Thursday, January 30, 2014

Vote! Opening of restored Wrocław synagogue nominated for recognition

Cross-posted from Jewish Heritage Europe.    

(You can read more about the synagogue and restoration on this blogpost from 2010.)


Vote! Opening of restored Wrocław synagogue nominated for recognition

White Stork Synagogue, 2013. Photo © Ruth Ellen Gruber

To mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of communism, the Wrocław edition of Gazeta Wyborcz newspaper is organizing a poll as to the major event in the region in the past quarter century. The restoration and re-opening of the historic White Stork Synagogue is one of the 15 nominees. Inaugurated in 1829 and designed by Carl Ferdinand Langhans, the synagogue was seriously damaged on Kristallnacht but not torched because of its proximity to other buildings. The Nazis converted it into an auto repair garage and warehouse for stolen Jewish property.

The synagogue was officially re-opened in May 2010, after a fitful restoration process that began in 1996, funded by the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation and the company KGHM Polish Copper SA. Work stalled,  but the restoration was completed after the Bente Kahan Foundation stepped in to spearhead the project and and in 2008, in cooperation with the Union of Jewish Religious Communities and the City of Wroclaw, managed to obtain funding for the project from  Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Financial Mechanism. Today, it is used for civic cultural events and major Jewish celebrations, and it also houses a permanent exhibit on Jewish history and culture.

You can vote HERE — on Gazeta’s web site.
Thanks to Virtual Shtetl for bringing this to our attention

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