11 Facts About Rachel Wischnitzer

Rachel Wischnitzer's father was for a time in the insurance business.

Rachel Wischnitzer had one sibling, a younger brother, Gustave, who later became a chemist.

Rachel Wischnitzer learned Hebrew as a child, and her family observed the major Jewish holidays.

Rachel Wischnitzer learned French and German, and took private lessons in Polish.

Rachel Wischnitzer studied at the University of Heidelberg in 1902 to 1903.

Rachel Wischnitzer went on to study architecture in Brussels, at the Academie Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and in 1907 graduated from the Ecole Speciale d'Architecture in Paris, one of the first women to receive a degree in that field.

Rachel Wischnitzer studied art history for two semesters at the University of Munich in 1909 to 1910.

Rachel Wischnitzer was especially interested in illuminated medieval Hebrew manuscripts, which she studied in the collections of St Petersburg.

In 1912 Rachel married Mark Wischnitzer, a sociologist and historian, who was one of the editors of the Russian-language edition of the Jewish Encyclopedia, where her first writings on synagogue architecture and ceremonial objects were published.

Rachel Wischnitzer was one of the most important Jewish art critics of the century.

Now in her fifties, Rachel Wischnitzer returned to formal academic study at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, where she earned a master's degree in 1944.