The Carved Wooden Torah Arks of Eastern Europe

National Jewish Book Awards Finalist for the Visual Arts Award, 2017.The carved wooden Torah arks found in eastern Europe from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries were magnificent structures, unparalleled in their beauty and mystical significance. The work of Jewish artisans, they dominated the synagogues of numerous towns both large and small throughout the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, inspiring worshippers with their monumental scale and intricate motifs.Virtually none of these s