the two cultures influenced each other…
10.28.14 If every museum is an argument, the principal contention of Warsaw’s massive new Museum of the History of the Polish Jews, which opens today, is that a millennium of Jewish history cannot be reduced to the six-year period between 1939 and 1945, when Nazi Germany exterminated six million European Jews, largely in Eastern Europe…
10.21.14 With anti-Semitism having become more prominent again across Europe, something quite different is growing in a huge, translucent building at the center of a vanished neighborhood in Warsaw…
10.1.14 This past July it brought me to Poland, the mothership of Jews in Eastern Europe. I was invited to preview the core exhibition of Warsaw’s Museum of the History of Polish Jews, months before its official opening on October 28th. To say I was excited is an understatement…
12.3.13 Every single detail of the roof which was constructed during the workshops was made in the present day…which illustrates how history may influence and have a positive impact on people living in our time…
11.21.13 CNN's Paula Newton travels to Warsaw to visit the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
10.30.13 Since it opened its doors last April during high-profile ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Museum of the History of Polish Jews has attracted thousands of visitors…
8.30.13 The ceiling is a rich panoply in milky blues and brownish reds of zodiac signs and animal symbols, along with inscriptions in Hebrew…
8.30.13 The Curator of Joy and Ashes: How ethnographer Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett became the keeper of Poland’s Jewish heritage…
8.24.13 None of Poland’s spectacular wooden synagogues survived the war. Now a team of experts and novices is bringing one of them back to life…
4.20.13 They have studied every curve of the wood, every beam, peg, and brush stroke that made up the centuries-old structure…
4.18.13 Clad in glass panels on the outside, the museum has a curved passageway inside that runs from front to back, almost like a natural canyon, which the building’s architect has compared to the parted Red Sea…
Read more from The New York Times
A 300-Year-Old Synagogue Comes Back to Life in Poland…
4.15.13 Last summer I travelled for the first time to Poland, where my grandparents were born, to help recreate murals from an 18th-century wooden synagogue in the town of Gwozdziec, now in Ukraine…
4.1.13 The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, in collaboration with Handshouse Studio, plans to rebuild components of a exquisite 17th-century wooden synagogue…
Read more from Museum of the History of Polish Jews Newsletters
10.3.12 This summer I traveled for the first time to Poland, where my grandparents were born, to help recreate an 18th-century wooden synagogue from the town of Gwozdziec. I wanted to engage in a creative activity in a place often associated only with destruction and loss…
8.14.12 After 10 years of research and workshops, the reconstruction of the wonderfully painted ceiling of the destroyed Gwozdziec synagogue is complete…
4.10.12 The external resemblance between these Polish synagogues and Wright's Beth Sholom is striking…
Spring 2007 The Brown's Handshouse Studio…is a locus for developing projects that incorporate historical research and scientific inquiry with the principles of design and techniques of sculpture…
Read more from Art Works, Washington University of St. Louis