The Spatial Morphology of Synagogue Visibility As a Measure of Jewish Acculturation in Late Nineteenth-Century London
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The spatial morphology of synagogue visibility as a measure of Jewish acculturation in late nineteenth- century London Laura Vaughan Space Syntax Laboratory, The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, 22 Gordon Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK. E- mail: [email protected] ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003- 0315- 2977 Revised version received 16 December 2019 Abstract. This paperʼs historical focus is the latter two decades of nineteenth- century London. During this period the established Jewish community of the city benefited from political emancipation, but this was not the case for the recently- arrived impoverished Jewish migrants from Eastern Europe. The spatial constitution of religious practice also differed across the city. A comparative study found that the more prosperous West End, other than an isolated case in the impoverished district of Soho, had purpose-built buildings fronting the street; while the poorer district of Whitechapel in the East End was dominated by smaller ad hoc arrangements – one- room or adapted premises, shtiebels – serving a wider communal and social purpose, similar to the practice of the old country. A comparative space syntax isovist analysis of the visibility of synagogue façades from surrounding streets found that while, in the West End, most synagogues had a limited public display of religious practice by this time, East End prayer houses remained visible only to their immediate, Jewish majority surroundings. This paper proposes that the amount of synagogue- street visibility corresponds to the stage of growth in both social acculturation and political confidence. Keywords: religion, immigration, visibility, isovists, synagogues, London Two large rooms knocked into one. Its to sermons more exegetical than ethical. They furniture was bare benches, a raised plat- dropped in, mostly in their work-a- day gar- form with a reading desk in the centre and a ments and grime, and rumbled and roared and wooden curtained ark at the end containing chorused prayers with a zeal that shook the two parchment scrolls of the Law, each with a window- panes, and there was never lack of silver pointer and silver bells and pomegran- minyan — the congregational quorum of ten. ates. The room was badly ventilated and In the West End, synagogues are built to eke what little air there was generally sucked up out the income of poor minyan-men or profes- by a greedy company of wax candles, big sional congregants; in the East End rooms are and little, struck in brass holders. The back tricked up for prayer. This synagogue was. window gave on the yard and the contigu- their salon and their lecture-hall. It was a ous cow- sheds, and ‘moos’ mingled with the place in which they could sit in their slippers, impassioned supplications of the worship- metaphorically that is; for though they fre- pers, who came hither two and three times a quently did so literally, it was by way of rever- day to batter the gates of heaven and to listen ence, not ease (Zangwill, 1892, pp. 110–11). Urban Morphology (2020) 24(2), 129–44 © International Seminar on Urban Form, 2020 ISSN 1027–4278 130 The spatial morphology of synagogue visibility Introduction places of worship set within their urban con- text manifested itself in the post- emancipation This paper considers whether the spatial con- period of nineteenth-century Europe, consid- stitution and public visibility of Jewish wor- ering the case of London, which had under- ship reflects the process of immigrant accul- gone significant change in the 1880s with the turation. When religious differences occur influx of refugees from Eastern Europe. alongside poverty, the perception can be that Partly due, at least in Christian lands, to the minority group poses a greater challenge restrictions on the visibility of synagogues that for integration. Yet there may be an advantage meant that they were not permitted to compete to minorities ‘to remain hidden, out of sight of with churches in height, the construction of the dominant society . .’ since they are less purpose- built synagogue buildings has been likely to be rejected if the majority population said to symbolise two changes that mark mod- is unaware of them (Sibley, 1992, p. 121). ern times: religious practice becoming more Spatial segregation, especially of religious formalised, as well as the visibility of this prac- practice, can be a protective measure and the tice increasing with political security (Snyder, history of the Jewish ghetto in Europe would 2013). So- called ‘tolerance’ prevailed, so long support this to be particularly the case for reli- as worship remained hidden (Kaplan, 2005, pp. gious minorities (see Vaughan, 2018). Despite 142–3). Even the closed-off ghetto revealed an the confinement to a spatial sector being in unexpected degree of ambiguity. As Gotzmann effect ‘a form of imprisonment’, for Jews liv- shows, post emancipation, and into the nine- ing in ghettos, it also provided an undisturbed teenth century, ‘there was an increased ten- space in which an ‘ideal’ form of Jewish life, sion between Jewish communities wishing to a place to call their own, was realised – as demonstrate their relative freedom against the Lässig and Rürup point out (2017, pp. 141–2). reluctance of most German states and prov- Synagogues, as their meaning in Greek inces to accede to Jewish communities’ desire conveys, are gathering places: ‘for commu- to have structures whose representative quali- nal prayer, study, debate and commentary on ties matched those of other religious buildings’ the Holy Scriptures, as well as for religious (Gotzmann, 2017, pp. 142–4). instruction’ (Piechotka and Piechotka, 2015, Most Western European Jewish communi- p. 35). Prayer can, in fact, take place in any ties remained isolated on the fringes of soci- building, so long as there is a quorum of ten ety until well into the eighteenth century. The men (both men and women in non- orthodox only exception to this was Amsterdam, which congregations). The Sabbath, rather than provided religious freedom and social equal- the synagogues themselves – ‘time rather ity to Jews fleeing from a secret existence in than place’ – is what is sanctified in Judaism Spain and Portugal in the early seventeenth (Heschel, cited in Fenster, 2018, p. 6). Heschel century. It generally remained a unique case writes about how this helps explain the lack for the continent until the more widespread of any but minimal guidance in Jewish law emancipation of the Jewish inhabitants of cit- regarding the layout and siting of synagogues. ies living in countries conquered by Napoleon, Taking this alongside the diasporic nature of which freed them from confinement in ghettos, Jewish life, it is not surprising to find that, over shaping a more equal interface between the centuries, synagogues have tended to either synagogue, the street and the city. The eman- minimise external elaboration entirely (saving cipatory process, which started in France from this for the interior), or take on an architectural 1789 onwards, took a further half-century to form that reflects the cultural, social and polit- take root, especially in smaller towns across ical context within which they are situated. Germany and the Austrian Empire. Moreover, Bearing in mind the vast time and space that although improvements in political freedom a history of Jewish religious practice could continued throughout the nineteenth century, cover, this paper focuses on the spatial speci- rather than a process of complete integra- ficity of how the interaction between Jewish tion, in many instances religious, juridical The spatial morphology of synagogue visibility 131 and legal practices became the responsibility London 1881–1905: introducing the cases of organizations, or Consistoire, a system of self- administration of Jewish congregations The latter half of the nineteenth century was a under Napoleon I. This self- administration, period of rapid urbanization in Europe and the which revolved around the synagogue, led, as Americas. Alongside a rural- to- urban move- Katz (1978, pp. 6, 274) describes it, to a tran- ment by Christian populations, migratory sition towards partial inclusion. flows of Jewish people into cities, with a large In contrast, Eastern European synagogues movement of migrants from Eastern Europe remained mostly secluded and hidden inside to the UK and USA, reshaped the religious urban blocks throughout the nineteenth cen- landscape of their destinations. Some argue tury, gathering the community needs around that this led to secularization, while others them (see Hanzl, 2017, pp. 190–1 on Poland). suggest that this is more akin to a shift to a dif- This did not preclude wider Jewish/non- ferent practice of religion that moved spiritual Jewish interaction: Hanzl goes on to elaborate practice to be one of a diverse range of other how proximity to the market place, workshops activities – cultural, economic, social and and other places of commercial activity was political. In fact, this was just as much a period part and parcel of how Jewish living patterns of prolific construction of churches, possibly were configured. the most so in European history, according New tensions around managing spatial to Steifel (2011). In the case of Jewish wor- interactions emerged. Previously, so long as ship, the situation was more complicated: Jewish communities remained spatially seg- not just due to ongoing uncertainty about regated, their manner of worship, even if it their political status, but also for religious spilled out into the street (such as for wed- reasons. As orthodox Jews will not travel or dings, religious processions and the like) was carry items on the Sabbath, spatial cluster- less of an issue, as it remained out of sight to ing was an imperative even for those who the general community. Following emancipa- attended synagogue three times a year, rather tion, a desire to integrate meant that religious than (up to) three times a day.