Babyn Yar Synagogue by Manuel Herz Architects

[Donkees]

Nov 18, 2021
A wood temple on a sacred site opens and closes like a book.

Excerpt:

Babyn Yar is a wooded area with a deep ravine located in the west of Kyiv, Ukraine, that used to mark the edge of the city. It is the site of one of the worst massacres of the Nazi regime, when on September 29th and 30th, 1941 approximately 35’000 Jews were shot and killed by German troops. Over the following weeks and months an additional 100’000 Jews, Soviet prisoners of war, communists, Ukrainian nationalists, Roma, and patients of a nearby psychiatric hospital were murdered within the grounds of Babyn Yar. A ‘holocaust by bullets’, represents one of the worst atrocities of our modern era.

If we conceptualize the synagogue as a building typology in its purest essence, we can consider it as a book. During the religious service, a congregation comes together, to collectively read a book - the Siddur (the book of prayers) or the Bible. The shared reading of the book opens a world of wisdom, morals, history, and anecdotes to the congregation. It is this notion that informs the design of the new Babyn Yar Synagogue.

The walls are decorated with prayers and blessings, celebrating a reawakening. The main prayers of the Jewish liturgy, such as the Shma’ Israel, or the Kaddish are written on the walls. But maybe more surprisingly, other blessings such as the blessing for turning a nightmare into a good dream, are displayed on the main wall, above the “Aron ha-Kodesh”, the place where the bible scrolls are kept. This blessing was written on the walls of the historic Synagogue of Gwozdziec of Western Ukraine dating back to the 17th century, and it is a perfect theme for the new Synagogue.

The ceiling is painted with a myriad of symbols and iconography also referencing the interior of the historic synagogues of Ukraine from the 17th and 18th centuries that have since been destroyed. It celebrates a colorful universe that will become visible above the heads of the visitors of the Synagogue. But these symbols have an additional meaning: Together, they recreate the star constellation that was visible over Kyiv on the night of September 29th, 1941.

https://www.archdaily.com/973239/babyn-yar-synagogue-manuel-herz-architects

[Celerity]

1. It is amazing. I posted on this last April

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181502339

Manuel Herz Architects creates synagogue that opens like a pop-up book

Swiss studio Manuel Herz Architects has created a pop-up synagogue at Babyn Yar in Ukraine to mark the 80th anniversary of a massacre that took place during the Holocaust.

https://www.dezeen.com/2021/04/23/pop-up-synagogue-babyn-yar-manuel-herz-architects-pop-up-book/

Named the Babyn Yar Synagogue, the place of worship consists of two large walls that can be manually opened and closed like a pop-up book. The synagogue was built near Kyiv at the site of the Babyn Yar massacre, where around 34,000 Jews from the city were killed by the Nazi party over two days in 1941 – one of the largest mass killings during the Holocaust. Manuel Herz Architects founder Manuel Herz designed the building to mark the 80th anniversary of the massacre. However, he did not want to create a sombre memorial. "One might think that the appropriate response to this almost unbelievably inhumane massacre should be an architecture that is sombre, minimalist, and monumental," Herz told Dezeen. "The architectural history of holocaust memorials is full of these. But I wanted to approach the project in a very different way."

Instead of creating a monumental building, Herz designed a structure that has movement and was informed by both historic wooden synagogues in Ukraine and pop-up books. "I strongly believe that a monumental, and static approach would be wrong," said Herz. "We will never match the monumental suffering of the massacre, through monumental architecture." "The conclusive, definitive and absolute message that a monumental and static building would suggest, stands at odds with the tens of thousands of distinctive voices that perished in Babyn Yar," he continued. "Hence, the idea was borne to design an architecture that has a performative and transformative quality, that creates a new collective ritual, that is commemorative, just as it also creates a feeling of wonder and awe."

The building consists of a pair of 11-metre-high and eight-metre wide walls that were constructed from steel and clad in oak. One of the walls is set on a track so that it can be moved using a manual winch. When folded the two walls are positioned together, but when unfolded a three-dimensional synagogue is created with a roof that pops up and a balcony and seating that folds down. "I believe no one can resist the temptation of opening up a pop-up book and seeing how a new world unfolds," said Herz. "We can get lost in this new world, which is exactly what happens, when we come together, to pray in a synagogue – we open a book together," he continued. "A world of stories, of histories, of morals, and of wisdom.

The pop-up book, when transformed into a building, with its transformative quality, and the collective ritual of opening and closing it, seemed to be the perfect leitmotiv for the Babyn Yar Synagogue." The synagogue stands on a wooden platform and has walls decorated with prayers and blessings. Its ceiling is painted with the star constellation that would have been visible over Kyiv, on the date of the massacre in 1941 along with symbols and iconography referencing interiors of the historic synagogues of Ukraine from the 17th and 18th century. The Babyn Yar Synagogue is the first of several buildings that are planned to commemorate the Babyn Yar massacre on the site, with a museum to commemorate the Holocaust, a memorial depicting the names of the victims and a spiritual centre set to be built.

snip

[Donkees]

2. 'Early in his tenure, Zelensky faced pressure to block the memorial at Babyn Yar.'

SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

Excerpt:

His own intelligence chief warned the government in a letter last year that the project is part of a Russian plot to “discredit Ukraine on the international stage,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by TIME. But the President still decided to support it. “My position is simple,” Zelensky told me. “Anyone who lays a stone in honor of the victims, they will have my blessing.”

For the President’s advisers, the project also presented a chance at diplomacy. They wanted world leaders to gather in Kyiv for the 80th anniversary of the massacre at Babyn Yar. Starting last spring, they sent invitations to U.S. and European leaders, including President Joe Biden, asking them to attend the commemoration ceremony in Kyiv. “This is very important to us,” Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, told me.

After Biden took a pass, the Ukrainians held out hope for Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has placed the memory of the Holocaust at the center of his public image. In his first speech after Biden nominated him to lead the State Department, Blinken told the story of his late stepfather, who survived Auschwitz. During another speech in April, marking Holocaust Remembrance Day, he recalled how in the minutes before they died, Jews had scrawled two words on the walls of the Nazi gas chambers: Never forget.

But as the day of remembrance at Babyn Yar approached, the controversy surrounding the memorial only intensified. Mirroring the efforts of the U.S. government, Zelensky’s national security council began imposing sanctions against oligarchs, seizing their assets and shutting their TV channels. The State Department has applauded those sanctions. Among the targets was one of Fridman’s partners on the Babyn Yar memorial. But even amid the government’s stated campaign of “de-oligarchization,” Zelensky has stood behind the memorial project.


https://time.com/6102593/ukraine-holocaust-memorial-kremlin-propaganda/

[sinkingfeeling]

3. Putin needs to burn in hell for eternity.

[Carlitos Brigante]

4. K&R! nt