Hasidism in the Urban Fabric: Is There a "hasidic Architecture" ?

This article discusses the question of whether or not a specific Hasidic architecture emerged in Eastern and East-Central Europe from the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century. It deals with the architecture of the courts of Hasidic masters, paying special attention to kloyzn, residences, the new types of courts that emerged in big cities, and the symbolic usage of the images of court kloyzn as identification markers by contemporary Hasidic groups. The article also discusses the ohalim on the graves of the tzaddikim and regular Hasidic synagogues. The main conclusion is that Hasidim did not develop a specific architectural language that defined their places of worship: the Hasidic nature of a synagogue was a function of the worshippers' behavior, not its architectural features, spatial configuration, or urban location.