ABSTRACT
Few synagogues have found their way into the standard texts of architectural history. Late-nineteenth-century synagogal buildings, accused of ‘aesthetic failure’,1 have received only cursory attention.2 Historical surveys have typically concentrated on summarizing the essential style and characteristic plan of any period broadly in relation to the degree of freedom/restriction within which Jewish communities operated. In addition there has been an assumption in existing litera ture of an increasingly emancipated Jewish social position, where collective progress marches forward to a goal of political, religious and civic equality. Between the ‘ghetto’ synagogue and the ‘emancipated’ synagogue lies the perceived indecision of the Victorian period.3 More recently the ‘modern’ synagogue building is interpreted as making a ‘genuinely’ Jewish statement.
