Moorish Revival synagogues serve as reminders of an era in which Jews looked to Islamic architecture to represent themselves in the West.
The Museum at Eldridge Street tells the story of Eastern European Jewish immigrants and the synagogue and community they formed on New York's Lower East Side.
At Olana, East meets West in an American's mind.
For some, the Moorish Revival style was a vehicle for performative exoticism. But for others, it provided another way of looking at themselves and their place in America.
The prevalence of the Moorish Revival style is an indication that the divide between Islam and America and Muslim and Jew has not been perennial.
