The Great Synagogue in Grodno, Belarus was seriously damaged in a fire November 27 sparked by a faulty electric circuit, the Federation of Jewish Communities in the CIS reported.
Damage to the building — whose exterior facade recently underwent restoration — was estimated at nearly $100,000. A small prayer hall and the kitchen were “completely ruined,” the report said. It said that efforts have begun to try to find funds for the restoration. (Further information should be posted at http://fjc.ru/centers/belarus/grodno/ )
Pictures on the FJC web site showed extensive damage to the interior of at least one wing of the building, including the gutted prayer room. From the pictures, the main sanctuary does not seem to have been damaged.
The synagogue in its current form was built in eclectic and Moorish style in 1902-1905 to replace an earlier synagogue, dating to the 16th century, that was serious damaged by fire in 1899. The first synagogue in Grodno was a wooden synagogue dating from 1578.
Virtual Shtetl describes the building:
Not only the facade, but also the side, attached buildings are of interest having been built in the Russian modernist style. This three-storey, square, brick building is covered by a gabled roof. The main facade is flanked by square towers which end in the shape of a keel and four compact domes.
Mouldings richly adorn the facades. The main room, with its aisles, occupies the entire interior area. In the centre stands the bimah, the columns of which support a cross-ribbed vault. […]
The Great Synagogue of Grodno was closed following the establishment of Soviet authority in 1940. During the War, it was looted and the exterior was damaged by bullets and shrapnel.
Following the War, this great building was never renovated. It served as a food storage facility, a pharmaceutical repository and, later, a sculpture workshop.
The building was returned to Jewish ownership in the 1990s. Restoration work, funded by the Rohr Family Fund and private donations, has included renovation of the roof and main facade, floors and windows, and the main sanctuary, with its side-columns, arches and ornamentation.
Web site of the Grodno Synagogue
