Ecclesia and Synagoga
Replica of the statues at the Strasbourg Cathedral, 1230
Museum Collection
These figures can be found in many medieval churches as they supposedly testifying to Jewish blindness and Christian dominance. More specifically, they symbolise the victory of Christianity over Judaism – which failed to see Jesus as the true Messiah.
Judaism (Synagoga) is portrayed as a queen with blindfolded eyes. In one hand she holds a broken staff, while the other just barely hangs on to the Stone Tablets. Ecclesia stands by Synagoga and represents the Church. She is depicted as a queen with a crown on her head and holds a cross in one hand and a chalice in the other.
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To this day, stone figures decorating Christian churches reveal an aesthetic expression of the attitude of Christianity towards Judaism. Synagoga is as blind as Judaism to the idea of Jesus as Savior. Synagoga is drooping and humiliated, holding a broken spear and the Jewish Talmud which is slowly slipping out of her hands. These details are made to showcase how the Jewish people are minorities in the face of Christianity, powerless and no longer considered the chosen people. Unlike Synagoga, Ecclesia is proud, standing tall and crowned as a queen who looks with pity on Judaism.
Synagoga and Ecclesia are important visual representations of the ideological background that developed between Christianity and Judaism in the late Middle Ages. It leads to subsequent difficult events and tension that occurred to Ashkenazi Jews.
