Syracuse University

Samuel Gruber

Samuel Gruber is the Holstein Family Visiting Lecturer at Syracuse University. Main interests are the history of art and architecture and he has published extensively on Jewish monuments, art and architecture of the synagogue. He teaches courses on the American Synagogue and Jewish Art and Architecture.

Present projects include consulting on the design of the new synagogue in Munich, Germany, where he recently lectured about modern synagogue architecture at the Munich City Museum and helping to develop plans for the conservation of the remains of the Great Synagogue in Belz, Ukraine. Gruber continues to write and edit reports for the US Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad (of which he is Research Director) on Old Believer sites in Lithuania, Roma sites in Poland, Protestant, Muslin and Roma sites in Bulgaria and Jewish and Holocaust-related sites in Bosnia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova and Romania. He is also President of the International Survey of Jewish Monuments.

Gruber is presently preparing a paper about the Roman Ghetto (presented at a conference in Rome in 2003) for publication, a chapter about stained glass in synagogues for an anthology volume about modern synagogue design, and an introduction for a book about the synagogues of northern Greece. In the summer of 2006 he will be participating in an NEH seminar in Venice, Italy, where he will continue research on medieval and Renaissance Jewish quarters and ghettos. He has recently been named Editor-in-Chief of a new website about Jewish heritage in Europe sponsored by the European Council of Jewish Communities which will debut later in 2006.

To view some of Sam Gruber’s publications, visit http://www.forward.com/main/author.php?author=Samuel%20D.%20Gruber

Courses:

Art and Memory in Jewish Tradition

Art and Architecture of the Synagogue

The American Synagogue: History, Art and Architecture

Teaching:

Arlene and R. Raymond Rothman Visiting Lecturer in Judaic Studies, Syracuse University, 9/04 – 5/06

Lecturer in Art and Art History, Colgate University, 1/03 - 5/03

Arlene and R. Raymond Rothman Visiting Lecturer in Judaic Studies, Syracuse University, 9/01 - 5/03

Humanistic Studies Center, Syracuse University, 4/2002

Humanistic Studies Center, Syracuse University, 10/2001

Books and Published Reports:

Jewish Cemeteries, Synagogues and Mass Grave Sites in Ukraine (U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, Washington, 2005)

American Synagogues: A Century of Architecture and the Jewish Community (with Paul Rocheleau, photographer). (New York: Rizzoli, 2003)

Also in preparation (2003-2004): reports on Jewish monuments in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Bulgaria.

Synagogues (New York: Metrobooks, 1999)

Jewish Monuments in Slovenia: A Report to the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad (with Ruth Ellen Gruber).(1996).

Survey of Historic Jewish Sites in the Czech Republic (co-author with Phyllis Myers), U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad and World Monuments Fund, NY, 1995.

Survey of Historic Jewish Sites in Poland (co-author with Phyllis Myers), U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad and World Monuments Fund, NY, 1994 (second revised edition, 1995).

Reports in Preparation:

Survey of Jewish Cemeteries and Mass Graves in Latvia (forthcoming 2006)

Survey of Historic Jewish Sites in Moldova (forthcoming 2006, with Igor Teper)

Survey of Historic Jewish Sites in Lithuania (in progress)

Survey of Historic Jewish Sites in Romania (in progress, with Ladislau Gyemant)

Current Research Projects:

Jewish Space (working title) (in preparation)

Medieval Synagogues and Ritual Space in the Middle Ages (in preparation)

Selected Articles:

Jewish Heritage Report, a Quarterly Publication of the International Survey of Jewish Monuments. Editor and writer, 1997 - 2000

“Jewish Identity in Modern Synagogue Architecture,” Essay in Angeli Sachs and Edward van Voolen, eds., Jewish Identity in Contemporary Architecture, (Prestel, 2004.), pp. 21-31.

“Synagogues” for the Encyclopedia of Twentieth Century Architecture (Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2004)

“European Preservation Projects of the World Monuments Fund’s Jewish Heritage Program: The Tempel Synagogue in Cracow (Poland) and the Etz Hayyim Synagogue in Hania (Crete),” in Max Polonovski, ed., Le Patrimonie Juif Européen: Actes du colloque international tenu à Paris, au Musée d’Art et d’Histoire du Judaïsme, les 26, 27 et 28 janvier 1999 (Paris-Louvain – Dudley MA: Peters, 2002), 209-221.

“Archaeological Remains of Ashkenazic Jewry in Europe: A New Source of Pride and History” in Leonard Rutgers, Ed., What Athens has to do with Jerusalem: Essays on classical, Jewish, and Early Christian Art and Archaeology in Honor of Gideon Foerster (Paris-Louvain – Dudley MA: Peters, 2002), 267-301.

“Monumenti Storici Ebraici in Europa: Nuove Tendenze” in 1990-2000: Ebrei Europei Dieci ani dopo la fine del Socialismo Reale ed. By R.uth Ellen Gruber and Laura Quercioli Mincer, La Rassegna Mensile d'Israel Vol. LXVIII:1 (Jan-April 2002), 191-218.

“Italian Synagogue Architecture and Italian Jewish Identity: The Example of Piedmont” in The Most Ancient of Minorities; The Jews of Italy ed. by Stanislao G. Pugliese (Greenwood Press, Westport ,CT, 2002), 169-175.

“Underground Railroad, Underpublicized Hero,” in (Syracuse) Post-Standard (Feb. 24, 2002).

[Lead article in Sunday Opinion Section re 19^th century Abolitionist Rev. Jermaine Loguen]

“The Wrong Way to Protect the Jewish Past,” op-ed piece in The New York Times (July 3, 2001)

Preservation Priorities: Endangered Historic Jewish Sites. World Monuments Fund (New York, 1996).

Silenced Sacred Spaces: Selected Photographs of Syrian Synagogues by Robert Lyons, exhibition essay, Lowe Art Gallery, Syracuse University (September, 1996).

"Synagogues in Arab Lands," in Jews in Arab Lands, exhibition catalogue, Beth Hatefusoth. (Tel Aviv, 1996).

"Shirley Moskowitz at Seventy-Five," exhibition catalogue essay in Shirley Moskowitz: a Half Century of Art (January 19-February 9, 1996). University of the Arts, Philadelphia.

"American Synagogue Architecture," Common Bond (New York), 11:1 (May 1995), 2-3.

"Synagogues and Temples: Beth Ahabah and the Classical Tradition," Generations: Journal of Congregation Beth Ahabah Museum and Archives Trust (Richmond, Va.), Vol. 7/No. 1 (May 1995), 1-3.

"Multiple Cultures, Multiple Heritages," Remarks published in "Issues of Historical Preservation in Central Europe and Russia," Conference Proceedings, ed. by J. Koehn, Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies Occasional Paper #259 (Washington, 1994), 40-54 and passim.

"Why Save the Historic Brenham Synagogue?" in Chronicles: A Publication of the Texas Jewish Historical Society, Vol. I, No. 1 (1994), 33-39.

Contributions to San Vincenzo al Volturno 1: The 1980-1986 Excavations (Archaeological Monographs of the British School at Rome 7), ed. by Richard Hodges (London 1993).

"The Synagogues of Eastern Europe." Metropolis Magazine (June, 1993).

"Survey of Jewish Cemeteries in Poland Yields Results." Avotaynu, VIII:4 (Winter, 1992).

"Preservation Update: USA." Judaica News, III:4 (Fall 1992), 3-4.

"Private Initiatives in Preservation." The Cracow Symposium on the Cultural Heritage of the CSCE Participating States, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Washington, D.C., 1991), 9-23.

The Future of Jewish Monuments, exhibition essay, The Joseph Gallery, Hebrew Union College, New York, November, 1990.

"Ordering the Urban Environment: City Statutes and City Planning in Medieval Todi, Italy," in Warren Ginsberg (ed.), Acta, 15 (1988, published 1990), Ideas of Order in the Middle Ages.

"Urbanism, Western Medieval," in Scribner's Dictionary of the Middle Ages, Vol. XII, 320-331.

Catalogue entries, Gardens and Ghettos, the Art of Jewish Life in Italy, ed. V. Mann, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1989

Reviews:

Various books reviews in Jewish Heritage Report (1997, 1998, 1999 and on-line)

Review of Judson J. Emerick, The Tempietto del Clitumno near Spoleto and Carola Jäggi, San Salvatore in Spoleto: Studien Zur Spatantiken und Fruhmittelalterlichen Archittektur Italiens in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (June 2000)

Review of Shiela Bonde, Fortress-Churches of Languedoc: Architecture, Religion, and Conflict in the High Middle Ages, in Architronic: The Electronic Review of Architecture (September, 1996).

Review of Phyllis Lambert, ed. Fortifications and the Synagogue: The Fortress of Babylon and the Ben Ezra Synagogue, Cairo, in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (September, 1996).

Review of Diana Norman (ed.), Siena, Florence, and Padua: Art, Society and Religion 1280-1400 (2 vols.), Yale Univ. Press, 1995 in Renaissance Quarterly (forthcoming, Spring 1997)

Review of David Friedman, Florentine New Towns, in Design Book Review, 19 (Winter 1991).

Review of series L'architettetura popolare in Italia, in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, XLVIII:4 (Dec. 1989), 403-405.

Review of Charles McClendon, The Imperial Abbey of Farfa, in Design Book Review, 10 (Winter 1988), 37-38.

Review of Torgil Magnuson, Rome in the Age of Bernini, Vol. I, in Design Book Review, 7 (1985), 59.

Recent Papers, Public Lectures and, Conferences:

“Arise and Build: American Synagogue Architecture in the 20th Century” at Münchner Stadtmuseum, Munich, Germany (Novemberr 17, 2005)

“An Illuminating Story: the History and Symbolism of Synagogue Light,” Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies (December 12, 2004)

“What Syracuse Can Learn from Italian Cities,” Public lecture, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY, co-sponsored by the Preservation Association of Central New York (Nov. 21, 2004)

“Rescued Heritage: The Restoration of Synagogues in Poland;” “Modern Synagogue Architecture: Between Memory and Innovation,” and “The American Synagogue and Jewish Identity: From Old World to New;” Three public lectures in Milwaukee, Wisconsin as part of Common Heritage: The Wooden Synagogues of Poland sponsored by the Polish Center of Wisconsin, UWM Center for Jewish Studies, UWM School of Architecture and Urban Planning and the Wisconsin Society for Jewish Learning, Inc. (October 21-24, 2004)

Organizer and moderator of sessions “ The Conservation and Restoration of Synagogues and Jewish Historic Sites,” and “Cemeteries and Memorials: Protection and Preservation,” at “The Future of Jewish Heritage in Europe” conference, Prague, Czech Republic, April 24-27, 2004.

“Arise and Build: American Synagogue Architecture in the 20^th Century.” Versions of this lecture were presented in October 2003 February 2004 at the National Building Museum (Washington , DC); the Buell Center for American Architecture, Columbia University; The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art; Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University; Department of Art History Smith College; The Harry Friedman Society, the Jewish Museum (New York); and various synagogues.

“Mapping Jews: Cartography and Topography in Rome’s Ghetto” paper to be delivered at Studium Urbis Conference on Nolli: "Giambattista Nolli, Imago Urbis and Rome" (30 May - 2 June 2003).

“The Renaissance Recycling of Roman Ruins,” lecture sponsored by the Department of Classics, Colgate University (March 7, 2003)

“’Seeing Leads to Remembering’: The Ethnographic and Architectural Expeditions of S. Anski (1912-15) and Szymon Zajczyk (1929-39) and Their Legacy Today” invited paper delivered at Borderlines Conference, Syracuse University (April 6- 8, 2002)

“The Underground Railroad and a Freedom Trail for Syracuse,” benefit lecture for NESCO (Near East Side Community Development Organization) at Bethany Baptist Church, Syracuse, NY, January 10, 2002

“American Synagogue Architecture: History, Architecture and Preservation,” lecture for Partners for Sacred Places, temple Beth Zion Beth Israel (Philadelphia), November 7, 2001.

“American Synagogue Architecture,” keynote lecture at annual meeting of Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington November 4, 2001.

“Sites of Shame: How We Remember Places We’d Rather Forget” invited paper delivered at conference “Framing Public Memory” conference, Syracuse University, September 28-29, 2001.

“Modern American Synagogues” lecture delivered at University Synagogue, Irvine, CA (8 June2001).

Grants/Fellowships/Awards:

2006 NEH Seminar Participant in “Shaping Civic Space in the Renaissance

City,” Venice, Italy (June-July)

1987-1989 Preceptorship, Art Humanities Program, Columbia University

1986-1987 Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome, Pre-doctoral Fellowship

in Art History

1986 Kress Foundation Fellowship in Art History (unable to accept)

1985 Research grant from the Center for Italian Studies, University of

Pennsylvania and the University of L'Aquila

1985 Milton Lewine Summer Travel Grant, Dept. of Art History,

Columbia University

Projects organized and directed by Gruber have received grants from: • American Express Foundation • Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation • Charles and Andrea Bronfman Foundation • Cahnman Foundation • Central New York Community Foundation • Cotsen Family Foundation • European Union • Getty Grant Program • Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund • Horace Goldsmith Foundation • Hanadiv Charitable Foundation • The Headley Trust • International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) • Mitrani Family Foundation • Samuel H. Kress Foundation • Ronald S. Lauder Foundation •Sydney and Frances Lewis Foundation • Lucius N. Littauer Foundation • National Fund for Cracow Monuments • Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation • Ann and Harry Reicher Foundation • Pforzheimer Foundation • Preservation League of New York State • Republic National Bank, NY • Rich Foundation • Daniel and Joanna S. Rose Fund • Rosamund Gifford Charitable Fund • Spingold Foundation • United States Government • Yad Hanadiv and numerous private donors.