Kaunas Synagogue

Kaunas Synagogue
Basic information
Location Centras eldership, Kaunas, Lithuania
Geographic coordinates 54°53′55″N 23°54′12″E / 54.89861°N 23.90333°E / 54.89861; 23.90333
Affiliation Orthodox Judaism
Status Active
Architectural description
Architect(s) Justyn Golinewicz
Architectural type Synagogue
Architectural style Baroque Revival
Groundbreaking 1871
Completed 1872

Kaunas Synagogue (Lithuanian: Kauno choralinė sinagoga) is one of two operating choral synagogues in Lithuania.[1] It is located in Centras eldership, Kaunas. The Neo-Baroque synagogue was built in 1872.[1] In 1902, before the Holocaust in Lithuania, the city had some 25 synagogues and prayer houses.[2]

The plot for the new synagogue was bestowed to the Kovno Jewish community by the merchant Lewin Boruch Minkowski, the father of Oskar Minkowski and Hermann Minkowski; until 1873 he also subsidized the major part of its construction.[3][4] Dating from 1871, this radically designed synagogue, once one of over 35 synagogues and Jewish prayer houses in the city, claims to have one of the most beautiful altars in the entire Jewish world. A memorial to the estimated 50,000 Lithuanian Jewish children killed during the Holocaust can be found at the rear of the building, complete with 37 stone tablets showing in which towns and cities they lost their lives and just how many of them died in each one.

On 20 April 2011, the anniversary of Hitler's birthday, a sign saying "Jews out" and "Hitler was right" ("Juden raus" "Hitleris buvo teisus") were hung in front of the synagogue, a clearly anti-Semitic act.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 "Įspūdingiausios Lietuvos sinagogos" (in Lithuanian). Žydai Lietuvoje. 2008-01-23. Retrieved 2009-11-07.
  2. ↑ "Kovno". Jewish Encyclopedia. 1905.
  3. ↑ Synagoga chóralna w Kownie
  4. ↑ Kaunas: Dates and Facts (1872)
  5. ↑ "Kaune prie sinagogos neonaciai pakabino plakatą su šūkiais "Juden raus" ir "Hitleris buvo teisus", Vilniuje plevėsavo nacių vėliavos (dar papildyta, nuotraukos)". Klasikinis lrytas.lt. Retrieved 6 October 2012.
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Coordinates: 54°53′55″N 23°54′12″E / 54.89861°N 23.90333°E / 54.89861; 23.90333


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