In 2019 we posted that the municipality of Jirkov, in northwest Czech Republic near the border with Germany, had purchased the town’s dilapidated former synagogue in 2016, intending to restore it and its grounds as a social and cultural center. We posted a progress report in March 2020, when work was well on its way.
Here’s what has happened since then:
The restoration was completed in late 2020, and the building reopened to the public in June 2021, when the easing of COVID restrictions permitted public events.
The synagogue has been, as planned, transformed into a cultural and social center, open for exhibitions, concerts, theater performances, readings, and movie screenings.
The synagogue can also be used as a wedding venue – as the city advertised on its web site.
The small, classicist building, dating from 1847, was used as a warehouse and metal collection center after World War II. It was last used as a prayer hall at some point in the 1930s.
The municipality said the restoration cost 8.8 million Czech crowns (about €328,000), with half of the cost covered by funding from the Ministry of Regional Development.
Watch a month by month video of the restoration, as it took place throughout 2020:
“We wanted the synagogue to look how it was originally, but it was difficult because we didn’t have enough archival documents. But at the same time, we wanted to add something of our own,” the mayor of Jirkov, Darina Kováčová, told chomutovsky.denik.cz. “For example, the stained glass windows, which are not original, were made after an agreement with the architect. Therefore, the synagogue carries a legacy of the 21st century that will serve future generations. We gave it a new life”.
Watch a video of the rededication of the former synagogue:
“I think that nowadays, many synagogues are used not only for spiritual matters but mainly for cultural and educational purposes. Culture is currently very important,” Michael Lichtenstein, chairman of the Jewish community of Teplice, the closest active Jewish community to Jirkov, told local media on the day of the rededication.
Click here to visit the 3D model of the synagogue
Click here to see pages dedicated to the synagogue on the municipality website
Click here to read the local media report of the day of its rededication