The historic wooden Green Synagogue in Rezekne, Latvia will be reopened January 22 as a wooden architectural heritage center and cultural space with an exhibition about Jewish heritage, following a more than €700,000 renovation. It will be open to the public from Jan. 23.
The synagogue is the only surviving synagogue out of 11 that once stood in the town; it was last used for services in the 1990s.
The restoration work, which had been attempted for more than a decade before it formally kicked off in April 2014, has a total budget of more than €711,000 and is funded by grants from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway via the European Economic Area (EEA) Financial Mechanism (€574,485 or 85 percent); the Latvian government (€101 380) and the city of Rezekne (€35,572).
Click to see our earlier long post about the restoration
Click to see before and after pictures from the Rezekne City Council