Moscow Choral Synagogue
Men's section on the ground floor;
women's section upstairs on either side
When Czarist reforms required support, mercy was extended to Jewish scholars, artisans and university graduates; their brains were needed by the Empire. And when they did not, as in 1891, 30,000 skilled Jews were expelled from Moscow. Only merchants of the First Guild were allowed to stay.
Even so, how did the very large, beautiful Moscow Choral Synagogue get built clearly outside the Pale?
The Czarist regime had always run in cycles, changing between liberalisation and rigid control eg the early 1880s were marked by bloody, anti-Semitic pogroms that followed the assassination of the reforming Tsar Alexander II.
In 1881, Semyon Eybushitz (1851–98), Austrian architect and graduate of Moscow School of Painting, accepted Russian citizenship. Moscow's Jewish community invited Eybushitz to develop a new synagogue project, not a modest building but a large domed basilica, similar to the one in Vienna.
City authorities had banned synagogue building inside Kitai Gorod i.e the cultural-historical area within central Moscow. Thus the synagogue had to be built a block beyond its walls. The Jewish community turned to Moscow’s liberal Governor-General, seeking consent to build a Jewish prayer-centre in a former pottery settlement. The expensive land was bought by the community in 1886, but with great benefit to the urban economy. And fortunately, this located the synagogue close to the Jewish settlement in Zaryadye.
Eybushitz’s first set of architectural plans was rejected. His second set was approved and work began in 1887. The laying of the Jewish synagogue in Spassoglinischevsky Lane (formerly Arkhipov St) took place in May 1887: a stone capsule was mounted in the building’s eastern wall.
In 1888 construction was halted, as the city intervened again and ordered the builders to remove the completed dome and the exterior image of the scrolls of Moses. Building dragged on for five years, until the authorities once again banned the project in 1892, giving the Moscow Jewish society 2 choices: sell the unfinished building or convert it into a charity. Otherwise the building would be sold at auction by the Provincial Government.
The community had no choice but to adapt the building to a 3-year vocational school-shelter, named in honour of Tsar Alexander II. These alterations in 1897 were personally monitored by the Chief Police Officer of Moscow, General Trepov. Next the Jews changed the institution to a Talmud-Torah School, still located in the building of the forbidden synagogue. By the turn of the century, only one Jewish prayer house remained in all of Moscow, the private prayer-room of banker Lazar Polyakov.
After the First Russian Revolution of 1905, the April manifesto of the tsarist government on freedom of religion appeared, so Jews and other faith groups were free to build their own houses of worship. The Minister of the Interior Stolypin appealed to Tsar Nicholas II with a special request, given the granting of the October Manifesto by Nicholas re freedom of religion. The synagogue finally opened!!
“Choral” synagogues did not make changes to religious beliefs and customs. The differences between choral and traditional synagogues were the more aesthetic and enlightened elements eg the choral synagogue featured male a choir. See the massive pale beige building placed in the middle of one of the oldest parts: The ark of covenant, holding the Torah scrolls, was covered with velvet sewn with gold threads. On the sides of the Ark were columns, like those at the entrance to the sanctuary of Solomon's Temple.
The Czarist regime had always run in cycles, changing between liberalisation and rigid control eg the early 1880s were marked by bloody, anti-Semitic pogroms that followed the assassination of the reforming Tsar Alexander II.
In 1881, Semyon Eybushitz (1851–98), Austrian architect and graduate of Moscow School of Painting, accepted Russian citizenship. Moscow's Jewish community invited Eybushitz to develop a new synagogue project, not a modest building but a large domed basilica, similar to the one in Vienna.
City authorities had banned synagogue building inside Kitai Gorod i.e the cultural-historical area within central Moscow. Thus the synagogue had to be built a block beyond its walls. The Jewish community turned to Moscow’s liberal Governor-General, seeking consent to build a Jewish prayer-centre in a former pottery settlement. The expensive land was bought by the community in 1886, but with great benefit to the urban economy. And fortunately, this located the synagogue close to the Jewish settlement in Zaryadye.
Eybushitz’s first set of architectural plans was rejected. His second set was approved and work began in 1887. The laying of the Jewish synagogue in Spassoglinischevsky Lane (formerly Arkhipov St) took place in May 1887: a stone capsule was mounted in the building’s eastern wall.
In 1888 construction was halted, as the city intervened again and ordered the builders to remove the completed dome and the exterior image of the scrolls of Moses. Building dragged on for five years, until the authorities once again banned the project in 1892, giving the Moscow Jewish society 2 choices: sell the unfinished building or convert it into a charity. Otherwise the building would be sold at auction by the Provincial Government.
The community had no choice but to adapt the building to a 3-year vocational school-shelter, named in honour of Tsar Alexander II. These alterations in 1897 were personally monitored by the Chief Police Officer of Moscow, General Trepov. Next the Jews changed the institution to a Talmud-Torah School, still located in the building of the forbidden synagogue. By the turn of the century, only one Jewish prayer house remained in all of Moscow, the private prayer-room of banker Lazar Polyakov.
After the First Russian Revolution of 1905, the April manifesto of the tsarist government on freedom of religion appeared, so Jews and other faith groups were free to build their own houses of worship. The Minister of the Interior Stolypin appealed to Tsar Nicholas II with a special request, given the granting of the October Manifesto by Nicholas re freedom of religion. The synagogue finally opened!!
“Choral” synagogues did not make changes to religious beliefs and customs. The differences between choral and traditional synagogues were the more aesthetic and enlightened elements eg the choral synagogue featured male a choir. See the massive pale beige building placed in the middle of one of the oldest parts: The ark of covenant, holding the Torah scrolls, was covered with velvet sewn with gold threads. On the sides of the Ark were columns, like those at the entrance to the sanctuary of Solomon's Temple.
Ark of the covenant
Eybuschitz had died in 1898, and so the community hired the famous Moscow architect Roman Klein (1858-1924) to restore the interior of the prayer house. There were no rules about synagogue architecture, so Klein filled the interior space with plenty of visual metaphors. He designed Catholic-like high rounded arches and wooden benches; Eastern mosque-like colourful geometric patterns and mosaics; Orthodox churches’ metallic twisted lamps with candles; and the columns of the ancient Greek temples of Olympus. The interior was also full of Jewish symbols: Menorahs, Stars of David and Eden Trees -
And then the 2nd/October Russian Revolution broke out. The Choral Synagogue operated throughout the Soviet period, although city authorities annexed some parts for secular purposes. In Aug 1923, the Council of People's Commissars decided the Moscow Synagogue library should be transferred to Belarusian State Uni. And part of the synagogue was handed over to Tekstilstroy Spinning Factory.
Rabbi Shmarya Medalia was Lithuanian born and Vitebsk educated. In the 1920s, he was invited to lead the Moscow Choral Synagogue, as long as he settled outside city limits! Nonetheless he was still arrested in Jan 1938 by the Military Board of the Supreme Court. And executed!
In Oct 1948 Golda Meir, Israel's first ambassador to the Soviet Union, attended High Holyday services in this shule.
The Moscow Choral Synagogue survived. In the 70s & 80s, the centre became a meeting place for refuseniks and yeshiva students. In the 90s, Jewish holidays were celebrated in the synagogue: despite decades of persecution and immigration, many Jews still lived there.
Front entrance
Note the silver dome
The synagogue has been recently restored. Since 1990, with c100,000 Jewish residents in the city, the Choral Synagogue has become the centre of Jewish community life in Moscow. It has the Chief Rabbi offices, Rabbinical court, Torah learning centre, library, bookshop, seniors’ club and kosher restaurant. And the synagogue works with the city’s Jewish schools and pre-schools.
In 2016 Moscow Choral Synagogue celebrated its 110th birthday with concerts and historic exhibitions.
In 2016 Moscow Choral Synagogue celebrated its 110th birthday with concerts and historic exhibitions.
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16 comments:
After the Moscow Choral Synagogue was beautifully rebuilt, attention was paid to all sorts of other community facilities. We particularly enjoyed the Jewish Museum, also in Moscow.
Deb
Bridge To Moscow said that Jewish landmarks can be found all around Moscow. They include six choral synagogues, 14 Jewish cultural community centers, Jewish schools, kosher restaurants, kosher supermarkets, museums and memorials. Although I cannot find if these facilities were built in conjunction with, or after the Moscow Choral Synagogue, my favourite seems to be The Shalom Moscow Jewish Theatre.
Hello Hels, After so many vicissitudes, the Moscow Choral Synagogue is finally having its day in the sun. From the front it resembles a Palladian villa. The silver dome is unusual--from the photo it looks a little like gray paint, but I would like to see it in the sun. I hope that the restoration of so many Jewish monuments in Russia marks the beginning of a new and permanent era of religious respect.
--Jim
Parnassus
the vicissitudes you mentioned affected all religion across all of Russia, from one era to the next. After the Revolution, for example, Soviet law extended tolerance to religion as part of the equality of all Russian peoples, yet at other times faith in a Higher Power was seen as anathema to socialism.
So the only surprise to me was that _Moscow_ lead the creation of beautiful religious facilities, given it was outside the Pale for centuries. The Moscow Choral Synagogue is truly beautiful, and although Marina Shul Beys Menachem (rebuilt 1993) and Bolshaya Bronnaya Synagogue (rebuilt 2004) were not rebuilt to my taste, they are huge and welcoming.
Let us all hope that the era of religious respect be permanent, yes!
A very mixed use building beautifully restored and now used for the purpose it was initially built. I'd forgotten about refuseniks. Maybe you can write about them one day.
Andrew
When the Jewish community facilities were originally built, towards the end of the C19th, there were 5 million Jews in the Russian Empire. But pogroms, esp in the Ukraine, in the early C20th killed thousands, and hundreds of thousands more left for safety in the US, Israel etc. WW2 was another catastrophe, and the population continued to fall below 2 million. So I understand why they converted synagogues and schools across the Soviet Union into tyre factories and storage sheds.
Only after the breakup of the Soviet Union did the community start to thrive and grow again. I am delighted the synagogues, schools and memorial centres have been restored and expanded.
Boa tarde Hels, ainda não tive a oportunidade de visitar o interior de uma sinagoga, obrigado pelas belas imagens e excelente matéria de qualidade.
WOW they certainly were determined to hang in there . My husbands family got out and arrived in Australia in 1880s.
Luiz
I am not sure who the architect was, in the rebuilding of the Choral Synagogue, but at least the original plans and photos were readily available. The current incarnation certainly looks fantastic.
mem
Regardless of the reason for immigration, it must be terrible to leave one's homeland, never seeing the extended family, house, school, business and friends again. Even having to learn a new language would be a trial. My family was all out of southern Russia/now Ukraine by the mid 1920s, half in Melbourne and half in Winnipeg.
That said, the rest of the Russian Jewish community must have moved to Moscow in the last two generations (60 years). They deserve the best facilities they can afford.
Yes Tony and I went on a trip a few years ago and head to Karlish in what is now Poland . We were very moved to see it and what the family left behind A lovely little town with a lovely architecture and town square . The synagogue is gone , destroyed WW2 and when went to the visitor information center they were very helpful and helping us find the Jewish quarter . It was aa very moving experience for my husband in particular .
mem
A very moving experience, agreed. The way we remember our grandparents is to give their first names to our own children when we give birth; put all their labelled photos in our albums and above all to visit their homes and towns back in Europe.
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As you have shared, There were no rules about synagogue architecture, so Klein filled the interior space with plenty of visual metaphors. He designed Catholic-like high rounded arches and wooden benches; Eastern mosque-like colorful geometric patterns and mosaics; Orthodox churches’ metallic twisted lamps with candles; and the columns of the ancient Greek temples of Olympus. The interior was also full of Jewish symbols: Menorahs, Stars of David and Eden Trees -
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Angel
Thanks for reading the post :) I think that Roman Klein was very sensible taking any interesting architectural commission coming his way. He was still making his reputation, so he was keen to work with the various communities on different structures, and different furniture and fittings.
Carter
have you ever seen the synagogue, either from the outside or in?
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