By Adam Moses
Daniel Libeskind is lead architect in the rebuilding of the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.
The synagogue suffered the worst anti-Semitic atrocity in American history in October 2018.
Eleven worshipers died when white supremacist gunman Robert Bowers attacked Shabbat morning services at the synagogue in the city’s Squirrel Hill neighbourhood.
Libeskind’s portfolio of work includes rebuilding the World Trade Center Master Plan in New York along with Jewish museums in Europe, Israel and United States.
‘Through the Lens of Faith’ is installed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Poland.
The son of Holocaust survivors from Poland, Libeskind noted, “It is with a great sense of urgency and meaning that I join the Tree of Life to create a new center in Pittsburgh,” Libeskind said. “Our team is committed to creating a powerful and memorable space.”
Libeskind is internationally acclaimed for his work in architecture and urban design.
Born in Lodz, Poland, in 1946, Libeskind immigrated to the United States as a teenager and
with his family, settled in the Bronx. He received the American-Israel Cultural Foundation Scholarship and performed as a musical virtuoso, before studying architecture.
Graduating in architecture at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1970 and gaining a postgraduate degree in the history and theory of architecture from the School of Comparative Studies at Essex University, in 1989, Libeskind won an nternational competition to build the Jewish Museum in Berlin.
A series of museum commissions followed including the Felix Nussbaum Haus, Osnabrück, Imperial War Museum North, Manchester, Denver Art Museum, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, Danish Jewish Museum, Copenhagen, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto and Military History Museum, Dresden.
In 2003, Studio Libeskind buildt the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.
Arriving in New York, Studio Libeskind took on global commercial ventures including in Bern, Las Vegas, Dusseldorf, Warsaw, Toronto, Manila and Sao Paulo.
Principal Design Architect for Studio Libeskind, Libeskind speaks on the art of architecture in universities and professional events.
Libeskind lives in New York with his wife and business partner, Nina Libeskind.
Among many accolades, the Jewish Museum Berlin won the 2010 Buber-Rosenzweig Medal, 1999 German Architecture Prize and 1998 Art forum International award.
The World Trade Center Master Plan won the 2018 CTBUH Urban Habitat Award, 2012 AIA National Service Medal amd 2004 Best of New York Award.
The National Holocaust Monument in Ottowa won the 2019 IESNYC Award of Merit, 2018 Grands Prix du Design and 2017 Ontario Concrete Awards.
On October 27 2018, Bowers, armed with an assault rifle and handguns, entered the Pittsburgh synagogue and opened fire, killing 11 congregants and wounded six other people, four were police officers.
When surrendering, Bowers told an officer that he “wanted all Jews to die”.
Joyce Fienberg, 75, Richard Gottfried, 65, Rose Mallinger, 97, Jerry Rabinowitz, 66, Cecil, 59 and David Rosenthal, 54, Bernice, 84 and Sylvan Simon, 86, Daniel Stein, 71, Melvin Wax, 88 and Irving Younger, 69 died in the antisemitic attack .
Bowers is currently on trial facing 63 criminal charges related to the massacre.
