The Harbin Old Synagogue Concert Hall () is a concert hall in

Harbin Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...

, Heilongjiang Province, China, and formerly the old

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...

of Harbin from 1909 to 1963. Upon its renovation in 2014, it was reopened as a major

concert hall A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats. This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention centres that may ...

in the city.

History

The city of

was home to thousands of Jews. The number of Jewish diasporas living in Harbin was over 20,000 in the 1920s, making Harbin the largest gregarious center for Jews in the Far East. On 15 January 1909, the hall opened as Harbin General Synagogue (), the main Jewish religious site for the city. The former Jewish middle school was adjacent to the synagogue, whose site is still well preserved and was transferred into a music school. In June 1931, the building was devastated by a great fire and was refurbished. Abraham Kaufman, then leader of Harbin Jewish community, was working in the synagogue from 1919 to 1945. In 2013, over 1 billion Chinese yuan was spent by Harbin municipal government on the refurbishment of the building and transfer to a music hall. The hall reopened in 2014.

Architecture

In May 2013, the building was listed National Key Protected Building.

Cultural events

A series of concerts are held in the hall all over the year. A nostalgic bookstore is on the third floor of the hall.

References

{{coord missing, Heilongjiang Buildings and structures in Harbin Concert halls in China Jews and Judaism in Harbin Former synagogues in China Tourist attractions in Harbin