Carousel horses

By Arlene Stolnitz

In America, we think of Judaism as a text-oriented culture. Judaism has, in fact, a vibrant visual culture, which also became a great immigrant story. Many young immigrant apprentice carvers, upon immigrating to America, carried on the woodcarving tradition that was well established among Jews in Eastern Europe.

Traveling by bus throughout Poland several years ago, I saw first-hand, the heavily forested countryside. Eastern Europe was, and still is “a land of wood.” The elaborate wooden models of Polish synagogues, as well as those of Belarus and Ukraine, are well known. Built in the 17th and 18th centuries, and destroyed by the Nazis, those beautiful wooden synagogues were replete with tiered roofs, domes and elaborately carved wooden interiors. In 1947, art historian, Louis Lozowick wrote, “these synagogues were built in a unique Jewish style, making them a truly original folk expression.” He points to the beautiful intricate woodcarving of the synagogue interiors.

The same carving skills that Jews learned in the shtetls of Europe were brought to this country and flourished for a short time. According to sources I read, many of the artists were Jewish woodcarvers who arrived in the United States during the great wave of immigration between 1880 and 1920. Once in America, Ashkenazi woodcarvers found work making furniture, cigar store figures and ladies’ combs. As leisure became “big business,” amusement parks became popular and hand carved wooden horses were in demand. It was a source for the talents of Ashkenazi woodcarvers. As an aside, as paper became cheaper, this was also the case in the rise of papercutting, a subject I have written about in earlier columns.

Jewish artisans frequently used animals in their work, borrowing from written scripture and writings. An example might be the following Hebrew aphorism: “Be bold as a leopard, swift as an eagle, fleet as a deer, and strong as a lion, to do the will of thy Father who is in Heaven.”

In my past columns, we have seen that animals were used extensively. In carousel horses, however, everything was amplified. Animals became three dimensional, with bared teeth, flying manes, tossed heads and armor lavishly decorated with cut-glass jewels. Charles Carmel and Marcus Charles Ilions were individuals I read about who, working together, were some of the master carvers who fled Europe. Known for their “Coney Island Style,” they were renowned for carousel horses that had elaborate adornments, often including American symbols like stars and stripes. One commentator claimed, “the flick of the tail on a Coney Island lion by Iliions replicates the tail position of lions guarding Torah arks.” The “Coney Island Style” for carousel horses was wildly popular on the merry-go-round rides of Coney Island. Elsewhere, other styles also became popular.

There were other carvers who were not Jewish, representing many other nationalities and religions. I recall the work of the well-known carver Gustav Denzel. His carousel menagerie in Ontario Park was located in my hometown of Rochester, NY. As a young girl, I often rode that carousel and marveled at the beauty of the menagerie of animals on that unique merry-goround. I know that my grandmother, Bessie, in her long skirts and parasol, often rode that carousel long before I knew anything of its history.

Today, many carousels in America and elsewhere still exist, but the art of hand-carving those animals is long gone. Modern-day horses are made of molded plastic and are factory finished. But still, there is new inspiration as we see young artists learning the tradition of their forefathers and using their ideas in new and innovative ways.

You may ask, were any women involved in these creative endeavors?

Stay tuned as we explore the role of women in Judaic art in my next article.

Arlene Stolnitz, the “Jewish Music” contributor to federation papers the past eight years, started a new series focusing on Judaic folk art. A native of Rochester, NY, Stolnitz is a retired educator and lives in Venice, Florida.