A four-star hotel, the Hotel Ilan, is set to open in October in the large building in Lublin, Poland, that once housed the Yeshivat Chachmei Lublin, founded in 1930 by Rabbi Yehuda Meyer Shapiro.
The building is owned by the Warsaw Jewish Community, which will run the 44-room hotel.
The Yeshiva functioned in the building only until 1939. After World War II, the huge building became part of the Lublin medical school. It was returned to Jewish ownership in 2004, and parts of it have been renovated to include a synagogue, mikvah and Jewish communal offices.
According to the Hotel Ilan web site and Facebook page, the new hotel will include 44 rooms, four suites, a restaurant featuring Jewish cuisine, lobby bar, conference center and spa. Its logo includes the slogan “feel the tradition.”
According to an article in Kurier Lubelski, the hotel is currently hiring staff.
The Warsaw Jewish community already runs a guest house, Beitenu, located in the former synagogue in Kazimierz Dolny. The synagogue was used as a movie house after World War II and was restituted to Jewish ownership in 2002.
The former synagogue there also includes a Jewish museum, Judaica and kosher shop, and a cafe.
Possible plans to transform the former synagogue in Poznan, which the Nazis turned into a swimming pool, into a hotel have given rise to debate.
2 comments on “Hotel opening in former Lublin Yeshiva”
I guess, it would be honest to add, that community have also restored a former synagogue and mikveh in this very building. As for Kazimierz , will not hurt to add, that most of the synagogue building there is used as an exhibition hall.
In the third paragraph it already says that the building was renovated to include a synagogue, mikveh and Jewish community offices.