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    Lost Synagogues of Europe
    Paintings and Histories

    Andrea Strongwater (Author), Ismar Schorsch (Foreword by)

    9780827615694

    Hardback, published 1 November 2025

    280 pages, 112 color illustrations, 1 map
    27.9 x 21.6 x 3.1 cm, 1.654 kg

    "A worthy tribute to an important piece of Jewish history."—Publishers Weekly

    “Lost Synagogues of Europe is a remarkable contribution to a variety of disciplines. It offers a virtual tour across European Jewish communities, with equal attention paid to art, architecture, the Gentile authorities’ stance toward its Jews, and the changing historical context, from Roman times till the first decade of the new millennium. Andrea Strongwater tells a painful story of Jewish communal focal points targeted for destruction primarily by Nazi Germany, but also by its Soviet ideological rivals. It leaves us hopeful that as we show a new generation the beauty of what was lost, the Nazi effort to make Europe Judenrein can somehow, to some extent, be undone.”—Shay Pilnik, director of the Emil A. and Jenny Fish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Yeshiva University
    “Andrea Strongwater’s paintings of European synagogues destroyed in the Holocaust allow us to connect emotionally with them—and, in that sense, bring them back to life for us. Her concomitant history of these synagogues broadens our understanding of these homes of Jewish living and thereby serves as new, important testimony to Jewish life lost in the flames of the Shoah.”—Vladimir Levin, director of the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
    “This is a must-read book. Andrea Strongwater’s remarkable paintings and meticulously researched histories honor and help bring back to life lost Jewish communities in Europe, especially during World War II. Her dedication, evident in every detail, has earned her well-deserved accolades. I highly recommend Lost Synagogues of Europe for everyone interested in Jewish history and preserving Jewish memory.”—Rabbi Justin Schwartz, Jewish educator at Temple Beth Abraham in Tarrytown, New York

    Lost Synagogues of Europe chronicles and recreates in vivid color paintings the life stories of nearly 80 majestic-and destroyed-European synagogues, each one a testament to the approximately 17,000 synagogues decimated during the Third Reich and early takeover of the Communist regimes. After World War II only about 3,300 buildings remained standing, and just more than 700 are still in use as synagogues. This exquisite and significant work of historical preservation collects, organizes, and documents their stories.

    In four chapters organized by inauguration dates (1600s, 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s), author and artist Andrea Strongwater shines light on 77 synagogues built from the early 1600s to 1930 and spanning 16 European countries where destruction was rampant: Austria (6 synagogues), Belarus (3), Croatia (2), the Czech Republic (5), Estonia (1), France (2), Germany (26), Italy (1), Latvia (2), Lithuania (5), Luxembourg State (1), the Netherlands (1), Poland (15), Russia (1), Slovakia (2), and Ukraine (4). Strongwater lovingly illustrates their exteriors and interiors and tells stories of their history, Jewish community, and architectural significance. These synagogues were considered important enough to have been documented in their time, and so here they do double duty: reminding us of the many thousands of other synagogues that were obliterated without having left any historical record.

    A foreword by Jewish Theological Seminary Chancellor Emeritus Ismar Schorsch examines the evolution of the synagogue “from a sacred place to a sacred book.” A map of the 2024 political landscape of Europe (with Pale of Settlement and Russian Poland, mid-1800s) helps readers locate each city, town, and country. A cross-reference guide of synagogue locations by country enables readers to find synagogues in the cities and towns of their ancestors.

    In all, Lost Synagogues of Europe helps to revive a thriving European Jewish culture and heritage that needs to be remembered today.
     

    Foreword: From a Sacred Place to a Sacred Book
    by Ismar Schorsch
    Acknowledgments
    Introduction: Where Jews Once Gathered
    Guide: Synagogue Locations by Country
    1. 1600s
    Livorno: 1603, exterior and interior
    Vilnius: Great Synagogue, 1633, exterior and interior
    Zabł
    udÓ
    w: between 1635 and 1646, exterior
    Liuboml: mid-1600s–
    early 1700s, exterior
    2. 1700s
    Gą
    bin: 1710 (rebuilt in the late 1800s), exterior
    Berlin: Old Synagogue, 1714, exterior and interior
    Voŭ
    pa: first half of 1700s, exterior
    PrzedbÓ
    rz: between 1754 and 1760, exterior and interior
    Niasviž
    : Great Synagogue, 1700s, exterior
    Varniai: Wooden Synagogue, late 1700s, exterior
    3. 1800s
    Seesen: 1810, exterior
    Homieĺ
    : Great Synagogue, 1833, exterior
    Bad Buchau: 1839, exterior and interior
    Kassel: 1839, exterior and interior
    Dresden: Semper Synagogue, 1840, exterior and interior
    Belz: Great Synagogue, 1843, exterior
    Hamburg: Temple, 1844, exterior and interior
    Lviv: Temple, 1845, exterior
    Varniai: Masonry Synagogue, mid-1800s, exterior
    Vienna: LeopoldstÄ
    dter Temple, 1858, exterior and interior
    Kretinga: 1860 (restored after an 1889 fire), exterior
    Gliwice: New Synagogue, 1861, exterior
    TelŠ
    iai: Great Beit Midrash, 1861, exterior
    Aachen: 1862, exterior
    Bochum: 1863 (rebuilt in 1896), exterior
    &
    Eacute
    pinal: 1863, exterior
    Jelgava: 1864, exterior
    Bytom: 1869, exterior
    Hannover: New Synagogue, 1870, exterior and interior
    Riga: Great Choral Synagogue, 1871, exterior
    Wrocł
    aw: New Synagogue, 1872, exterior
    Vienna: Turner Temple, 1872, exterior
    Nuremberg: Synagogue at Hans-Sachs-Platz, 1874, exterior
    Heilbronn: 1877, exterior and interior
    Karlovy Vary: 1877, exterior and interior
    Warsaw: Great Synagogue, 1878, exterior and interior
    Bruchsal: 1881, exterior and interior
    Teplice: 1882, exterior and interior
    TÜ
    bingen: 1882, exterior and interior
    Bydgoszcz: 1884, exterior
    Landau in der Pfalz: 1884, exterior and interior
    MariÁ
    nskÉ
    LÁ
    zně
    : 1884, exterior
    Kł
    odzko, 1885, exterior
    Gdań
    sk: Great Synagogue, 1887, exterior and interior
    Ł
    Ó
    dź
    : Great Synagogue, 1887, exterior and interior
    Č
    eskÉ
    Budě
    jovice: 1888, exterior
    Rawicz: 1889, exterior
    Horokhiv: Great Synagogue, 1880s, exterior
    Graz: 1892, exterior
    Pforzheim: 1892, exterior
    Vienna: Polish Shul, 1892, exterior and interior
    Vukovar: 1889, exterior
    Bratislava: Neolog Synagogue, 1893, exterior
    Luxembourg: Great Synagogue, 1894, exterior
    Kaliningrad: New Synagogue, 1896, exterior
    Slavonski Brod: 1896, exterior
    Olomouc: 1897, exterior and interior
    Strasbourg: Synagogue du Quai KlÉ
    ber, 1898, exterior
    Baden Baden: 1899, exterior
    Chemnitz: 1899, exterior
    Kež
    marok: second half of 1800s, exterior
    4. 1900s
    Dortmund: 1900, exterior
    Katowice: Great Synagogue, 1900, exterior and interior
    Bad Kissingen: New Synagogue, 1902, exterior
    Vienna: Neudeggergasse Synagogue, 1903, exterior and interior
    Tartu: 1903, exterior and interior
    Bielefeld: 1905, exterior
    Jasł
    o: 1905, exterior
    Darmstadt: Orthodox Synagogue, 1906, exterior and interior
    Frankfurt: Synagogue at Friedberger Anlage, 1907, exterior and interior
    TarnÓ
    w: Jubilee Synagogue, 1908, exterior and interior
    Mainz: Main Synagogue, 1912, exterior and interior
    Biał
    ystok: Great Synagogue, 1913, exterior and interior
    Essen: 1913, exterior and interior
    Amsterdam: Synagogue at Linnaeusstraat, 1928, exterior and interior
    Vienna: Hietzinger Synagogue, 1928, exterior
    Plauen: 1930, exterior and interior
    Notes
    Bibliography
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