Book contents
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Medieval versus Early Modern Synagogues
- 2 Jews, Synagogues and Compulsory Urban Consolidation at the Dawn of the Early Modern Period
- 3 Urbanization and Jewish Public Space: The First Great Synagogues
- 4 Readmission and Colonial Frontiers: New Synagogues in Lands of Tolerance
- 5 Jews and Early Modern Cultural Exchanges: Cross-Pollination and its Effects on Synagogue Design
- 6 Lavishing the House of Assembly: Synagogues, Global Trade and Exotic Ornamentation
- Conclusion: From Early Modern to Modern: Synagogues in Transition
- Glossary
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
6 - Lavishing the House of Assembly: Synagogues, Global Trade and Exotic Ornamentation
- Frontmatter
- CONTENTS
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Medieval versus Early Modern Synagogues
- 2 Jews, Synagogues and Compulsory Urban Consolidation at the Dawn of the Early Modern Period
- 3 Urbanization and Jewish Public Space: The First Great Synagogues
- 4 Readmission and Colonial Frontiers: New Synagogues in Lands of Tolerance
- 5 Jews and Early Modern Cultural Exchanges: Cross-Pollination and its Effects on Synagogue Design
- 6 Lavishing the House of Assembly: Synagogues, Global Trade and Exotic Ornamentation
- Conclusion: From Early Modern to Modern: Synagogues in Transition
- Glossary
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
With the rise of mercantile empires hospitable to Jews, such as the Dutch, English and Ottoman empires during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Jewish communities across the globe began actively trading and furnishing their synagogues with valuable goods including ritual objects, such as Torah scrolls and books, as well as furniture, tapestries and building materials. The skills of craftsman and artists were also part of this economic exchange. While congregations had a history of importing furnishings for centuries – indeed, from the Middle Ages synagogues such as the Al-Ghriba Synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia, and the Altneuschul in Prague, Czech Republic, have traditions that each was constructed with some stone imported from the destroyed temple in Jerusalem – never before did they have such an exotic and geographically broad market. The eclectic collection of exotic materials and Jewish art by congregations for their synagogues was a by-product of early modern globalization. Th is is reflected in the motherland synagogues of imperial powers, on colonial and borderland frontiers, as well as lands that were third party trading partners. Early modern globalization affected the availability of precious and semi-precious materials, such as silver extracted from the Spanish Americas and textiles from Asia, and also created markets for materials previously unknown in the Old World, like exotic hardwoods from Amazonia.
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- Information
- Jews and the Renaissance of Synagogue Architecture, 1450–1730 , pp. 135 - 146Publisher: Pickering & ChattoFirst published in: 2014