IMC 2019: Sessions

Session 821: Of Stone, Iron, and Wax: The Materiality of Medieval Synagogues

Sponsor:	Institut für jüdische Geschichte Österreichs, St Pölten
Organiser:	Birgit Wiedl, Institut für jüdische Geschichte Österreichs, St. Pölten
Moderator/Chair:	Irven Resnick, Department of Philosophy & Religion, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga
Paper 821-a	Material and Symbolic Significance of Synagogues in 14th-Century Castile (Language: English) Maya Soifer Irish, Department of History, Rice University, Texas Index terms: Architecture - Religious, Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Law, Religious Life
Paper 821-b	'Every man and every women shall light a candle in the Synagogue…': Existence, Form, and Function of Candles in Medieval Ashkenaz (Language: English) Rainer Josef Barzen, Institut für Jüdische Studien, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster Index terms: Hebrew and Jewish Studies, Liturgy, Religious Life, Social History
Abstract	The synagogue has long been recognised as the religious, spiritual, and social centre of medieval Jewish communities. In this session, the papers focus on material aspects of ashkenazic and sefardic synagogues and their interior. The speakers aim at exploring as to how the materiality of the building, its entrance, and religious ceremonies inside contribute to Jewish (group) identity and medieval Jewish life in general.