Loštice synagogue
Coordinates: 49 ° 44 ′ 39.2 " N , 16 ° 55 ′ 30.4" E
The synagogue in the Moravian municipality of Loštice in the Czech Republic was built around 1544, rebuilt around 1651 and 1805/1806 and thoroughly restored after 2004.
history
The first reports about Jews in Loštice come from the year 1544, when there is also said to have been a wooden synagogue and a Jewish cemetery at that time. The Jewish quarter in the center of Loštice was re-established as a ghetto in the west in June 1727 , and the population was resettled. In the early 1790s, most of the neighborhood was destroyed by fire, and the synagogue was also burned down. In 1805/06 or earlier a new synagogue was built on the same site.
Services took place until World War II. During the Second World War, in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia , the synagogue was closed by the German occupying forces and used as a warehouse for a different purpose. Although the ritual items were confiscated, some are now in the Jewish Museum in Prague and some Torah scrolls in various locations across the United States. During a visit to Loštice in 2005, Rabbi Bruce Elder from the Jewish community of Glencoe (Illinois) , Illinois presented the old Loštice Torah scroll that was kept in Glencoe and was saved in 1939.
After 1949, as there was no longer a Jewish community in Loštice, the Jewish community in Olomouc received the synagogue back on its behalf, but had to sell it to the local administration in 1957 for financial reasons. At first the building served as a warehouse, and in the 1960s it was used as a museum and an art and music school. After 1980 the building was empty and demolition was being considered.
After 2004/05, the citizens' initiative Respekt a tolerance (Respekt and Tolerance) worked together with the local authorities to renovate the synagogue. This project was financially supported by the descendants of the last rabbi of Loštice Izrael Günzig . In 2008 a permanent exhibition on Jewish history was opened in the building; On November 28, 2011, after the most important renovation work was completed, the Otto Wolf Library was opened on the occasion of the inauguration in the building . On October 5, 2014, a festive event took place to mark the final conclusion of the reconstruction of the synagogue.
The building has been protected as a cultural monument since May 3, 1958.
Synagogues
In the past there were three synagogues in Loštice. The first, a wooden building from around the middle of the 16th century, was located northeast of the main square; it was destroyed by fire, apparently during the occupation of Loštice by Swedish troops during the Thirty Years' War . The second synagogue, also wooden on a stone substructure, probably built in 1651, was first in the same place; When the Jewish residents had to move from the center to a newly built ghetto on June 5 and 6, 1727, it was dismantled and rebuilt in the ghetto. It burned out around 1790.
The third synagogue was built on the same site and completed around 1805 with an extension; it was a simple brick building with classical elements.
Furnishing
After the synagogue was closed as a result of the National Socialist occupation of the country in 1939, some elements of the interior were preserved, such as parts of the ceiling and the women's gallery.
Since 2005, the synagogue has also housed three of the ten original benches from the Olomouc Synagogue , which was destroyed in 1939 and which were saved in the Catholic Church in Olšany near Prostějov . They were acquired for the Loštice synagogue by the citizens' initiative Respekt a Tolerance . The total of 21 seats were dedicated to the 80 victims of the Holocaust from Loštice, Mohelnice and Úsov.
See also
Remarks
- ↑ The dates that can be found in the sources for the construction or destruction of the respective synagogue differ in some cases by several years.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Czech Republic: Restored synagogue in Loštice dedicated , report from October 8, 2014, online at: www.jewish-heritage-europe.eu / ...
- ↑ Synagoga v Lošticích , description on Hrady.cz, online on: hrady.cz / ...
- ↑ From the history of the Jewish communities in the German-speaking area , keyword Loschitz (Moravia), online at: jewische-gemeinden.de /
- ↑ a b c Johanna Ginsberg: Czechs honor legacy of NJ man's grandfather , in: New Jersey Jewish News (NJJN), September 21, 2011, online at: njjewishnews.com / ...
- ↑ a b Okna a lavice z olomoucké synagogy , report and documentation of the citizens' initiative Respekt a tolerance , online at: respectandtolerance.com / ...
- ↑ a b Jiří Fiedler: Loštice , Project Holocaust.CZ, online at: [1]
- ↑ Loštice , section Loštická synagoga , info from Zmizelí sousedé (Disappeared Neighbors), project of the Jewish Museum Prague, online at: www.zmizeli-sousede.cz / ... ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b Stanislava Rybičková: Loštickou synagogu otvírali hosté ze tří contininentů , in: Šumperský a Jesenický denik.cz, August 29, 2011, online at: sumpersky.denik.cz / ...
- ↑ Respect and Tolerance | Documentation of Jewish History. Lostice | Mohelnice | Usov , online at: www.respectandtolerance.com / ...
- ↑ synagoga ÚSKP 18892 / 8-999 in the monument catalog pamatkovykatalog.cz (Czech).
- ↑ Synagoga v Lošticích , description on Hrady.cz, online on: hrady.cz / ...
- ↑ Synagogální lavice , report of the citizens' initiative Respekt a tolerance , online at: respectandtolerance.com / ...
