About the Book
November 2025
Lost Synagogues of Europe recreates in vivid color paintings and chronicles the life stories of nearly eighty majestic— and destroyed— European synagogues, each one a testament to the approximately 17,000 synagogues decimated during the Third Reich and early takeover of the Communist regimes. After WWII only about 3,300 buildings remained standing, and just 700+ are still in use as synagogues. This exquisite and significant work of historical preservation collects, organizes, and documents their stories.
In four chapters organized by inauguration dates (1600s, 1700s, 1800s, and 1900s), author and artist Andrea Strongwater shines light on seventy-seven synagogues built from the early 1600s to 1930 and spanning sixteen European countries where destruction was rampant: Austria (6 synagogues), Belarus (3), Croatia (2), the Czech Republic (5), Estonia (1), France (2), Germany (26), Italy (1), Latvia (2), Lithuania (5), Luxembourg State (1), The Netherlands (1), Poland (15), Russia (1), Slovakia (2), and Ukraine (4). She lovingly illustrates their exteriors and/or interiors and tells stories of their history, Jewish community, and architectural significance. These synagogues were considered important enough to have been documented in their time, and so here they do double duty: reminding us of the many thousands of other synagagoues that were obliterated without having left any historical record.
A Foreword by Jewish Theological Seminary Chancellor Emeritus Ismar Schorsch examines the evolution of the synagogue “from a sacred place to a sacred book.” A map, “2024 Political Landscape of Europe (with Pale of Settlement and Russian Poland, mid 1800s)” helps readers to locate each city, town, and country; and a cross-reference guide, “Synagogue Locations by Country,” enables them to find synagogues in the cities and towns of their ancestors.
In all, Lost Synagogues of Europe helps to revive a thriving European Jewish culture and heritage that needs to be remembered today.
Praise
“Andrea Strongwater’s paintings of European synagogues destroyed in the Holocaust allow us to connect emotionally with them—and, in that sense, bring them back to life for us. Her concomitant history of these synagogues broadens our understanding of these homes of Jewish living and thereby serves as new, important testimony to Jewish life lost in the flames of the Shoah.”–Vladimir Levin, director, Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
“This is a must-read book. Andrea Strongwater’s remarkable paintings and meticulously researched histories honor and help bring back to life lost Jewish communities in Europe, especially during WWII. Her dedication, evident in every detail, has earned her well-deserved accolades. I highly recommend Lost Synagogues of Europe for everyone interested in Jewish history and preserving Jewish memory.”–Rabbi Justin Schwartz, Jewish educator, Temple Beth Abraham, Tarrytown, New York
