AUTHOR: Ágnes Ivett Oszkó
Two of the synagogues built in Vojvodina, Serbia, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century can be attributed to the same architect. The synagogues of Zrenjanin (the former Nagybecskerek, 1894–1896) and Novi Sad (formerly called Újvidék, 1905–1909) were designed by Lipót Baumhorn (1860–1932), the most engaged synagogue architect in Europe. His oeuvre, which was created over forty years between 1886 and 1932, embraces the phase of synagogue architecture when the mid-19th century Orientalism gradually gave way to modern currents. These two examples from the territory of Vojvodina illustrate the two endpoints of this process.
In my study, I mainly deal with the stylistic features of the buildings. Furthermore, I give an overview of the history of the Jews living in Zrenjanin and Novi Sad. Besides demonstrating the connections between structure and material, I focus on putting the buildings in a contemporary context in my paper. A comparison of the two synagogues and an evaluation within the architect’s oeuvre may answer whether the synagogue architecture followed the general styles around the turn of the century and, if so, to what extent did it retain genre-specific features.
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Faculty of Science and Faculty of Philosophy at University of Novi Sad, in cooperation with Archive of Vojvodina will publish a collection of scientific papers entitled “SYNAGOGUES AND JEWISH HERITAGE IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE” in June. The collection will include 18 scientific and professional papers on the topic of Jewish cultural heritage, which will be presented at a scientific conference that will be held at the end of June in the premises of Archive of Vojvodina. In order to bring it closer to the scientific and professional public, but also to all those interested in the topic of papers in the collection, we publish summaries of all scientific papers on the website of Archives of Vojvodina, which will be in printed and electronic version of the collection of papers in June. The research and preparation of the collection with the Archive of Vojvodina was assisted by the Provincial Secretariat for Higher Education and Scientific Research of the Government of Vojvodina, with the project number 142-451-3211 / 2020-03. The editors-in-chief of the collection in front of the scientific institution and the publishing institution are Dr. Rastislav Stojsavljević and Dr. Nebojša Kuzmanović.
