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Under persecution in Christian Europe,
Jewish communities had been unable to develop a tradition of monumental
architecture. After the emancipation of Jews in Europe, and the growth
of large Jewish communities in America, it was possible to erect major
worship buildings. The problem was what style to use: classical
buildings called upon pagan Greco-Roman themes which many considered
unsuitable for a Jewish worship space; and the Gothic style so dominant
among Christians was equally unsuitable. One solution widely adopted was
to make use of "Moorish" architecture - that is the architecture of
Muslim Spain (or Andalusia). The relatively tolerant climate of Medieval
Spain had been a golden age of Jewish culture, and it was believed that
Muslim architecture had incorporated aspects of Jewish religious
architecture. Thus the phenomenon of German Jewish (Ashkenazi)
congregations adopting the style of Muslim Spain and the golden age of
Sephardic Jewry.
The first major examples of the style were
Friedrich von Gartner's Munich Synagogue of 1832 and Gottfried Semper's
Dreden Synagogue of 1837. The first American synagogue in this style was
B'nai Jeshrun in Cicinnati in 1866.
Henry Fernbach , born in Germany and an immigrant to the US in 1855,
could have known these buildings directly or through publications. At
all events he used the style for several American synagogues.
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