Daniel Leviathan

C.M. Lerici Foundation’s scholarship

My project “The influence of ancient Roman architecture on synagogue architecture – Fredrik Wilhelm Scholander and the inspiration for Stockholm’s Great Synagogue”, is a sub-project within my thesis project “Constructing Public Judaism in Sweden: the Synagogues of Sweden 1795-1939”.

The purpose of the project is to (1) study how ancient Roman architecture came to influence the architecture of synagogues in Italy, from antiquity onwards, and (2) subsequently investigate how this architecture, whether directly or via the Italian synagogues, came to influence the architecture of synagogues in Sweden. (3) What impression did the archaeological finds, that began to be uncovered during the Age of Enlightenment, and which came to attract widespread attention in Europe, have on the monumental synagogues built from the 19th century onwards in both Italy and Sweden?

The project is a sub-project within my dissertation, which aims to be the first unified major study of Sweden’s monumental synagogues. Major synagogues were constructed in Stockholm, Gothenburg, Norrköping, Malmö and Karlstad. The study aims to explore the factors that influenced how the synagogues came into being and why they look the way they do. Who decided how the synagogues should be designed and shaped? Were the architect’s ideas the main influence, or was it the congregations? Or could it have been a larger architectural fashion that inspired it?