Beth Sholom Synagogue
Frank Lloyd Wright and Modern Religious Architecture
In a suburb just north of Philadelphia stands Beth Sholom Synagogue, Frank Lloyd Wright’s only synagogue and among his finest religious buildings. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 2007, Beth Sholom was one of Wright’s last completed projects, and for years it has been considered one of his greatest masterpieces.
“This monumental study significantly broadens our understanding of Wright’s work. The importance of Beth Sholom becomes clear through Siry’s richly detailed, deep analysis that places the building within the context of Wright’s other designs for religious buildings, their diverse sources, and the philosophical beliefs that underlie them. Siry sets a high standard for Wright scholarship.”
“One of the few authentic scholars in the field of Wright studies, Joseph Siry has once again made a major contribution to our understanding of the architect’s ideas and buildings. Set in the context of Wright’s designs for religious architecture, Siry’s brilliant, clear, and thoroughly documented monograph is the definitive work on the magisterial Beth Sholom synagogue. This beautifully written book is indispensable for our grasp of the architect’s late work.”
“The brilliance of this study of Frank Lloyd Wright’s religious architecture lies in Siry’s explication of the architect’s intensive early exposure to the discourses on identity, faith, and its architectural representation among progressive Jewish and Protestant intellectuals at the end of the nineteenth century. By embedding detailed descriptive analyses of Wright’s subsequent religious architecture in an exhaustively researched social history, Siry significantly deepens our understanding and appreciation of the buildings.”
“Siry’s compelling book is a superb study of Wright and the only synagogue he designed. Meticulously researched and brilliantly written, this single volume places Beth Sholom into a broad context that illuminates the development of twentieth-century American religious architecture and Wright’s critical place in it. This is the rare work that blends extraordinary scholarship with a clear narrative. Siry provides not only telling insights into the working relationship between the architect and the congregation’s rabbi but also profound analysis of the role of Reconstructionist Jewish thought on the meaning of the building.”
“It is a beautifully produced work of art in its own right, and it is certain to be the definitive work on its subject. . . . In meticulously chronicling the building’s design history, Siry has produced a study that is unprecedented in its thoroughness.”
“A massive and absorbing new account of the building of Beth Sholom.”
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Unitarian Views of Judaism, and Adler and Sullivan’s Synagogues
2 Rev. William Norman Guthrie and Wright’s Steel Cathedral
3 Wright and the Ideal Theater to 1932
4 Annie M. Pfeiffer Chapel at Florida Southern College, 1938–41: Modernist Theology and Regional Identity
5 Community Christian Church, 1939–42
6 First Unitarian Society of Madison, 1945–52
7 Beth Sholom, Rabbi Mortimer Cohen, and Postwar Synagogue Architecture
8 Rabbi Cohen’s Vision and Wright’s Original Design for Beth Sholom Synagogue
9 Beth Sholom Synagogue: Design Development and Construction
10 Reception of Beth Sholom and Its Place in Wright’s Late Work
Epilogue Beth Sholom since 1959
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index
You may purchase this title at these fine bookstores. Outside the USA, see our international sales information.
