(JHE) –– Vote online — and help the restoration of the little rural synagogue in the village of Police u Jemnice win a regional heritage award!
The synagogue restoration, completed last year, is one of the heritage projects up for the 17th annual “Golden Rowan Berry” cultural achievement award promoted by the Czech Republic’s Vysočina Region to support cultural events or the exemplary restorations of monuments.
Voting takes place throughout the month of March in two categories: Cultural activity and Care for cultural heritage. There are 20 candidates in each category.
The three winners with the highest number of votes in each category will be awarded the Vysočina Region Award, which includes and a financial prize.
Click here to vote online. The synagogue is in the Care for Cultural Heritage category – Péče o kulturní dědictví. (There are some security steps, but google translate can get you through them.)
The synagogue in Police, a tiny village near the border with Austria, was inaugurated in July 2020 following a fullscale restoration that took place over eight years. The synagogue now hosts a small exhibit on local Jewish history and together with the well-maintained Jewish cemetery nearby forms a key rural Jewish heritage complex.
The compact little synagogue was built in folk baroque style in 1759. It was used for worship until around the year 1900 (the Jewish community was dissolved in 1890 and the last Jew in the village is believed to have died in 1913); then it was sold, and in the early 20th century its interior was reconstructed for use as a gym — a door was cut into where the Ark had been located.
The building was taken over in devastated condition in 2003 by the Federation of Jewish Communities in the Czech Republic, which began gradual restoration work in 2012. The restoration included recovery of fragmentary wall paintings.