The Great Synagogue of Iași ( ro, Sinagoga Mare din Iași) is the
oldest surviving synagogue in
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
, located in
Iași. It is listed in the
National Register of Historic Monuments.
History and architecture
Raised in 1671, the Great Synagogue is a free standing building adjacent to a small garden off Cucu Street (once called Sinagogilor Street for the many synagogues located on it) just north of the city center in the old Jewish neighbourhood of Târgu Cucului. The synagogue underwent major renovations in 1761, 1822 and 1864. It was partly restored in the 1970s and a major restoration took place between 2006 and 2018. The Women's Gallery houses a small museum of the Jewish community of Iași.
The building has round-arched windows, and two wings. One wing is two stories high and capped by a barrel-vaulted ceiling. The other is a tall, single-story hall with a diameter dome capped with a lantern. The dome was added to the building in the early 20th century.
Of the more than 110 synagogues in
Iași before
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, the Great Synagogue remains a witness of
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
, and it is one of only two which continues to serve the dwindling Jewish community of Iași.
See also
*
History of the Jews in Iași
*
Pod Roșu Synagogue
The Pod Roșu Synagogue was a synagogue in Iași, Romania, in the neighborhood, during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Cucu Street (under that name because of the sales of fowl which took place in a nearby market) was formerly called Sinagogilor Str ...
References
External links
Great Synagogue of Iaşiat ''Beit HaTfutsot - The Museum of the Jewish People''
by Itic Svart-Kara
{{DEFAULTSORT:Great Synagogue (Iasi)
Ashkenazi Jewish culture in Romania
Ashkenazi synagogues
Historic monuments in Iași County
Jews and Judaism in Iași
Synagogues in Romania
17th-century synagogues
Religious buildings and structures in Iași
Religious buildings and structures completed in 1671
1671 establishments in Europe
Synagogue buildings with domes
Baroque synagogues