Or Sameach Synagogue

The Or-Sameach Synagogue

The Or Sameach Synagogue ( Russian / Ukrainian Синагога Ор Самеах , Hebrew ישיבת אור שמח) is the main synagogue of the Ukrainian city of Odessa . It is located at 25 Jewrejska Street at the corner of Richelieu Street.

history

Since the city was founded in 1794, a large number of Jewish citizens lived in Odessa, who founded the first community in Odessa in 1798 and built the first synagogue ( see also: History of the Jews in Odessa ). In the years 1850 to 1855, the Or Sameach Synagogue was built by the Italian architect Franz Morandi (1811-1894) as a two-story building with a facade and interior in a Florentine style mixed with Romanticism . It became known as the main synagogue in the city.

In 1919 the building was expropriated by decree of the Bolsheviks , profaned in 1923 and used first as a zoological museum and then as a children's music theater. After the Second World War , the former synagogue became a sports hall of the Odessa Pedagogical Institute, for which the building was extensively redesigned. In 1996 the Jewish community got the building back; it became again the main synagogue of Odessa and restored in the following years.