This cartoon, published in the August 1, 1963 edition of The Chicago Sentinel, describing the members of the synagogue congregation according to the seating in the synagogue during religious services. The cartoon depicts a synagogue on, perhaps, Shabbat or a holiday. The architecture of the synagogue, with a women’s section and the seats facing forward, indicate that this is an orthodox, Ashkenazi synagogue. The women are sitting in a balcony and the men can be seen below, sitting in the main sanctuary. Only a few people are sitting in the first few rows of the men’s section, while behind them the rows are filled. A women in the balcony is speaking to another woman and the caption reads: “The front rows are reserved for the pious and the humble.”
The cartoon is poking fun at a phenomenon that can be seen in many synagogues: most people prefer to sit at the back and the front few rows are often left empty. Rabbis sometimes try to encourage people to move up to the front rows but usually to no success. The cartoon is also laughing at the nature of the members of the community, who, according to the women, are probably not very pious or humble.
This is one of a large number of cartoons in the Dayenu series created by Henry Rabin, the artist, and Leonard Pritkin, the author of the texts, under the pseudonym Henry Leonard. The Dayenu cartoons often pointed out the idiosyncrasies of the American Jewish community.
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Dayenu – “Dayenu” was a weekly cartoon that appeared in Jewish newspapers in the 1950s and 1960s. The cartoon was signed by Henry Leonard, a pseudonym used to represent two people: Rabbi Henry Rabin and the artist Leonard Prikitin. The cartoon, titled “Dayenu” (meaning enough) from the Haggadah was intended to be humorous, sometimes even poking fun at the US Jewish communities at the time. At its peak, “Dayenu” appeared in 50 Jewish newspapers and was later collected in four books.
Synagogue Design – The design of synagogues is influenced by the place, time, and community that built it. All synagogues face toward Jerusalem and include certain features such as the ark (aron hakodesh) where the Torah scrolls are kept, a curtain (parochet) in front of the ark, a prayer platform (bimah) from which the services are led , and a lamp that is kept constantly lit (ner tamid). In Orthodox synagogues men and women sit separately, while in Reform and Conservative synagogues families sit together. In many Sephardi synagogues the congregation sits around the bimah, while in Ashkenazi synagogues the congregation sit in rows facing the ark. Karaite synagogues differ from the more common synagogues and do not have any seats. While some synagogues are very simple in style, others are very ornate and include stained glass windows, intricate designs on the walls, and candelabras. There are very few traditional guidelines for synagogues except that they should include windows and be the tallest building in the area. In many places, however, Jews were not allowed to build tall buildings, and some synagogues were even built below ground level. For these reasons, synagogues were often built hidden within existing buildings or protected by a high wall. The emancipation of the Jews in nineteenth-century Western Europe impacted the architecture of synagogues, and large, elaborate synagogues were built, often in central locations.
