Ancestral Travels Ancestral Travels
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(pre-WWI) The Great Synagogue (Sept., 1997) |
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[photo source: S. R. Juni, Sept. 1997, copy made from a photographic copy of a pre-WWI antique postcard in a collection created from various private collectors. The collection of copies is located at the Ivano Frankivsk Historical Museum, located on the ground floor of the Ratush, old city hall building in the center of Rynek, the center town square.]
| Obviously, the beautiful cupolas were destroyed during WWII, yet the
building remains grand in appearance. The ground floor level, accessible from the arched
door to the left of the curve in the front of the building, is now a store. It was unclear
to me as to whether the store is leased from the government, or if the synagogue must rent
out this space in order to have enough income to maintain the building. It’s well
worth going inside the store to see the old detail on the building. Probably, this was the
old social hall for the synagogue. After the holocaust, the space was used as a social
club for a local professional association, who had restored the interior of this floor.
Subsequently, the space was made into a store during Soviet times, which remains to this
day. The store deals in furniture and hardware. Old pre-War photographs show large beautiful pointed decorative cones on the roof. These no longer remain, but one can see where they had been attached. The old front of the building is accross the street from the town's philharmonic theater hall. Anyone trying to find the shul might do better by asking people for the location of the philharmonic theater, as most residents do not seem aware that there is a synagogue. The angle of the shot on the right is slightly different from the shot on the left, so you can see Rynek, the center of the town square (the pointed tower) in the background. The picture on the left shows two nearby buildings. The building on the far left was in the process of demolition during my visit in September, 1997. Directly across the street from the synagogue, notice the columns on the corner of the building on the right edge of the pre-WWI picture. That building, still existing and functioning, is the Philharmonic Concert Hall, built in the 1800s. A grand location for a grand synagogue. |
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Write Web Author: Susannah R. Juni |
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| Page Modified: 07/29/01 05:26 PM |