Kristallnacht: Wonderful surviving — and restored — synagogues to mark the 80th anniversary

 

By now it’s a JHE tradition.

The night of November 9-10 marks the  80th anniversary of the so-called Kristallnacht pogrom in 1938, when the Nazis launched coordinated violent attacks on Jews, Jewish property and Jewish places of worship all over Germany and German-occupied territory: more than 1,000 synagogues were torched that night; at least 7,000 Jewish businesses were devastated; nearly 100 Jews were killed and tens of thousands of Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps. In the following years, hundreds more synagogues and prayer houses were destroyed during World War II, and even after the War ended, hundreds more were either destroyed, left derelict and abandoned or converted for other use that totally obscured their original identity.

We feel that the best way to mark the  anniversary is to post images of some of the beautiful synagogues that still stand in Europe — or have been renovated and refurbished — or have been newly built. Only some are used regularly for religious services; most have been converted for secular cultural use.

You can CLICK HERE  to see the selection of photos from 2013.  To see the photos from  2014 CLICK HERE –  for the photos from 2015, CLICK HERE — for the photos from 2016, CLICK HERE. From last year,  2017, CLICK HERE