The Construction of the House of the Jewish Church-School Community in Belgrade and the Process of Jewish Emancipation

Abstract

Through the construction of the House of the Jewish Church-School Community in Belgrade, based on the project by architect Samuel Sumbul (1887-1947), the process of the emancipation of the Belgrade Jewry in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (SCS) (1918–29) was complete. This representative public edifice became a functional entity with the Bet Jisrael synagogue, to which it was physically connected. These spaces of Jewish religious and creedal practices, educational activities, social and communal manifestations, and political events were united as meeting places of representatives of the Jewish community and the state at the time. The House of the Jewish Church-School Community, being the head office of the Rabbinate and the public Jewish institution, is studied through its numerous functions and its importance in the lives of the Jewish population in interwar Belgrade. These observations are an examination of the school’s visual shaping and artistic articulation. This important space has not been subject to comprehensive scholarly observation and interpretation, which is the aim of this article. Through a historiographic approach, this work analyzes the role of the House of the Jewish Church-School Community in shaping the Jewish community’s identity in Belgrade. Through analyses of archives, periodicals, and field research, the history of the construction of the Community House will be unveiled, because it has not been explored meticulously until now. A study of its architectural morphology is included with this research.

Izgradnjom Doma Jevrejske crkveno-školske opštine u Beogradu, po projektu arhitekte Samuela Sumbula (1887-1947), proces emancipacije beogradskog jevrejstva u Kraljevini SHS ( SHS) (1918–29) bio je potpun. Ovo reprezentativno javno zdanje postalo je funkcionalna celina sa sinagogom Bet Jisrael, sa kojom je bilo fizički povezano. Ovi prostori jevrejskih verskih i verskih običaja, obrazovnih aktivnosti, društvenih i komunalnih manifestacija i političkih dešavanja ujedinjeni su kao mesta susreta predstavnika jevrejske zajednice i tadašnje države. Dom jevrejske crkveno-školske opštine, kao sedište Rabina i javna jevrejska ustanova, proučava se kroz brojne funkcije i značaj u životu jevrejske populacije u međuratnom Beogradu. Ova zapažanja su ispitivanje vizuelnog oblikovanja i umetničke artikulacije škole. Ovaj značajan prostor nije bio predmet sveobuhvatnog naučnog posmatranja i tumačenja, što je i cilj ovog članka. Kroz istoriografski pristup, ovaj rad analizira ulogu Doma jevrejske crkveno-školske opštine u oblikovanju identiteta jevrejske zajednice u Beogradu. Analizom arhiva, periodike, terenskim istraživanjima otkriće se istorijat izgradnje Doma zajednice, jer do sada nije detaljno istražen. Uz ovo istraživanje uključena je studija njegove arhitektonske morfologije.