E. Randol Schoenberg, Acting Executive Director of the Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, has written a detailed blog post about the rededication ceremony October 5 of the little rural synagogue in Čkyně, a small town in southern Czech Republic where one of his ancestors was rabbi.
The building was immaculately restored. There was a small prayer room at the top, used when it was too cold downstairs. This will be the permanent home for the old torah they found in the attic. Downstairs in the main sanctuary, they have repainted as best they could the design they found for the are around the ark. The place looks terrific, very comfortable. They built large cases on the side for exhibits about local Jewish history. They look like giant closets when closed up, really a terrific design and very practical, with shelves behind glass on top and pull-out drawers underneath.
As we reported in September, the synagogue was built in 1828 and is the only surviving synagogue building in the Prachatice district and is one of the few surviving village synagogues in the Czech Republic. It was used for regular services until 1895 and then occasionally until World War I. The building was sold to private owners in the early 1920s and later used as a workshop; by 1990 it was used as a storage house and dwelling. The Company for the Restoration of the Čkyně Synagogue spearheaded and oversaw the project; the rededication was the culmination of 22 years of work. The aim has been to create a regional Jewish museum and cultural center in the building, administered by the district authorities.
The restoration of the Ckyne Synagogue was obviously a group effort with many people involved. Jindra’s business partner (I am blanking on his name!) was extremely nice and showed me all the work that had been done. The mayor was there too, and Jindra said he had dedicated one million Czech crowns to the project (about $50,000), which is quite a large sum for such a small town. Many people came from all over the region to attend the ceremony. An elderly Jewish woman, apparently the only one in the entire region, came to attend also.
Mr. Schoenberg describes the services that began the dedication ceremonies:
The services were led by a wonderful singer named Michal Foršt. He lives in Prague also acts as a cantor for the small congregation in Liberec (Reichenberg). Michael was wonderful, explaining and performing and reading in Czech and English, guiding everyone through a somewhat traditional service.
The old torah scroll found in the synagogue was used for the service, even though it is a bit damaged. One of the attended was Anna (Kineret) Sittig, a rabbi from Amsterdam. She was called into service to help with the torah, which was not rolled to the correct portion (Noah, near the beginning). I got up and helped her roll the old torah until we got to the right place. It was really very exciting because obviously the torah had not been used in about 100 years, since the community disbanded and sold the building (long before the Nazi era). And it was fun to think that probably our ancestors had used this very same torah.
Read the full blog post, which also has links and pictures