Ivor Lichterman was born in 1953 in Cape Town, South. The younger son of one of South Africa’s most prominent Cantors, Jakub Lichterman (1909 – 1986) and Survivor Miriam Lichterman (1922 – 2022). Ivor has served as a cantor (chazzan) in Cape Town, New York, Connecticut and Arizona. Currently he is both chazzan and acting Rabbi at Congregation B’nai Israel in Sylvania, Toledo Ohio.

Ivor’s abiding interest in photography and synagogue architecture has inspired him to photograph hundreds of synagogues in 15 countries across the world.

​This exhibition was a labour of love. Ivor immigrated to the USA in 1976, but on every occasion that he returned home to visit his parents, he would traverse the country and photograph as many South African synagogues as possible. His work is an important record of the many synagogues built across South Africa.

​The majority of the 51 synagogues depicted in the exhibition are spread across 27 South African cities and towns and most are no longer in use synagogues, their communities having moved on, and the buildings repurposed, abandoned, or demolished. The images captured between 1980 – 2000.