The Creative Presence of Jews in Belgrade Architecture of the Twentieth Century

Builders of Jewish origin, residing in Belgrade, the political and cultural center of modern Serbia, made significant contributions to the city’s development during the 20th century.¹ They considered the city a Balkan capital that was open to them and one in which they could live and work freely. They demonstrated their gratitude through valuable contributions in many fields, including architecture.² These were not only the loyal Jews from the local area, but also renowned designers from other South Slavic territories. This article examines their broader civilizational role in general, while focusing on their creative contributions and highlighting specific architectural structures in Belgrade.

On the basis of available sources and historiographical research, we can identify three periods of Jewish creative participation in the Belgrade architecture of the 20th century. The first is connected to the beginning of the century when Jewish capital was invested in diverse building projects, including the Beth Israel synagogue in the Zerek quarter. The second epoch, in which Jewish builders came into the bigger picture, covers the period from 1918 to 1941 in which Belgrade developed as the capital of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, and by 1929 the Kingdom of Yugoslavia.³ The latter was an especially prosperous period in which the volume of architectural production surpased the previous one. During the third period, from 1945 to the present, the representation of Jews in the architectural profession has significantly diminished.

The First Period

After they stepped outside their Jalija⁴ in the lower Dorćol district, they emerged as important economic subjects of the wider center of the Serbian capital. The Belgrade Jews at the beginning of the 20th century distinguished themselves in the field of architecture.⁵ Moreover, they encouraged the expansion of the Central European Art Nouveau style, which, after the lengthy dominance of Academism, focused on creative imagination in architecture.⁶ Although it was the most modern approach, due to conservatism of the Serbian milieu, the movement neither became a national style nor a favored school doctrine. It developed as an alternative stylistic discipline, attractive to liberal intellectuals, entrepreneurs, and young builders, mostly trained in Central Europe. Since they initiated the construction of the most innovative buildings in the Art Nouveau style, Jewish builders and purchasers played a key role in reforming worn-out architectural conceptions. They primarily emphasized modernizing elements on trade buildings and rarely on residential structures. There are no indications that in the process, beside their faith in scientific and technical progress, there was a strategy on the part of these architects of imposing or expressing their beliefs through their creative works, which has been discussed recently in regard to science.⁷ In fact, the Jews of Belgrade incorporated their ethnic and religious symbols only into a few religious and educational facilities, and rarely on the facades of these buildings.

The work of Belgrade Jews, such as Milan Kapetanović (1859–1934), John Cohen, and Victor Azriel (1880–1938), stand out as modernizing in stylistic and technical terms. The Sephardic Beth Israel synagogue at 20 Cara Uroša Street (1907–08),with its main sixteen-sided dome in Neo-Moorish style combined with elements of Art Nouveau (construction led by Viktor Azriel),⁸ was a recognizable meeting place for Belgrade Jews. (See Figure 1 in the gallery of illustrations following this article.) Walled in next to lower residential buildings, it dominated Zerekom,⁹ the main part of the town where Jews had also gradually been settling. The Star of David, blind arcades, polychrome, and Moorish domes at the front were destroyed in the demolition of the temple in 1944 during the retreat of the Nazi army.

Built on the prestigious King Peter Street (no. 16), the interpolated Department store (1907) by Bencion Buli (see Figure 2) encouraged the radical revision of the traditional block matrix. Although occasionally challenged, Azriel’s authorship of this construction has not been subject to scholarly revision.¹⁰ The dominant glass parapet and Art Nouveau decoration of wrought iron with its internal gallery frame singled out this building as the most innovative...