Rebuilding the Gwozdziec Synagogue 2013

Students, craftsmen and artists have all worked together to rebuild and assemble sections of the Gwoździec Synagogue, a magnificent 300 year-old wooden synagogue and symbol of the vitality of Jewish culture in Poland that was burned to the ground during the Nazi occupation.

Gwoździec Synagogue Project: Assembling & Installing the Roof, 2013

January 2013: On a gray winter morning, a sleepy crew gathered in a dusty basement of a construction site in Warsaw. Handshouse and the Timber Framers Guild were there for another impossible task: assembling the entire roof structure and installing the elaborately painted ceiling in just 19 days.

With the help of our Kickstarter project donors, our film crew was there to record this amazing event. As a way of thanking those who donated $1,000 or more, the crew drove pegs carrying those donors' names. Those pegs tie together the timber frame structure, the symbolic backbone of the Gwozdziec synagogue project.

Thanks to all of our donors. We are working on the film now and look forward to sharing it with you.

Museum of the History of Polish Jews: Media Event March 12, 2013

The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, due to open in 2014 in the heart of the city's former Jewish quarter, is under construction on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto.

The museum unveiled the reconstructed synagogue roof being built in collaboration with Handshouse, and the media were invited to view the elaborate frescoed ceiling on March 12, 2013.

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Bell Tower A team of carpenters from the US and UK built an 18th century timber framed Polish Bell Tower using traditional tools and techniques. Also, Mass Art faculty and students designed and constructed an iron cupola large enough to cast a 300-pound iron bell while using a traditional 19th century American bell mold. Read more.