In Praise of Jewish Architects
There is an anti-Semitic trope that Jews don’t create and just transfer value that needs to be debunked. From an HBD standpoint, Jews excel more at verbal IQ than spatial IQ, thus the greatest Jewish overrepresentation is among professions that select for verbal skills, such as lawyers, university professors, and film directors. However, among eminent painters, Jews are significantly overrepresented, though Jews are only slightly more likely to be architects than White gentiles. When people think of an ethnicity of artists they are more likely to think of the French or Italians while Anglos as architects.
Jewish art and architecture being derided as degenerate is an anti-Semitic trope that goes back to the Nazis ranting against the Bauhaus architecture from Weimer Germany. While I am neither anti-Semitic nor Trad, Jewish architects have indeed been most represented among Bauhaus, Brutalism, and Mid-Century Modern while less so among Neoclassical, Beaux Arts, and Art Deco. Part of the reason why is that Jews were less established when the previous genres were popular and Jewish architects faced discrimination from WASP elite clients. However, a lot of older synagogues in America are in neoclassical, Beaux Arts, and Moorish Revival aesthetics and are very beautiful.
Moorish Revival Synagogue in Prague
Photo credit: Robert Stark
Sure, Jews have traditionally had different aesthetic sensibilities than European Gentiles, though there has been a lot of Jewish assimilation into European culture. Judaism's prohibition on idolatry probably stifled aesthetic creation for similar reasons that architecture in Protestant parts of Europe and America is more austere than in Catholic Europe. While I have heard that Israel is very utilitarian about aesthetics, a lot of that has to do with Israel being a fairly new country. Of course, Tel Aviv is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, known as the White City for its Bauhaus architecture.
The White City Tel Aviv
source: touristisrael.com
Greatest Jewish Architects:
David Adler
Castle Hill (Ipswich, Massachusetts)
source: wikipedia.org
David Adler was unique among Jewish architects in designing more traditional architecture. One of his mansions was featured in the Great Gatsby movie.
Erich Mendelsohn
Petersdorff department store in Wrocław, Poland
source: Wikipedia
Erich Mendelson is notable as one of the few prominent Jewish Art Deco architects. However, his aesthetic is very distinct from other Art Deco architects.
Richard Neutra
Miller House, Palm Springs California
source: wikipedia.org
Rudolph Schindler
Schindler House, West Hollywood California
source: wikipedia.org
Arne Jacobson
Arhus City Hall in Denmark
source: European Reviews of Books
SAS Royal Hotel in Copenhagen
source: wikipedia.org
Bertrand Goldberg
Marina City, Chicago
source: wikipedia.org
Louis Kahn
Philips Exeter Academy Library
source: wikipedia.org
Salk Institute in La Jolla, California
source: wikipedia.org
Ernő Goldfinger
Trellick Tower in London
source: wikiepdia.org
I can appreciate Arno Goldfinger’s detested Trellick Tower, which inspired the Bond Villain, Goldfinger. I got to see the Trellick Tower in person when I visited London in 2002. I love brutalism but it needs a bit of glitz or it can be too dreary. Brutalism sort of pays homage to ancient architecture while the modernism of Gehry and Libeskind breaks with any tradition.
William Pereira
source: wikipedia.org
Moshe Safdie
Most overrated Jewish Architects
Frank Gehry
Hotel Marques De Riscal in Elciego Spain
source: wikipedia.org
8 Spruce Street, NYC
source: wikipedia
I was a big fan of Frank Gehry as a teenager, especially his Disney Concert Hall in LA. However, his work is too much of a novelty which reflects that immaturity of adolescence. Breaking all the rules of architecture rather than creating something transcendental. While Gehry is way overrated, I actually like his designs for high-rises.
Daniel Libeskind
London Metropolitan University
source: Wikipedia
The Shops at Crystals, Las Vegas
photo credit: Robert Stark
While Daniel Libeskind’s designs for museums are generally ugly, I like his Crystals mall in Vegas. I think his shortcoming is when he tries too hard to be reverent, such as with his famous Holocaust memorial in Berlin.
Richard Meier
Getty Center in LA
source: wikipedia.org
source: wikipedia.org
I like some of Richard Meier’s architecture from the 80s, but he is way overrated. His signature project, the Getty Museum in LA, has a spectacular location. However, it would almost look like a Silicon Valley corporate headquarters if it weren’t for the great views.
I’m not super against modern architecture, I like Corbusier’s Paris, I like some Brutalism, I like Rationalism and Stripped Classicism and Socialist Classicism (I know, I sound like Doctor Evil). But there’s no denying that the Jewish-dominated Bauhaus and Frankfurt School had an extreme negative impact on architecture that cannot be repaid based on a handful of nice synagogues. A lot of this stuff looks really silly and tasteless. Imagine if the ruins of Europe had been rebuilt by Speer instead of by the International Style glass-fetishists.
I remember going to Prague and seeing this synagogue. It is beautiful!