The restored wooden synagogue in Kurkliai has opened to the public as a cultural venue, the regional Anykščiai Arts Center.
As we posted earlier, restoration work on the building, listed as a cultural monument, was completed in 2021. The Lithuanian Jewish community handed over the building to the Arts Center.
This brief clip from the synagogue’s FB page shows before and after:
The ceremonial opening took place on June 11, with a ribbon-cutting, a concert of Yiddish music, and the opening of an exhibition of works from the Lithuanian National Art Museum by the noted artist Arbit Blatas, which will be up until September.
Blatas (1908 – 1999) was born in Kaunas but before WW2 lived for years in Paris and was part of the flourishing art scene there.
He fled to the United States to escape the Nazis and became an American citizen. The Holocaust figured in his later work, and he created a bas relief Holocaust memorial of seven bronze tablets, versions of which are installed in Venice, Paris, New York, and Kaunas.
Hundreds of elaborate wooden synagogues once stood in eastern Europe. Only a small number of simple wooden synagogues survive. Around 17 of them are in Lithuania, and several of these small, simple structures have recently undergone restoration.
The Kurkliai synagogue was built in 1936 to the design of Povilas Jurėnas. It is a plain building with a small tower.
Maintenance and conservation began in 2019. The logs of the walls were strengthened and rotten logs were replaced, there was waterproofing of the foundations, ceilings and wooden roof structures were restored, and the roof covering was replaced.
Read our 2021 post about the restoration, which includes a detailed description of it.
Read our post from October 2020, which includes a video of the restoration process
Kurkliai Synagogue Facebook Page