Lucia Apostol, who is responsible for property and built heritage at the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania (FEDROM), has sent an update on the ongoing (and fitful) restoration of the 17th century synagogue in Iaşi.
The synagogue, the oldest surviving synagogue in Romania, was placed on the World Monuments Fund 2014 watch list, and in February it received a grant toward restoration from the David Berg Foundation.
She has sent a recent photo (see above) showing the interior of the sanctuary as it stands today (April 2014), looking toward the Aron HaKodesh — which is surrounded and surmounted by a very elaborate, intricately carved and painted wooden structure.
Unfortunately, the chandelier blocks the ornate top of the Ark, but it can be seen in this photo, from December 2013:
Here is how the Ark looked in 2006:
Restoration of the building, funded only by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, began in 2007 but was halted in 2009, when the construction company that had won the bid to carry out the work went bankrupt, leaving the building in a perilous condition. But work got under way again last fall, after the Ministry and the National Heritage Institute provided more funding.
Lucia writes that during the lengthy period when restoration work was halted, the covering of the roof was stripped off and the walls got saturated with water. The builder has had to remove the plaster on the interior walls in order to allow them to dry.
And though the builder is working with great care to avoid further deterioration, she writes, “the wooden art work is continuing to deteriorate.”
Plans now, she writes, are for the wooden decorative work to be dismounted from the wall, dismantled and restored “piece by piece” in an art restoration studio.
This work, she writes, should take about a year and could be done in parallel with the restoration of the building itself.
Unfortunately, however, funding for this to date remains lacking.