Photograph: Wooden synagogue of the 18th century.

European Jews

European Russia, Podolia province, Kamenets-Podolsky district, Shtetl of Lanckorun

1907

Gelatin silver printing with chemical development (DOP)

14,5 x 16,2

РЭМ 852-8

A synagogue where the community’s Jews gathered for a public prayer was built so that the worshippers would face the east – Jerusalem. The eastern façade of a synagogue was always free of any attachments; the Aron Kodesh (ark to keep the Torah Scroll) was set up in the praying hall at that wall which was called “mizrah” (Hebrew east). The mizrah, a decorative plaque pictured or cut out of paper with an inscription and symbolic images, was hung on the eastern wall of every Jewish home.