Great Synagogue (Isjaslav)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Great Synagogue 2014
Great Synagogue between 1912 and 1914

The Great Synagogue in Isjaslav in the Ukrainian Oblast of Khmelnytskyi was built towards the end of the 16th or beginning of the 17th century. Today it is almost in ruins.

history

The exact year of construction of the synagogue is not known. It lies between 1578, when Jews were first mentioned in Isjaslav, and 1648, when the building was damaged and used as a stable during the Khmelnytskyi Uprising .

Extensive renovations were carried out in 1905 on the extensions in the north and the vestibule in the west. The roof and gable shapes were greatly changed.

During the Russian Civil War 1918–1921, the synagogue was damaged inside and out, but was still used afterwards. However, in pictures from 1928 you can see that the Torah shrine , for example, no longer had a curtain and was empty; that was not the case two years earlier. It can therefore be assumed that no religious ceremonies have taken place there since that time.

The building was further damaged in World War II . Extensions were demolished and the ceiling and roof destroyed. After the war it was used as a boiler house for a musical instrument factory. In addition, it got a simple roof and new extensions. Conversions changed the character of the synagogue even further.

In 2011 it is a dilapidated ruin.

architecture

The synagogue was built on the edge of the high bank of the Horyn River. It consisted of a large, rectangular main hall (the men's prayer room), a two-story vestibule towards the west, a one-story extension with the women's prayer rooms along the entire north wall, and another small extension on the southwest corner.

The main hall and vestibule had artistically shaped roof gables. The vestibule and northern annex had rectangular windows, while the main hall had two high, large pointed arch windows in the north, three in the south, and two high, large pointed arch windows in the west and east. There was an oculus between the tops of the windows in the west and east .

Inside the hall there were no supports for the ceiling; this consisted of a flat wooden ceiling. Nothing is known about the Bima . The Torah shrine contained many elements of 18th century architecture and is therefore probably younger than the building itself. It was placed in the middle of the eastern wall and reached by a small staircase with a wooden railing.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. Sergey R. Kravtsov, Vladimir Levin. Synagogues in Ukraine VOLHYNIA Vol. 1. Pages 275-283. The Center Of Jewish Art. ISBN 978-965-227-342-0 . All information about the synagogue

Web links

Commons : Great Synagogue (Isjaslav)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 7 ′ 26 ″  N , 26 ° 48 ′ 43 ″  E