Sam Gruber is available for public lectures and presentations as well as private tours and consulting. To learn more click here.   Dr. Gruber is also  available for online lectures via Zoom or other meeting platforms.

UPCOMING EVENTS

JULY 24, 31 & AUGUST 7, 14, 21 and 28, 2025

“The History of the Jews of Rome: Six Talks”  This series will be presented live online by CSP on July 24 & 31 and August 7, 14, 21 and 28. Details forthcoming.

MAY 18, 2025

“Walking Tour: Arts & Crafts Influence in the New Westcott-University Neighborhood National Register Historic District.” 4-6 p.m. Registration required. Meet at Petit Branch Library, 105 Victoria Place, Syracuse.

RECENT EVENTS

MAY 7, 2025

“Art and Architecture of Jewish Affluence: The Synagogues of the New York’s Upper West Side,” Benefit lecture for Landmark West!, Rodeph Sholom Synagogue, New York. [details to follow]

MARCH 30, 2025

“A Residential Architecture Primer (1880-1940): Introducing the New Westcott- University Neighborhood National Register Historic District,” invited lecture, Preservation Association of Central New York Annual Meeting, Syracuse, NY

MARCH 19, 2025

“Archeologia dell’ebraismo medievale: storia, politica, metodi ed esempi,” invited seminar Università Suor Orsola Benincasa Napoli, Naples, Italy

FEBRUARY 5, 2025

“Where were the Women? A History of Gendered Synagogue Space,” Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC.  https://jewish-south.charleston.edu/event/where-were-the-women-a-history-of-gendered-synagogue-space-an-illustrated-lecture-by-samuel-d-gruber/

OCTOBER 19 , 2024

“Preservation / Presentation of the Arts & Crafts Movement in CNY,” presentation at symposium The Arts & Crafts Movement in Central New York:  Aspirations, Innovation, and Inspiration organized by the Arts & Crafts Society of Central New York, Watch on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0EKQknhJEM

SEPTEMBER 29, 2024

“Hidden Splendors: The Baroque Synagogues of Piedmont,” online lecture of the Orange County Community Scholars Program (CSP). Watch on youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mw8xM3MPHZU

SEPTEMBER 14, 2024

“Shaping American Judaism: The Origins, Architecture and Influence of KKBE’s Synagogue Buildings,” Invited lecture for Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim Celebrates 275 Years, Sept 14, 2024. Sponsored by the Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina.

JULY 2, 2024

““Seeing Leads to Remembering”: More than a Century of Jewish Ethnographic, Art and Architectural Expeditions in Ukraine and Their Legacy Today,” paper delivered at Expanding Boundaries: Jewish Artistic Heritage of Ukraine, online conference from Chernivtsi, Ukraine.

JUNE 6, 2024

“Picture This: Art and Life for Vermont’s Jewish Immigrants,” invited lecture, Lost Mural Project, Ohavi Zedek Synagogue, and the Vermont Historical Society, Burlington, Vermont. Online here: https://vimeo.com/957880274/4f00cce099?share=copy

MAY 7, 2024

“How a casual lunchtime conversation at the Academy led to an unexpected career documenting and preserving historic synagogues, cemeteries, and other Jewish sites,” Invited talk (Zoom), Society of Fellows – American Academy in Rome. Online here: https://vimeo.com/user137215026

APRIL 19, 2024

“Becoming American Jews: The Evidence in Art and Architecture” Invited lecture (Zoom), Walnut Street Synagogue, Chelsea, MA. Online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mabYSU-KLPw

APRIL 6, 2024

“New England Immigrant Synagogues 1880-1930: A Mix of Old and New World Vernacular,” paper at Vernacular Architecture forum New England chapter annual conference, Providence, RI.

MARCH 15, 2024

“The Unfinished Task: Preserving Jewish Heritage in Eastern Europe from the Holocaust to the War in Ukraine,” invited public lecture, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC.

DECEMBER 9, 2023

“Arts and Crafts Architecture in Central New York: People, Places, Principles,” Invited lecture for Cazenovia Heritage.

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

“Great Synagogues of the World,” invited lecture University Synagogue, Irvine, California.

OCTOBER 26, 2024

Exhibition and invited public lecture “The Image of the Synagogue in Prints: Architecture and Identity,” Jewish Theological Seminary. Online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd36JsV9rbQ

OCTOBER 21, 2023

“Two Generations of Texas Jewish Girlhood: Flora Susnitsky Moskowitz (b. Brenham 1894) and Shirley Moskowitz Gruber (b. Houston 1920)”; (at annual conference of Southern Jewish Historical Society, Rice University, Houston, Texas.

OCTOBER 4, 2023

“Arthur Szyk’s Synagogue Commissions and Their Place in Post-World War II Jewish Religious and Commemorative Art,” At symposium Arthur Szyk: Art, Propaganda, Memory (Oct, 4-5, 2023), Fairfield University. Onllne here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZZHo6KG20Q

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

“The Re-Discovery of Jewish Built Heritage in Central and Eastern Europe, 1988–2006,” At Jewish or Common Heritage? (Dis-)appropriation of Synagogue Architecture in East-Central Europe since 1945 (Warsaw, Poland September 12-14, 2023).

JUNE 10, 2023

“Naming Names: The Early History of Memorials That List the Names of Victims” at Representations of the Holocaust in the Cold War Eastern Bloc: the Early Decades, Freie Universität Berlin.

MAY 11, 2023

“Between Two Worlds: The Synagogue Art of Eastern European Jews in Their New American Home — An Illustrated Talk,” keynote address at Art & Faith Bridging the Jewish and Black Communities: Stories of a Historic North Minneapolis House of Worship.  University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

MAY 7, 2023

“Symposium Speaker at “The Synagogue of the Future,” Temple Concord, Syracuse, NY.

APRIL 15, 2023

“Texas Synagogues as Presented in the exhibition “Synagogues of the South”. Texas Jewish Historical Society annual meeting at Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin, TX.

MARCH 24, 2023

“Temple Beth El Architecture and Stained Glass,” Temple Beth El, Bloomfield Hills, MI.

MARCH 23, 2023

“Sacred Space in a Virtual World: Exploring Albert Kahn’s Magnificent Temple Beth El (1922),” Rabbi B. Benedict & Ada S. Glazer Institute on Judaism, Bethel Community Transformation Center, Detroit, MI.

DECEMBER 18, 2022,

Tour of the Walnut Street Synagogue (Chelsea, MA) and Material Culture Workshop

As part of the annual meeting of the Association for Jewish Studies, Dr. Gruber will lead this event on behalf of the International Survey of Jewish Monuments. Open to conference registrants only. [SOLD OUT]

OCTOBER 30, 2022

“The International Style Comes South,” Paper delivered at the Southern Jewish Historical Society Annual Meeting, Charleston, SC.

SEPTEMBER 23, 2022

“What’s Up With [Ward Wellington] Ward?” Moderator and speaker at session of New York State Preservation Conference, Syracuse, NY,

AUGUST 2022

“Jewish Sculptors and Sculpture,” Three public lectures (Zoom), Orange County Community Speakers Program.

JUNE 26-27, 2022

“Old Challenges, New Solutions,” panel participant, at New Realities of Jewish Heritage: A conference marking the 10^th anniversary of Jewish Heritage Europe, Krakow, Poland,

JUNE 8-10, 2022

“Humanizing the Holocaust: The Search for a Figurative Memorial Language,” paper presented at Art of the Holocaust Until 1989: Beyond an East/West Divide, Budapest, Hungary.

MARCH 29, 2022

“The City as a (Jewish) Memorial Landscape,” paper at Jewish Topographies. 5th International Congress on Jewish Architecture, Braunschweig, Germany [delivered on Zoom].

MARCH 6, 2022

“A Modern Tabernacle: The Origins and Impact of Minoru Yamasaki’s Landmark North Shore Congregation Israel,” public lecture for North Shore Congregation Israel, Glencoe, Illinois [delivered on Zoom].

JANUARY 26, 2022

“Great Synagogues of the World,” lecture of 92^nd Street Y, NY, New York [delivered on Zoom]

DECEMBER 19, 2021

“American Synagogue Stained Glass: an Introduction,” Chicago Loop Synagogue, co-sponsored by International Survey of Jewish Monuments in conjunction with annual meeting of the Association for Jewish Studies.

JUNE 2, 2021, 7:00 PM EDT

APRIL 11, 18, 25, 2021

3-Part Master-Class: The Preservation of Jewish Monuments in Eastern Europe

Part 1: Synagogues

Part 2: Jewish Cemeteries

Part 3: Holocaust Sites

Learn more here and register

FEBRUARY 11, 2021, 5:00 p.m.

VIRTUAL OPENING OF “Romaniote Memories, a Jewish Journey from Ioannina, Greece to Manhattan: Photographs by Vincent Giordano” Learn more and to register go here https://qc-cuny.libcal.com/event/7496075

MARCH 11, 2021, 7:00 p.m.

Zoom lecture “Warding off the Virus: A Virtual Tour of Ward Wellington Ward’s Syracuse Houses,” sponsored by the Onondaga Free Library, the Strathmore Speaker Series, and the Arts & Crafts Society of Central New York.  Watch the video here:

Missed Sam Gruber on Famed Syracuse Architect Ward Wellington Ward? Watch the video!

 MARCH 21, 2021 3-5 p.m.

Zoom workshop for Jewish Historical Society of South Carolina, “How to Document Your Synagogue (and Other Buildings) for Planning, Protection, and Posterity,” Priority to JHSSC members.

RECENT EVENTS

OCTOBER 2020:

THREE LECTURES (& a BONUS) ABOUT SYNAGOGUE ARCHITECTURE 

Now on YouTube

Topic: The Art and Architecture of the Synagogue part 1: Great Synagogues of the World
Topic: The Art and Architecture of the Synagogue part 2: Great Synagogues of the World
Topic: BONUS – Arise and Build: American Synagogues Part 2
Topic: The Art and Architecture of the Synagogue part 3: Great Synagogues of the World

Thursday October 1, 2020Great Synagogues of the World Jews are the “People of Book”, but they are also “People of the Building.”  Given the opportunity, Jews have built beautiful synagogues for their communities for hundreds of years. Inspired by the detailed architectural accounts in the Bible and also by their contemporary surroundings, Jews in many places have fulfilled the concept of Hiddur Mitzvah (glorify the commandment) through architecture and architectural decoration.  Great synagogues have been built in Europe of since Middle Ages, but especially since the lavish inauguration of the Portuguese synagogue in Amsterdam in the late seventeenth century the stream of impressive Jewish buildings has continued with little interruption on every inhabited continent throughout the world.  This lecture illustrates this architectural and artistic heritage with historic and contemporary images and introduces many lesser known “great synagogues,” and many recently restored buildings.

Thursday October 8, 2020 Arise and Build: American Synagogues and Jewish Identity Jews came to America in three main waves. In the 17th and 18th centuries descendants of Spanish Jews – mostly living under Dutch or English rule – settled in the New World and many participated in the War of Independence. By 1800, these Sephardi Jews built synagogues in five cities – Philadelphia, New York, Newport, Charleston, and Savannah. By the mid-19th century, thousands of Central European Jews joined the mass emigration to the United States caused by political unrest and economic instability in Europe, and these immigrants established synagogues from coast to coast. Through synagogue design, Dr. Gruber traces changes in the organization of the American Jewish community and its relationship to American culture.  The location, size, shape, and stylistic language adopted for synagogue designs throughout the century reflects the changing needs and values of American Jews.  This lecture presents a wide range of synagogue types and styles, including humble and grand houses of worship, and synagogues in cities, towns and rural areas. While most publications on synagogue history and architecture focus on a few main population centers, the talk will introduce synagogue – past and present – from across America.

Thursday October 15, 2020Modern Synagogue Architecture: Between Memory and Innovation What is modern in Jewish art and architecture?  Since their arrival in America, Jews have tried to be both traditional and modern, and have often embraced the most contemporary art styles and forms.  In the 20th-century, in both Europe and America, modernism came to mean something else – a clear break from artistic historicism, but also the break with many of the institutions, traditions and beliefs from which those historical forms and styles evolved. This illustrated lecture reviews the modernism that is now “historic”, and then looks at some of the most contemporary designs in Jewish synagogue art and architecture.  The presentation is illustrated with photos of many less known or unpublished projects and buildings.

Thursday, November 28, 2019

“Synagogue Wall Painting: Loss and Forgetting; Rediscovery and Conservation.”

At Art of The Lost Conference at Canterbury Cathedral: discussing the Future of the Past   (November 27-29, 2019)

Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury, England

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

“Romaniote Memories: The Photographs of Vincent Giordano a Greek-Jewish culture in New York and Ioannina (lecture)

Embassy of Greece, Washington D.C.

Thursday, October 31, 2019

“Marc Chagall in Paris, Russia and Israel,” (lecture)

Temple Isaiah, Great Neck, NY

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Discussant at screening  of Sacred Spaces, a new film by Celia Lowenstein

Gershman Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival, National Museum of Jewish History

101 S. Independence Hall East
Philadelphia, PA, 19106

September 19, 2019

“Romaniote Memories: A Jewish Journey from  Ioannina, Greece to Manhattan: Photographs by Vincent Giordano (Samuel Gruber, curator)

Opening of photo exhibit at the Consulate of Greece in New York

69 East 79th Street, New York, NY

September 15, 2019

“Chelsea’s Walnut Street Shul and the Jewish Tradition of Synagogue Wall Painting”

Founder’s Day  featured speaker (entire event program 2-5 p.m.)

Walnut Street Synagogue, 145 Walnut Street, Chelsea, Massachusetts

July 12-July 25

Life and Art in Medieval Assisi & its Environs (at Art Workshop International, Assisi, Italy) July 12 – July 25

2018

“Arnold W. Brunner (1857-1925) and the First Generation of American-born Jewish Architects.,” paper to presented at International Congress “Jewish Architects – Jewish Architecture”, Hamburg, Germany (November 6-8, 2018)

“Architecture Walking Tour: Arts & Crafts Houses in the Berkeley Park Neighborhood,” Arts and Crafts Society of Central New York (Oct. 13, 2018)

“Tent, Tabernacle, Synagogues: A Modern take on an Ancient Form,” European Association of Jewish Studies, Krakow, Poland (July 18, 2018)

“Arts & Crafts Architecture Walking Tour:  Houses in the Salt Springs and Scottholm Neighborhoods,” Arts and Crafts Society of Central New York (June 3, 2018)

“American Synagogue Wall Painting 1860-1960: A Bridge Between Two Worlds,” invited lecture, The Harry Friedman Society, The Jewish Museum, NY (May 27, 2018)

2017

“The Art of Jewish Symbols: Tablets / Ten Commandments,” Community Class at Temple Concord, 910 Madison St., Syracuse, NY (Dec. 5, 2017)

The Art of Jewish Symbols: Tent, Tabernacle & Temple,” Community Class at Temple Concord, 910 Madison St., Syracuse, NY (Nov. 28, 2017)

“The Art of Jewish Symbols: The Menorah,” Community Class at Temple Concord, 910 Madison St., Syracuse, NY (Nov. 7, 2017)

Scholar-in-Residence, Temple Beth-El, San Antonio, Texas (October 19-21, 2017).

• Thursday October 19:  They Shall Make Me a Sanctuary: An Illustrated History of Synagogue Architecture
• Friday October 20: Torah and Sacred Space: The Bible as Building Manual
• Saturday October 21: Arise and Build: Temple Beth El and American Synagogue Design

Presenter, M-Power-U, Menorah Park (Syracuse Jewish Family Service) (October 9, 2017)

“The Stone Shall be a Witness: Strategies for the Preservation  and Presentation of Destroyed Structures,” Presentation at International Conference “How to Commemorate the Great Synagogue of Vilna Site?,” Vilnius, Lithuania Sept 4-5, 2017.

“Westcott Neighborhood Ward Wellington Ward House Tour“ Syracuse, New York.  Wednesday, July 26th, 5:30 – 7:30 pm

“Building Memory: How European Cities Confront (or Avoid) the Holocaust.” Seymour Siegel Memorial Lecture, Saint Lawrence University (April 18, 2017)

2016

“Beyond the Second Commandment: Jewish Sculptors and Modern Art” Temple Adath Yeshurun, Kimber Rd, Syracuse, NY, March 19, 2017

Session chair and respondent, Synagogue and Museum Conference, Braunschweig, Germany (Nov. 21-23, 2016)

“The Chai Adam Shul Mural in Burlington, Vermont, as Link Between Old World and New,” at  International Workshop “Synagogue Wall Paintings: Research, Preservation, Presentation,” Jerusalem, Israel (September 13-14, 2016)

“Jews, Masons, and Cornerstone Laying Ceremonies for synagogues of the South.,” at  Annual Meeting, Southern Jewish Historical Society, Natchez, Mississippi (USA) (November 4-6, 2016)

The Architecture of Greek Synagogues: Near & Far, Then & Now