The Agoudas Hakehilos Synagogue (אֲגֻדָּת־הַקְּהִלּוֹת, Union of the communities), at 10 rue Pavée, in the

4th arrondissement of Paris The 4th arrondissement of Paris (''IVe arrondissement'') is one of the twenty arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, this arrondissement is referred to as ''quatrième''. Along with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd arrondissement ...

(

Le Marais The Marais (Le Marais ; "the marsh") is a historic district in Paris, France. Having once been an aristocratic district, it is home to many buildings of historic and architectural importance. It spreads across parts of the 3rd and 4th arr ...

quarter), commonly referred to at the Pavée synagogue, rue Pavée synagogue, or Guimard synagogue, was designed by

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

architect

Hector Guimard Hector Guimard (, 10 March 1867 – 20 May 1942) was a French architect and designer, and a prominent figure of the Art Nouveau style. He achieved early fame with his design for the Castel Beranger, the first Art Nouveau apartment building ...

and erected between 1913 and 1914.

History

Agoudas Hakehilos Synagogue (Hector Guimard) in 1917

The

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

was commissioned by the ''Agoudas Hakehilos'' (אֲגֻדָּת־הַקְּהִלּוֹת, union of the communities), society composed of

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...

s of primarily

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

n origin, headed by Joseph Landau. Its erection is a testament to the massive wave of immigration from Eastern Europe that took place at the turn of the 20th century. Funded by this wealthy Polish-Russian group it did not cost the Parisian community a ''centime''. They intended to provide a spacious and modernized place for Jews accustomed to the intimate and often squalid ''shtiblakh''. The construction of the Synagogue started in 1913 and was completed the following year, with the official inauguration taking place on 7 June 1914; nevertheless the Synagogue had been already active for services since October 1913. The opening ceremony was not attended by any of the representants of the

Central Consistory The Israelite Central Consistory of France (french: link=no, Consistoire central israélite de France) is an institution set up by Napoleon I by the Imperial Decree of 17 March 1808 to administer Jewish worship and congregations in France. He also d ...

, instead famous polish

Hazzan A ''hazzan'' (; , lit. Hazan) or ''chazzan'' ( he, חַזָּן , plural ; Yiddish ''khazn''; Ladino ''Hasan'') is a Jewish musician or precentor trained in the vocal arts who helps lead the congregation in songful prayer. In English, this pr ...

Gershon Sirota Gershon-Yitskhok Leibovich Sirota (russian: Гершон-Ицхок Лейбович Сирота; 187419 April 1943) was one of the leading cantors of Europe during the "Golden Age of Hazzanut" (cantorial music), sometimes referred to as the "Jew ...

was present at the event. During the year in 1934 a gas explosion destroyed the main hall which was rebuilt right after. On the evening of Yom Kippur in 1941, the building was dynamited along with six other Parisian synagogues by collaborators of the nazi occupants; however the bomb did not go off and the building was preserved. On the night between 2 and 3 October of the same year, the synagogue was damaged following an attack organised by far-right association

Mouvement Social Révolutionnaire The Revolutionary Social Movement (in French: ''Mouvement Social Révolutionnaire'' MSR) was a fascist movement founded in France in September 1940. Its founder was Eugène Deloncle, who was previously associated with '' La Cagoule'' . The MSR ...

. It was partially restored afterwards, but the main entrance was altered from its original appearance.Voir Cécile Desprairies. ''Paris dans la Collaboration''. Préface de

Serge Klarsfeld Serge Klarsfeld (born 17 September 1935) is a Romanian-born French activist and Nazi hunter known for documenting the Holocaust in order to establish the record and to enable the prosecution of war criminals. Since the 1960s, he has made notab ...

. Éditions du Seuil: Paris, 2009, p. 95-96. The building was registered as a ''

monument historique ''Monument historique'' () is a designation given to some national heritage sites in France. It may also refer to the state procedure in France by which National Heritage protection is extended to a building, a specific part of a building, a coll ...

'' by the French authorities on July 4, 1989. Synagogue The synagogue is fully functional today with the Rabbi being Rav Moredekhai Rottenberg, the son of the late Rav Haim Yaakov Rottenberg, known as the ''Rouv''. The synagogue is now open to the public.

Description

The synagogue is Guimard's last major project before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the only religious building he designed. Built on a narrow stripe of land between older houses, the synagogue is developed in height, with the elongated windows and continuous columns of its façade emphasizing its verticality. The interior is vertically arranged as well, with two levels of galleries on each side of the nave, to deal with the lack of width. Guimard made use of

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...

for the structure and for the exterior he chose white stone. Light enters through a number of windows in the façade, but much of the natural lighting is provided by the large glass window of the back wall. Skylights originally were also present, but were covered when the roof was renovated; they are still visible from the interior. The furnishings (luminaires, chandeliers, brackets, and benches) as well as the stylized vegetal decorations made of staff and the cast iron railings are all creations of Guimard and they display the same motifs that characterize the exteriors. The triangle is a recurring symbol in the ornamentation and triangles were also present over the entrances, but were substituted by a single

Star of David The Star of David (). is a generally recognized symbol of both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles. A derivation of the ''seal of Solomon'', which was used for decorative ...

during a restoration of the façade.

Gallery

File:Guimard-4eme-artnouveau-10-rue-pavee-synagogue.jpg, Street view from Rue Pavée. File:Guimard-4eme-artnouveau-10-rue-pavee-synagogue-signature.jpg, Stone with inscription: "Hector Guimard, Architect, 1913". File:Paris Synagogue-rue Pavée761.JPG, Detail of the façade decoration, with the

Tables of the Law According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tablets of the Law (also Tablets of Stone, Stone Tablets, or Tablets of Testimony; Biblical Hebrew: לוּחֹת הַבְּרִית ''lûḥōt habbǝrît'' "tablets of the covenant", לֻחֹת הָאֶבֶן ...

. File:Pletzl Pavee Synagogue Entree.jpg, Detail of the entrance, with the

. File:Paris Synagogue RuePavée innen399.JPG, Interior view, showing the nave, the galleries and the back wall.

Notes

References

* Paula E. Hyman, 1998. ''The Jews of Modern France (Jewish Communities in the Modern World)''

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

Press. *

Carol Herselle Krinsky Carol Herselle Krinsky (born 1937 Brooklyn, New York) is an American architectural historian. She graduated from Erasmus Hall High School, studied at Smith College (1957 BA) and New York University, (Ph.D. 1965). Krinsky is a professor of twentiet ...

, 1996. ''Synagogues of Europe: Architecture, History, Meaning''

Dover Publications Dover Publications, also known as Dover Books, is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward and Blanche Cirker. It primarily reissues books that are out of print from their original publishers. These are often, but not always, books ...

External links

website
{{Authority control Art Nouveau architecture in Paris Ashkenazi Jewish culture in Paris Orthodox synagogues in France Synagogues in Paris Art Nouveau synagogues Le Marais Monuments historiques of Paris Works by Hector Guimard Synagogues completed in 1914 1914 establishments in France Polish diaspora in Europe Russian diaspora in France Russian-Jewish diaspora in Europe Buildings and structures in the 4th arrondissement of Paris