Bourgeois Orientalist Synagogue (Heat Exchangers)

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The congregation should be comfortable. I think it was visiting the Neue Synagoge in Berlin that I read about how the nineteenth century neo-Moorish building incorporated modern design elements, simple things like heating systems. At Ansche Chesed in New York, the radiators are boxed up out of sight, hidden behind arabesque grates. Radiators are defined as “heat exchangers used to transfer thermal energy from one medium to another” (Wikipedia). Put that way, they sound “religious.”

About zjb

Zachary Braiterman is Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion at Syracuse University. His specialization is modern Jewish thought and philosophical aesthetics. http://religion.syr.edu
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