The Last Synagogues in Vojvodina: Synagogues of Subotica and Novi Sad

Introduction

Due to the geopolitical situation when Vojvodina was a part of the former Austro-Hungarian monarchy, the existence of synagogue architecture¹ there was based on the fact that during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the Jewish community in this region experienced emancipation in terms of equality with other ethnic, religious, and national minorities. This is supported by the fact that as of 1867 the Jewish people in Vojvodina under the Austro-Hungarian Empire became equal with the rest of the population with respect to their education and professions. At the end of 1895 a law came into force according to which Judaism was given equality with all other religions.² The Jewish people were rarely able to impose their architectural style in other countries, except in their ancient homeland of Israel. However, by the end of the nineteenth century, the Jews were no longer considered an oriental nation in Europe and became a catalyst of modernism as a cultural paradigm and embraced a new, contemporary architectural style for their religious buildings.³

That new style developed by architects in the early twentieth century within the Austro-Hungarian monarchy was that of Art Nouveau or Secession.⁴ It should be noted that there were two directions of Art Nouveau style in these regions: the national and international style.⁵ When it comes to Art Nouveau architecture in Vojvodina, it was virtually indistinguishable from its Hungarian prototypes.⁶ A circumstance that greatly contributed to the development of the Hungarian Art Nouveau was the establishment of the ceramics factory in Pecs, coinciding with the appearance of this style.⁷ The factory owner, Vilmos Zsolnay (1828–1900) maintained a close relationship with architects designing in that style. In his factory, Zsolnay produced all the required details of ceramic decoration for buildings according to the exact designs of the architects.⁸ During the fifteen years of Hungarian Art Nouveau in Vojvodina, this style received characteristic manifestations through several art works and a few architectural monuments.

The founder of the Hungarian Secession was Ödön Lehner (1845–1914), who studied in Paris and Berlin. He became an established theorist and practitioner of that style who also visited London.⁹ Originally, he was inspired by the ethos of oriental buildings in Britain, based on those of colonial India. Later in his career, he abandoned Indian motifs and focused more on Hungarian folk traditions. The theoretical postulates of Lehner’s creativity were based on Jozef Huska’s book on Hungarian folklore, which he used as inspiration for many of his works.¹⁰ From 1900, he and a group of artists developed a building program, based on the need for more nationally rather then internationally inspired architecture.¹¹ When the young Jewish architects gathered around Lehner, the Jewish community was given a chance to show their loyalty to the host nation by adopting the styles of their religious structures. The most famous Hungarian architects of Jewish origin, supporters of Lehner, were Marsell Komor (1868–1944), Dezső Jakab (1864–1932), and Leopold Lipót Baumhorn (1860–1932).¹² Marsell Komor and Dezső Jakab were the most frequently mentioned architects working in the area of Subotica. In that city, they designed what is considered to be one of Europe’s most beautiful synagogues in the spirit of Hungarian Art Nouveau. Lipót Baumhorn also went to Novi Sad, where he executed a project for the synagogue in that city. Both synagogues in Subotica and Novi Sad were built for a group of Ashkenazi Jewish rites and neolog rituals,¹³ and these are now the only two surviving synagogues in Vojvodina. They became a part of the significant architectural heritage of Serbia after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy at the end of World War I in 1918. ¹⁴

The Synagogue in Subotica

The synagogue in Subotica was one of the most innovative examples of Hungarian Art Nouveau (Figure 1). It was designed by Dezső Jakab and Marcell Komor. Those two architects had one of the most successful architectural practices in the country at that time...