Temple Fragments

Temple Fragments features 54 oil paintings of every synagogue in Melbourne arranged together as a moving, site-specific installation. These small works form a temple-like structure, uniting the city’s diverse Jewish sites. There is an urgency to present this exhibition now as a response to highlight the alarming rise in attacks on synagogues and Jewish sites worldwide, particularly in March & April this year.

Each 9x12" painting, created en plein air in 2025–2026, captures Melbourne synagogues as they merge with the surrounding streetscapes. Razbash’s energetic, impressionistic style evokes both the vibrancy and fragility of Jewish life in Melbourne spanning 180 years, preserving something precious in the face of growing threats. The series was conceived following the antisemitic arson attack on East Melbourne Hebrew Congregation in mid-2025.

Superimposed on each synagogue are semi-transparent impressions of the Beit Hamikdash, the Second Temple in Jerusalem, destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks explained, when the Second Temple was destroyed, Jewish people carried a “mikdash me’at” – a small spiritual fragment – into the diaspora. These fragments became synagogues.

Razbash explores the intersection of the real and the imagined, inviting viewers to find holiness in the everyday, pride in identity, and strength in truth.

The modest size of paintings and the skeletal armature supporting them highlight the fragility of diaspora communities over 2,000 years, and the precarious safety of Jewish life today. Together, they form a hopeful prototype: a proud, united, and resilient vision of what could be and serve as a speculative blueprint for a Great Synagogue of Melbourne. Razbash imagines a future where external threats and internal divisions are overcome.

Presiding over the installation is The Young Kohen, a reminder of the priestly lineage carried through generations. A portrait pair of the artist and her wife confronts viewers, commenting on the extreme security now required simply to gather, pray, and celebrate. Through this work, Razbash asks audiences to consider Jewish Pride as an urgent civil rights issue.