| Jerusalem |
| The Ades Synagogue |
| Conservation of the Murals, 2013 |
| Orderer | Prime Minister’s Office, Milestones Program, Jerusalem Municipality |
| Implemented by: |
Jacques Neguer - Conservation Guidance
Arch. Ram Shoeff
Arch. Yehonatan Tzahor
Rachel Singer
Olga Finkelshtein
Alexei Ronkin
Vladimir Bitman
Shuli Levinboim
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Promoter: Prime Minister’s Office, Milestones Program, Jerusalem Municipality
Planning the conservation project: Jacques Negeur
Architectural documentation: Arch. Ram Shoeff, Arch Yonatan Tzahor, Rachel Singer
Historical documentation: Dr. Nirit Shalev-Khalifa
Implementation: Vladimir Bitman, Alexei Ronkin, Olga Finkelstein, Shuli Levenboym
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In 2006, ninety-four years they were painted, it was decided to restore the murals in the Ades Synagogue. An art restoration professional from France, who was commissioned to carry out the work, affixed canvas to the walls with industrial glue and nails and copied Stark’s paintings on it. This “conservation” work, which caused damaged to the original paintings, was only halted after the court issued a stop work order.
The Ades Synagogue of Jerusalem’s Aleppo community was constructed in 1901 in the Nachalot quarter of the city. The community members ordered its magnificent torah ark from Damascus, which brought it here in pieces. The painter Ya‘aqov Stark, a student of the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts, completed the monumental work of decorating the synagogue walls in 1912. The murals include the symbols of the tribes, biblical verses, floral decorations etc. Stark died of an illness three years later at the age of 35.
Because of the uniqueness of the Ades Synagogue and the artistic value of its decorations, it is today included in the list of sites slated for conservation by the Heritage Project (2010) on behalf of the Prime Minister’s Office. The government and Jerusalem municipality have funded the conservation of the building and restoration of its murals. The rehabilitation work of the walls that were covered with canvas and the restoration of the murals are being implemented by conservators working for the Conservation Administration of the Israel Antiquities Authority. At first our intervention included removing the canvas that was glued to the southern and eastern walls. The condition of the original murals beneath the canvas was unknown and we feared they had been severely damaged. Fortunately, despite the damage, the paintings were sufficiently well-preserved that they could be satisfactorily restored. We conducted several experimental measures in order to test what was the most effective treatment for restoring the paintings.
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A graphic reconstruction of the northern murals in the synagogue. Illustration: Vladimir Bitman and Niki Davidov
In the next step we applied gauze compresses to the murals in order to absorb the chemical materials that had penetrated into the layers of paint, without damaging the original colors that were apparently composed of egg tempura or bone-meal glue. The following step included repairing the damage to the plaster and paint and touching up the mural. On the northern wall, which had blackened with age, repairs to the paint that had previously been carried out were evident and these were treated at the same time.
The building was damaged during the fighting in the War of Independence. A shell that exploded near the synagogue’s southeastern corner caused cracking in the walls which was also visible in the murals. The conservation measures to the wall in this instance included filling in the lacunae that had formed as a result of the damage and touching up the painting.
The electrical work and replacement of cabinets that was done in the synagogue in 2000 exposed a section of a mural in the vicinity of the synagogue’s entrance, beneath the women’s gallery. This discovery led to the realization that there were probably more of Stark’s paintings on the walls of the synagogue which had been lost over the years as a result of various renovations carried out in the building.
In order to reveal as much as possible of Stark’s monumental work, we began by gently peeling away the layers of modern paint that covered the wall between and below the windows. The work was slow and painstaking because the original mural was covered with three coats of paint, some of them thick oil paint that was especially difficult to remove. It was thanks to this determined measure that we discovered Stark’s original decoration between the synagogue’s windows.
While attempting to follow the original decoration below the windows we discovered that when they installed the heating system in the building parts of these walls had been peeled away and no traces were left of the mural. By analyzing the various existing patterns on the walls of the building we could estimate what the shades of the decoration were and deduce what the decorative pattern was.
Today we can display a complete façade of the northern mural of the synagogue that was painted by Stark. We succeeded in reconstructing the original appearance in its entirety. However, on the walls that have not yet been treated, for example in the women’s gallery and on the synagogue’s ceiling, we have no information regarding Stark’s paintings nor do we know anything about their state of preservation. Moreover, many of his murals are obscured by the large number of memorial plaques and objects hanging on the synagogue’s walls. As conservators we feel it is necessary to present Ya‘aqov Stark’s unique and monumental work in its entirety. For now the issue of presenting the murals remains unresolved.
Ram Shoeff, Jacques Negeur
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March 2013
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To view the figures, click on the figure caption
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