We have covered how the social, cultural, economic, environmental and geographic changes that shaped early modern Jewry affected synagogue architectural design and art roughly between 1450 and 1730. But what separates the themes and aspects of early modern synagogues from modern (mid/late eighteenth century to present)? According to many scholars, the twin revolutions of the United States (1775–83) and France (1789–99) mark the defining moment of the modern period, akin to the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1453 as the seminal event separating the Middle Ages from the early modern. The decades between c. 1730 and c. 1775 were significant in Jewish history, especially given the accomplishments of influential Jewish thinkers and leaders such as Moses Mendelssohn (1729–86), Elijah ben Shlomo Zalman Kremer (the Vilna Gaon, 1720-97) and Yisroel ben Eliezer (the Baal Shem Tov), among others. This was the period that birthed the Haskalah, Hassidism and the Yeshiva movements, arguably three fundamentally important cultural-religious innovations of modern Judaism. From the standpoint of synagogue architectural and artistic development and innovation, a plateau had been reached – a reflection of ‘the long eighteenth century’ (though this term technically covers c. 1690–1815). The Jewish buildings referenced in the previous chapters with significant post-1730 dates – such as the clock tower in Cochin, India, Amsterdam's Nieuwe Sjoel or Surinam's Darkhe Yesharim – were mentioned to reinforce certain points.