The Przemyśl New Synagogue, also known as the Scheinbach Synagogue, was an Orthodox synagogue in

Przemyśl Przemyśl (; yi, פשעמישל, Pshemishl; uk, Перемишль, Peremyshl; german: Premissel) is a city in southeastern Poland with 58,721 inhabitants, as of December 2021. In 1999, it became part of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship; it was pr ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. Since World War II, the synagogue, which is still standing, has been used as the Ignacy Krasicki Przemyśl Public Library.

History and architecture

Construction on the began in 1910 and was completed in 1918 after delays caused by the First World War. The spacious, high-ceilinged building survives, although Communist-period renovations stripped so much of the exterior detail that it presents an appearance in marked contrast to the building shown in old photographs. The synagogue is a free-standing building in a blend of

Rundbogenstil (round-arch style) is a nineteenth-century historic revival style of architecture popular in the German-speaking lands and the German diaspora. It combines elements of Byzantine, Romanesque, and Renaissance architecture with particular ...

and Classical styles with eclectic decoration. It was designed by architect Stanisław Majerski. The elaborate interior decoration once featured Biblical scenes and scenes of Eretz Israel painted on the walls and ceiling. In its incarnation as a public library, the building has a sedate and functional interior with bookshelves and walls painted white. The synagogue also had a notable set of stained glass windows. The windows and paintings were by a Jewish Przemyśl artist named Adolf Bienenstock, a graduate of the

Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków ( pl, Akademia Sztuk Pięknych im. Jana Matejki w Krakowie, usually abbreviated to ''ASP''), is a public institution of higher education located in the centre of Kraków, Poland. It is the oldest Pol ...

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

, like Przemyśl, was then part of Austrian Galicia (also known as Austrian Poland). Bienenstock, who taught art at the Przemyśl Gymnasium, had studied under the notable Polish artist

Józef Mehoffer Józef Mehoffer (19 March 1869 – 8 July 1946) was a Polish painter and decorative artist, one of the leading artists of the Young Poland movement and one of the most revered Polish artists of his time. Life Mehoffer was born in Ropczyce, ...

. The interior reflects the influence of the

Young Poland Young Poland ( pl, Młoda Polska) was a modernist period in Polish visual arts, literature and music, covering roughly the years between 1890 and 1918. It was a result of strong aesthetic opposition to the earlier ideas of Positivism. Young Pola ...

movement of which Mehoffer was part. Young Poland was the Polish version of the

jugendstil ''Jugendstil'' ("Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German counterpart of ...

(

art nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

) movement. The synagogue was used as a stable by the German army during World War II, then used as a textile factory under the Communist post-War government before being turned into a library in the 1960s. HISTORY OF THE BUILDING OF THE PRZEMYŚL LIBRARY
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Image

* http://przemysl.blogspot.com/2008/12/architecture-of-tempel-and-new.html * https://web.archive.org/web/20081203005600/http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Przemysl/photos/show_sygag.shtml

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:New Synagogue, Przemysl Synagogues in Przemyśl Former synagogues in Poland Art Nouveau synagogues Art Nouveau architecture in Poland Synagogues completed in 1918 Holocaust locations in Poland Rundbogenstil synagogues Neoclassical synagogues Orthodox synagogues in Poland 20th-century religious buildings and structures in Poland

History and architecture

Image

See also

References