Out of the ashes … a synagogue is reborn in Poland
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Documentary “Raise the Roof” premiers Oct. 8 in Tucson By Rhona Melsky
Jason Loik retouches the ceiling painting of the Gwozdziec after the installation in the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, Warsaw, Poland, 2013 Photos: Copyright 2014 Trillium Studios. . 36 OCTOBER 2015 | ARIZONA JEWISH LIFE
There is a profound sense of accomplishment when creating something from nothing. Sculptors and educators Rick and Laura Brown of Handshouse Studio, handshouse.org, set out to recreate something from the ashes of war-torn Poland, and history was revealed. “We don’t like to think of ourselves as teachers,” says Rick in a phone interview. “We are more interested in learning by doing, and we are interested through experience.” They were determined to reconstruct Gwozdziec, a demolished Polish synagogue. Long gone but remembered for its spectacular, colorful hand-painted interior roof, the wooden 18th century structure was destroyed by the Nazis in World War II. The Browns and their team had nothing but old black and white photographs from 1914 and one color study from which to work. Gwozdziec was one of the most documented synagogues they could find. The inspiring story is chronicled in “Raise the Roof,” a documentary by filmmakers Yari Wolinsky and Cary Wolinsky, who followed the Browns and their team to Sanok, Poland, as they undertook a seemingly insurmountable project to rebuild the synagogue’s roof using traditional tools and methods – all while facing a six-week deadline. Creating in what Rick calls a “dynamic learning environment,” they replicated historical objects in a short period of time. “We believe that if you replicate an object using the same tools, the same methods,