Eliezer Zusman’s Synagogue Paintings: Lost Sources Rediscovered

Eliezer-Zusman’s Horb and Kirchheim prayer room paintings had already been documented and researched by the beginning of the 20^th century. Nevertheless, our knowledge of them remains fragmentary, due to their loss: the paintings on the Horb prayer room walls were destroyed after the transfer of its ceiling to the Bamberg Museum of Art at the beginning of the 20^th century. The Kirchheim prayer room had only been partially photographed before it was burnt down in 1944.

While researching Eliezer-Zusman`s working methods I located documents and photographs that expand our insight into the paintings – and especially the inscriptions – that occupied these two synagogues. Hitherto forgotten photographs document the Horb prayer room walls before their destruction, enabling both identification of additional painted motifs and inscriptions and construction of a partial simulation of the prayer room. Furthermore, they improve our understanding of the historical preservation of the prayer room. Locating the original building that hosted it may clarify the relationship between this prayer room and the architectural structure that surrounded it. A German translation of all inscriptions written on the walls of the Kirchheim prayer room, compiled in 1928, is a highly significant discovery. It enables tracing both consistency and development in the painter`s corpus of texts. The revelation of two hitherto unknown signatures of the painter Eliezer-Zusman, one in each prayer room, increases the number of his documented signatures from three to five. These new findings considerably expand this prominent painter`s biography.