Gilded Lions and Jeweled Horses: The Synagogue to the Carousel, Jewish Carving Traditions

by Murray Zimiles (Author) Based on more than 20 years of original research in Europe, Israel, and the United States by artist Murray Zimiles, and accompanied by an essay by distinguished Judaica scholar Vivian B.Mann, this book is the first fully developed study of the secularization of Eastern European Jewish folk art traditions in America. Until recently, little was known in the United States about the creative work of European Jewish folk artists. The destruction of the material heritage of Eastern European Jews during World War II has made it very difficult to recover artifacts of Jewish artistry. The physical remnants of that heritage―among them, the types of papercuts, gravestones, and wood carvings featured in this volume―can only suggest how extensive the traditions of Jewish folk art in Eastern Europe once were. Skilled craftsmen, responsible for the painted and carved interiors of Eastern European synagogues and their elaborately carved arks and bimahs, came to the New World