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As Rivka and Ben-Zion Dorfman traveled from small town to small town in Europe, a familiar scenario began to repeat itself.

They were usually recognized as foreigners on the spot. And as they were searching for the synagogue, townspeople would inevitably ask: "Is your family from this town?"

Their reply was always the same: "Yes."

"In doing all this very difficult work, what developed was a strong sense of our identification with the Jews where we were," said Rivka. "Our parents could have come from these towns."

It was on a trip to Italy in 1987 that the Dorfmans became interested in a particular synagogue. That initial interest sparked a project that spanned some 50 weeks of traveling over the course of five years.

"We found that the synagogues were fascinating," said Rivka. "There was material to be recorded, documented and examined in greater depth."

That project resulted in an exhibit and now a book on synagogue art and architecture: "Synagogues Without Jews — and the Communities that Built and Used Them."

The Dorfmans, who are both American-born but live in Jerusalem, will be speaking about their travels as well as showing slides at four sites throughout the Bay Area during the next two weeks.

Realizing that the large centers of Jewish life are already well documented, the couple decided to focus on the synagogues of small villages. They spent the most time in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but also traveled widely in Austria, Greece, Croatia, Serbia and Italy.

It's no wonder that the Dorfmans so strongly identified with the Jews they were in search of — it was this quest to uncover the Jewish past that propelled them. Neither had a professional background in the subject: He is a geneticist; she is a retired kindergarten teacher with a master's degree in ancient Semitic languages. But she long had a latent interest in Jewish art.

They spoke to people, visited archives and took photographs. While neither has studied photography, it has been a longtime hobby for both of them, and the photos are of professional quality.

"The history of individual communities is much harder to find than the general histories of countries," said Ben-Zion. "One can find the history of Jews in Czechoslovakia in a three volume set, but to find details about the individual towns is much more difficult."

In the course of their fieldwork, the Dorfmans tried "to document every inscription from the buildings that gave evidence to their Jewish past," Rivka said. "We interviewed people, either the last few Jews or people who had some interest."

But beyond just the synagogue, they wanted to "find the soul. Who lived here? Who built the synagogue and what were their lives like?"

Interestingly, in many towns with no Jews, they met people who knew something about the synagogue or the Jews of the area because they had one or more Jewish ancestors.

"It showed how widespread the Jews were," said Rivka. "Assimilation had affected the communities. There was hardly a town where we didn't find someone who wasn't part Jewish."

To give an idea of how comprehensive their journey was, Ben-Zion cited the example of the Czech Republic. "Before the war there may have been as many as 600 synagogues there," he said. "But after, there may have been about 300 remaining. Of those, we explored 200."

The story of the couple's travels is almost as interesting as what they found. Many of the places they visited had no hotels or pensions. In most places, they had to rely on the kindness of strangers for accommodations, and they weren't disappointed.

While Rivka received Israel's Prize of the Minister of Education and Culture for Innovators in Jewish Culture, which offered a salary at a master's level for one researcher for one year, she received it after they were already done with their fieldwork.

"We traveled on a very limited budget," she said. "The whole project was self-financed."

They found people extremely hospitable. "After spending hours at the synagogue, the neighbors would "see us and call us in for a meal," she said. "They would invite us to stay and then the following morning would give us cake to take on the road."

In many cases, Rivka said, "they were very concerned about us and impressed we were making such an effort."

In Perugia, Italy, the caretaker of the old synagogue actually allowed the couple to sleep in it — harking back to an old Jewish tradition.

When they returned, they relied upon a number of multilingual volunteers, who helped them interpret all their research.

The synagogues the Dorfmans found were in varying degrees of disrepair; some had been completely restored, while others were falling apart.

One especially beautiful synagogue they said is worth visiting is in Apostag, Hungary, south of Budapest.

"It's well worth seeing what has been done with a small village synagogue in restoration," Ben-Zion said. While it is no longer used as one, "the main sanctuary is a favorite place for weddings. It has a central bimah, which is used as platform."

Rivka added: "It's a very small, intimate place. It's worth the side trip, but then so many places are."