The Association for the Preservation and Promotion of European Jewish Culture and Heritage (AEPJ) has added a second route to its European Routes of Jewish Heritage section.
This one is a Route of Wooden Synagogues in Central and Eastern Europe. It takes in a dozen wooden synagogue buildings — actually almost all of them are in Lithuania, where about 14 simple wooden synagogue buildings remain, plus the Green Synagogue in Rezekne in Latvia and the BaaL Shem Tov, or Cathedral, wooden synagogue in Piatra Neamt, in Romania.
We have posted on JHE about the restoration project for the Green Synagogue, and the project was also subject of the talk by Ilya Lensky at the conference on Managing Jewish Immovable Heritage in Krakow in April. You can view his presentation online.
All of the hundreds of large, elaborate wooden synagogues, with their fancy carving, intricate architecture and roofs, and ornate interior decoration, were destroyed in World War II.
We have posted in the past about these synagogues and their desperate need of restoration. In November, we posted news about possible restoration projects for two of these synagogues — in Pakruojis and Žiežmariai.
A photographic exhibition called “A Kaddish for the Wooden Synagogues of Lithuania”, sponsored by the Jakovas Bunka Charity and Sponsorship Fund, has been shown in Vilnius and elsewhere — it opened in Wroclaw, Poland at Hanukkah. You can seen a few pictures from the exhibition HERE
See photos of wooden synagogues in Lithuania documented by the Center for Jewish Art