Sacred and Profane: The Synagogue Compound (Shulhoyf) in Eastern Europe

The proposed paper will deal with the phenomenon of shulhoyf – literary, the courtyard of the great synagogue. The shulhoyf emerged probably at the time of the establishment of every Jewish community in eastern Europe and developed during the centuries into an elaborate system of prayer house and various institutions. Concentrated around the main sacred space, the great synagogue, all institutions of the “holy community” became part of that sacred realm. The variety of the institution found in one or another constellation in the significant part of known shulhoyfn includes communal offices, prison or kune, well, bathhouse with a mikveh, communal outhouse, hekdesh, a symbolic grave (typically in Ukraine), etc. The majority of prayer houses established either by groups that left the main synagogue, or by religious associations were naturally placed in the shulhoyf.

The proposed paper will discuss the architectural, spacial and urbanistic features of the shulhoyf, its functioning in the traditional Jewish community and the changes caused by secularization and modernization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.