Ukraine Update: The first stage of the restoration of the former Hasidic synagogue in Chortkiv and its transformation into a  multipurpose municipal culture and arts center has been completed

The first stage of the restoration of the former Hasidic synagogue in Chortkiv and its transformation into a  multipurpose municipal culture and arts center has been completed, the architectural firm a7 announced on its Facebook page.

A7 said it had “issued a project for the restoration of the roof of the synagogue.”

The city in western Ukraine won a €100,000 grant last year from the Switzerland-based Aliph Foundation,to begin restoration of what the city’s web site called Chortkiv’s “historical pearl.”

The Hasidic synagogue, or Kloyz of the Tzaddik Rabbi David Moshe Friedmann, was built around 120 years ago. Its architecture was clearly inspired by the Kloyz in Sadgora, the residence of Rabbi David Moshe’s father, Rabbi Israel of Ruzhin, and his elder brother, R. Avraham Yaakov.  According to the Center for Jewish Art it was designed by the engineer and architect Jan Marcin Cieślikowski. 

The building was devastated during wars, lost its community after the Holocaust, and during the Soviet period was used first as a warehouse, and then as the Station of Young Technicians.

“This led to the loss of part of the interiors and original features,” A7 said. “Today, we are working to bring this building back to life – with respect for its history, but with a new function – a city-wide cultural and artistic center.”

It posted pictures of the building’s current state and also artist’s impressions of how it would look after completion of the restoration and transformation into a culture center.

The Jewish scholar Eugeny Kotlyar said on Facebook that the Chortkiv project  is “probably the first attempt in Ukraine to make a historic synagogue building a living modern multifunctional space.”

“Finally, there are such proposals!” he added.

Because there are still hundreds of abandoned synagogues across the country that are waiting for renovation – if not in the form of a renovated synagogue (mostly there is no one to pray in these former shtetls anymore), then in the form of similar cultural institutions. This will have a double effect: preserving memory and increasing the number of existing cultural locations.

He said it would be important for such a transformation to include exhibition/commemoration space  on local Jewish history and memory, which also could be supported by input from descendants. 

In fact, when the Aliph foundation was announced last year,Mayor Volodymir Shmatko indicated the this would happen in Chortkiv, saying  in a Facebook post that the purpose of the project was “to create a center of Jewish culture, a cultural space, a place of development of cultural diversity,” 

.Read our August 2025 post about the Aliph Foundation grant