Urgent Appeal for Synagogue in Gdańsk, Poland

The Jewish community in Gdansk has launched an urgent appeal for aid in saving the only preserved synagogue building in the city, whose ceiling recently collapsed. Community president Michal Samet says that total replacement of the roof as well a total rewiring and re-plumbing of the building are urgently needed..

Virtual Shtetl writes:

The synagogue in Gdańsk-Wrzeszcz was built in 1927. After World War II, a music school moved into the building. Since the 1990s, the synagogue has again been used by the Jewish community of Gdansk.

When the building was adapted in the 1950s for school purposes, builders hid a few tons of old roof tiles in the attic. Nobody was aware of that fact. Now, the ceiling has collapsed under the load.

 

Samet writes on the Union of Jewish Religious Communities web site that some six tons of debris has been removed.

Since many of the rafters and roof joists and boards forming the headliner are rotten, it is necessary to replace them with new ones. Places where the ceiling collapsed are being temporarily secured with metal brackets.

 

Virtual Shtetl writes that the estimated cost of the repair is 200,000-300,000 zlotys — as sum that  exceeds the budget of the Jewish Religious Community of Gdańsk.

Contributions can be remitted to the account of the Jewish Religious Community in Gdańsk:

Bank Pekao SA, Account No 49 1240 1255 1111 0000 1523 6528, swift code: PKOPPLPW.