Signed Copy of Where We Once Gathered - Lost Synagogues of Europe Hardcover Book plus a signed small print of one of the synagogue paintings in the collection

By Andrea Strongwater

The Lost Synagogues is a collection of vibrant paintings depicting synagogues that were eradicated before and during WWII. Andrea Strongwater has researched Jewish communities across Europe to connect archival photos with written records that together tell the story of European Jewish life before the holocaust. Ms. Strongwater brings this world back to life through her art.

"Lost Synagogues? They are lost only if we forget. How can we even begin to discuss what was lost until we know what was before. Strongwater's paintings evoke the beauty and vitality of the lost communities of Europe … Families worked, lived, learned and loved in these diverse places. Blacksmiths and teachers, tailors and doctors, beggars and moguls, mothers, fathers, and children created communities in every sense of that word – communities that centered around the ubiquitous, often imposing (though sometimes humble) structures shown in Where We Once Gathered, Lost Synagogues of Europe."  - Stephen M. Goldman, Executive Director Holocaust Memorial Center, Zekelman Family Campus

Book Review by Linda Short, JD, Penn State University:
... I recommend the book without reservation.
I was struck immediately by the beautifully detailed paintings that illustrate the selected synagogues which form the focus of the text.
....Readers of all ages will be drawn into the book and its images recalling another vibrant and glorious time in Jewish history.

Hardcover: 48 pages

About the Authour/Illustrator:

Andrea Strongwater has been an artist all her life. She recently turned her attention to Jewish themes. Her current project re-creates in paintings and words synagogues across Europe that were destroyed before and during WWII. The project is a traveling exhibit, a lecture and now a series of books.
To view a video that includes all of the current paintings in the project, visit: http://www.tinyurl.com/lostsynagoguesbook
and click on Project Overview.

This book has been awarded a Silver Moonbeam award for young adult readers from the Independent Publishers and is a finalist for the Forward awards.