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Document Details :

Title: The Eagle, its Twin Heads and Many Faces
Subtitle: Synagogue Chandeliers Surmounted by Double-Headed Eagles
Author(s): RODOV, Ilia
Journal: Studia Rosenthaliana
Volume: 37    Date: 2004   
Pages: 77-129
DOI: 10.2143/SR.37.0.583404

Abstract :
Chandelier surmounted by a sculptural double-headed eagle were a common feature of Ashkenazi synagogues throughout Europe until the Second World War. They varied in size from the large, three-tiered branched chandelier, approximately 1.8 metres high, above the bimah in the synagogue in Ostrog in Volhynia, to the far smaller, single-tiered pendant lamp, about 50 cm high, in the women’s gallery at the synagogue in Wallerstein in Bavaria. Although large synagogue chandeliers with double-headed eagles are known only from photographs, many smaller examples have survived. The motif also appears on top of pendant Shabbat lamps, so-called Judensterne, as well as on Shabbat candlesticks and Chanukah lamps.

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