The design of this special space was very much inspired by the rich, albeit tragic, history of its site. The city of Lvov (Lemberg) in the Ukraine was home to a thriving Jewish community for well over half a millennium. It created renowned scholars, both in Torah study and the sciences. The city had a beautiful synagogue called the Turei Zahav. In the 1850’s the Jewish community of Lvov financed the building of a synagogue in Safed, Israel on the very site of our project. It was common at that time for Jews of the Diaspora to maintain their connection to the Holy Land by supporting the brave souls living there in poverty. The Lemberg synagogue in Safed stood until the 1920’s when it fell to ruin during WWI. Only the western wall with its arched openings remains standing. Almost one hundred years after the building of their Safed shul, the entire Jewish community of Lvov was liquidated by the Nazis in 1943. The Nazis also destroyed the Turei Zahav synagogue, thus erasing even the communal memory of the 120,000 they had murdered.

We were asked to design a memorial for the Lvov community at the site where their Safed synagogue once stood. We designed a space that combines the standing synagogue wall with rebuilt elements from Turei Zahav synagogue. This sublime “ruin” evokes the void left by the lost community. Skeletal pews stand in neat rows in an overgrown a wild garden. The ark design and ornamental metalwork were re-created from historic photos of the Ukrainian synagogue. But rather than mimicking the past, the ark was reincarnated symbolically as a gently flowing fountain. The water flows down the central aisle to the bima where it drops off into a deep reflecting pool. This infinite ebb of water from the ark to the bima transcends the passage of time. It allows one to escape their immediate preoccupations and connect to the past. It invites the guest to sit on a pew for a few minutes and join the Lvov community in prayer.

Adjacent to the memorial is a minimalist structure that houses exhibit space and a library. We purposely chose to offset the dramatic memorial space with a learning space that is crisp and clean, and very much in the present. Jewish tradition does not glorify mourning. It seeks to utilize memories, especially painful ones, to achieve personal and communal growth. After recalling the tragedy of Lvov, guests are encouraged to have an inspired moment in their own lives. Whether it means reciting a Psalm for a loved one, or studying a sacred text – perhaps one of the many authored in Lvov - it is an opportunity to reconnect to the Jewish heritage and reinforce a sense of community.