The more than century-old former synagogue in Grybów, southern Poland, has been hit by fire some five times since Christmas, with the latest episode Feb. 2, the local news portal Sadeczanin.info reports, summarized by Virtual Shtetl, reports. Firefighters responded each time and believe that the blazes — rubbish set fire inside the building — were the result of arson. Police have been informed.
The brick and stone synagogue, built in 1909, was used after WW2 as a carpentry shop and workshop making concrete products, including paving, but it has stood empty for decades, in seriously deteriorating condition. (See detailed architectural information on the building on Virtual Shtetl.)
The synagogue, already in poor condition, was restituted to the Krakow Jewish community in 2002. A new roof was put on the building in 2007, but Jewish leaders in Krakow say there are no funds to restore it further.
Tadeusz Jakubowicz, president of the Krakow Jewish community, told sadeczanin.info that the cost of a fullscale restoration would be about four or five million zlotys (€1 million – €1.25 million).
Sadeczanin.info said Grybow’s mayor had written to Jakubowicz after the recent spate of fires urging an “urgent intervention in this matter.” He wrote:
In recent times, unknown assailants destroyed the security of your property. They partially damaged the fence and exterior doors of the building to allow free access of unauthorized persons to the interior of the building. For this reason several times the fire brigade was forced to intervene.
In an interview on Sadeczanin.info, Jakubowicz reiterated that the Jewish community wants to rent out the building on a longterm basis to a party that would want to renovate it. (Last summer, the synagogue was listed on the Jewish community web site among several synagogues posted for rent by the Krakow Jewish community.) But he said, “We reserve the right, however, that the building could not be in a restaurant or butcher shop.” He said the community did not want to sell the building as this would be “as if I sold our heritage.”