Description

The name “Gates of the Grove” refers to a pastoral scene. And indeed, the synagogue stands in a small park at the far east end of Long Island. The building is a timber construction clad in wood shingles and appears as a stepped series of elongated, angular and opaque structures, capped at their east and west ends by a series of pointed gables. Seen from the south and north, however, the building is more like a summer house with a sturdy pitched roof. These walls are glazed from floor to ceiling, and are modulated at eaves height by a lattice of slender timber slats.

The interior is divided into three parts: a corridor-like anteroom, the main space in the form of a hall and lastly at the rear – in the centre behind a square room – the Holy of Holies. The structure of the hall is defined by five broad portals, each with two pillars with a 45-degree bend that support a long cross-beam. Between each of the beams, which rise to a height of 10.65 metres, there is space for a north-facing rooflight. The floor and plinth are paved with limestone panels from Wisconsin, the walls and ceilings clad with Alaskan cedar wood. The joins in the timber boarding are clearly visible, their parallel lines underlining the verticality of the pillars and the horizontality of the beams.

As with orthodox Ashkenazi synagogues, the Torah rolls reside in a Torah shrine in the rear wall – although here, unlike traditional synagogues, this does not face eastwards – while the bimah is located in the centre of the room. The pulpit is surrounded on three sides by pews made of ash. Niches in the east and west end walls provide further seating.

Due to its specific relationship to the surrounding landscape on the one hand, and its decorative use of wood and stone on the other, the “Gates of the Grove” Synagogue can be considered as standing in a tradition of “romantic modernism” as seen in the work of Frank Lloyd Wright or E. Fay Jones. The form and materiality of the building also makes reference to the old, entirely wooden synagogues constructed in eastern Europe. And, although one sees it only once one is aware of it, many details relate to the number ten. The ten bent pillars refer to the yod, the tenth letter in the Hebrew alphabet. The slender slats in the windows to the north and south, the ten niches, and not least the ten words inscribed on the beam above these remind the congregation of the Sephirot, the ten attributes of eternal holiness as represented in the Tree of Life in the Jewish Kabbalah.

During the eighties, many Jewish congregations in the U.S. began to focus more strongly on the roots of their religion. In the “Gates of the Grove” Synagogue, divergent elements are united. In East Hampton at least, reformed ritual and orthodox reference do not contradict one another.

The American Institute of Architects Long Island Chapter, The Society for the Preservation of Long Island Antiquities: AIA Architectural Guide to Nassau and Suffolk Counties Long Island, New York 1992, pp. 100- | Architecture, no. 12/1989, cover, pp. 68- | L’Architettura Cronache e Storia, no. 417/418/1990, pp. 556- | Chiesa Oggi, no. 8/1994, pp. 46- | Faith and Form, no. Winter/1989/1990, cover, pp. 45- and no. Spring/1992, pp. 15- and no. 1/1998, p. 22 | Gordon, Alastair: Romantic Modernist. The Life and Work of Norman Jaffe, Architect, New York 2005, p. 11, p. 196, pp. 203-, p. 231 | Gruber, Samuel D.: American Synagogues. A Century of Architecture and Jewish Community, New York 2003, p. 174, pp. 184-, p. 234 | Kunst und Kirche, no. 1/1991, pp. 20- | Meek, Harold A.: The Synagogue, London 1995, pp. 226- | The New York Times, Late Edition, 3. 10. 1993, section 13, p. 16 | Progressive Architecture, no. 12/1990, p. 83 | Stolzman, Henry, Stolzman, Daniel: Synagogue Architecture in America. Faith, Spirit and Identity, Mulgrave 2004, p. 62, pp. 204-

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Originally published in: Rudolf Stegers, Sacred Buildings: A Design Manual, Birkhäuser, 2008.