This paper explores the way contemporary American Conservative Jewish communities express ideas of egalitarianism and feminism through active use of specific ritual garments (tallit and tefillin). It addresses the meanings that these garments currently have on individual, communal, and institutional levels. Additionally, it considers women’s changing roles regarding ritual and participation in these communities. It also considers that in this context, when women take on additional religious obligations they are simultaneously representing feminist and religious issues and actions, and the conversations between these ideas.

The aim of thediploma thesis is to design an architectural study of a new synagogue in Opava for the Jewish community. Content of the work is also a community center and administration. In the deign is a set of three buildings serving the Jewish community. The design is solved as an interconnected space between the public and the Jewish community. With its openness and permeability, it offers the opportunity to look into the Jewish community. The main object, the synagogue, for believers is directly linked to the construction of the Jewish community, where at the same level we can find mikve for ritual purrification. The second object, the Jewish community, offers two business units in the first floor. The important part of the Jewish community is education, and therefore the design of the Jewish community also contains a library and a clasroom connected to this library. The administration itself is located on the private last floor with a terrace. A third building, a community center, has been created to make the public familiar with the Jewish community, its religion and culture. The first floor is used by the kosher restaurant, which can use the central space between the park landscaping for sitting. The Community Center provides a lecture hall on the second floor and a spacious gallery for Jewish artists on the third floor.