Eliezer Sussmann

Eliezer (or Elieser) Sussmann was the son of the cantor Schlomo Katz from Brody in Galicia and an important synagogue painter in the 18th century.

Between 1730 and 1740 he painted several synagogues in the Franconian-Swabian region in the style of the popular baroque wooden synagogues in Poland.

Paneling and Torah shrine of the Unterlimpurg synagogue in the Hällisch-Franconian Museum

The previously known synagogues painted by Sussmann are

• the barn synagogue of Bechhofen, destroyed in 1938 (1732),
• the synagogue of Horb am Main (1735), today part of Marktzeuln , whose painted fittings are now in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem;
• the rooms of Unterlimpurg and Steinbach near Schwäbisch Hall in Württemberg (1738/39): the painted paneling of the Unterlimpurg synagogue and that of the Steinbach "Frauenschul" are shown in the town mill wing of the Hällisch-Franconian Museum in Schwäbisch Hall;
• the synagogue of Kirchheim (Lower Franconia) near Würzburg (1739/40);
• the synagogue of Colmberg near Ansbach (not determined in time);
• the synagogue of Georgensgmünd in the Franconian Lake District (approx. 1733/34, inauguration of the synagogue in 1735).
• the Odenbach synagogue, no earlier than 1752.

Sussmann's life data are not yet known.

literature

• David Davidovicz: Wall paintings in old synagogues , 1969
• Württembergisch Franken 90/91 (2006/2007), p. 438f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Scheunensynagoge Bechhofen on worksheets.de, seen July 12, 2009
2. ↑ Image and brief information on the Horb synagogue at Israel Museum, Jerusalem on imj.org.il, viewed July 12, 2009