The Old Synagogue () was a former

Orthodox Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to: Religion * Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pag ...

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

congregation and

synagogue A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It is a place for prayer (the main sanctuary and sometimes smaller chapels) where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as wed ...

, located in

Przemyśl Przemyśl () is a city in southeastern Poland with 56,466 inhabitants, as of December 2023. Data for territorial unit 1862000. In 1999, it became part of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Subcarpathian Voivodeship. It was previously the capital of Prz ...

, in the

Subcarpathian Voivodeship Subcarpathian Voivodeship is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship, or province, in the southeastern corner of Poland. Its administrative capital and largest city is Rzeszów. Along with the Marshal, it is governed by the Subcarpathian Regional As ...

of southeastern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Designed by Bononi and completed in 1594, the

fortress synagogue A fortress synagogue is a synagogue built to withstand attack while protecting the lives of people sheltering within it. Fortress synagogues first appeared in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th century at a time of frequent invasion ...

served as a house of prayer until World War II when it was desecrated by

arson Arson is the act of willfully and deliberately setting fire to or charring property. Although the act of arson typically involves buildings, the term can also refer to the intentional burning of other things, such as motor vehicles, watercr ...

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

in 1939 as they were retreating from the eastern bank of the

San River The San (; ''Sian''; ) is a river in southeastern Poland and western Ukraine. It is a tributary of the river Vistula. With a length of , the San is the 6th-longest Polish river. It has a basin area of 16,877 km2, of which 14,426 k ...

; it fell into ruin in 1941 and the debris was cleared after the war. The stone building was

rectangular In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a rectilinear convex polygon or a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90 ...

in shape, typical of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

style of the time. The rectangular main hall remained the only section of the original building after a range of

outhouse An outhouse — known variously across the English-speaking world otherwise as bog, dunny, long-drop, or privy — is a small structure, separate from a main building, which covers a toilet. This is typically either a pit latrine or a bucket ...

s were added in later years. They included a

yeshiva A yeshiva (; ; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are studied in parallel. The stu ...

, two additional halls of prayer and offices.

History

The first legal regulation regarding the Jewish community of Przemyśl dates from March 20, 1559. The privilege, granted by King

Sigismund Augustus Sigismund II Augustus (, ; 1 August 1520 – 7 July 1572) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548. He was the first ruler of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and t ...

, stipulates that "Jews have been living on the Jewish street in Przemyśl for a long time" have the right to settle permanently in Przemyśl and grants them trading rights. Jews were now considered under the royal jurisdiction, i.e. the waywode's court, (which is mentioned in

acts The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make up a two-par ...

of the year 1576 as the "Jews' court"). It appears from a lawsuit of the year 1560 that the Jews then possessed a

wooden synagogue Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin that ...

, said to have been founded by two wealthy Spanish immigrants. In 1561 the synagogue was attacked by the burghers. A year later in 1592, permission to build a fortress synagogue from stone in place of the old synagogue was granted by the

chapter Chapter or Chapters may refer to: Books * Chapter (books), a main division of a piece of writing or document * Chapter book, a story book intended for intermediate readers, generally age 7–10 * Chapters (bookstore), Canadian big box bookstore ...

. The new building was designed by Bononi, an Italian builder of fortifications. It was completed in 1594 and situated within the city, close to its

defensive walls A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as curtain walls with to ...

and made up part of the city's defence structures. The entire

ghetto A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...

including "Jewish Street" in Przemyśl was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1637. The synagogue however remained unscathed. In 1661 the king issued a decree allowing the Jewish community to use the synagogue as collateral to borrow money. This illustrates the desperate economic situation of the Przemyśl Jewish community. In 1746

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

students attacked the Jewish quarter, looting Jewish homes. They plundered the synagogue and demolished its interior. The

Holy Ark A Torah ark (also known as the ''hekhal'', , or ''aron qodesh'', ) is an ornamental chamber in the synagogue that houses the Torah scrolls. History The ark is also known as the ''ark of law'', or in Hebrew the ''Aron Kodesh'' () or ''aron ha-Ko ...

was destroyed and the

Torah scroll A Sephardic Torah scroll rolled to the first paragraph of the Shema An Ashkenazi Torah scroll rolled to the Decalogue file:Keneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue, Interior, Tora Cases.jpg">Torah cases at Knesset Eliyahoo Synagogue, Mumbai, India ...

s were torn up into pieces which were scattered in the streets. They also destroyed the greater part of the valuable archives, which contained priceless documents of the waywode's court. Only a few of the original copies of the privileges were saved. The extent of the damage is indicated by the fact that after tedious negotiations the Jesuits finally paid an indemnity of 15,000 Polish gulden. In 1765 there were approximately 2,418 Jews in Przemyśl. During the years 1910-1914 the building was restored under direction of architect Tadeusz Mokłowski. At the end of March 1919, a festive prayer service was held at the synagogue in honour of the

Paris Peace Conference Agreements and declarations resulting from meetings in Paris include: Listed by name Paris Accords may refer to: * Paris Accords, the agreements reached at the end of the London and Paris Conferences in 1954 concerning the post-war status of Germ ...

and its decision regarding

Land of Israel The Land of Israel () is the traditional Jewish name for an area of the Southern Levant. Related biblical, religious and historical English terms include the Land of Canaan, the Promised Land, the Holy Land, and Palestine. The definition ...

. Many people took part in the prayer. In 1934 the building was listed on the register of historical buildings and in 1936 a special committee, led by H. Klagsbald, was established to renew and renovate the "Great Synagogue".

Destruction

In September 1939, after the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

by Germany and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, Przemyśl was divided by the German-Soviet border which ran through the middle of the city along the San River. When the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

entered the city on 26 September, the town centre found itself in the Soviet Union while the Zasanie district, on the western bank of the San River, was within the borders of the Nazi empire. In accordance with the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, the Germans left the eastern bank on 28 September 1939. Before their withdrawal the Germans burned down the Old Synagogue. In 1956 the city authorities ordered the demolition of the synagogue which had laid in ruins since 1941 when the Nazis destroyed what remained after their earlier attempt to obliterate the building. The demolition was carried out despite objections from conservationists who had plans to rebuild the synagogue.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Old Synagogue (Przemysl) 1939 disestablishments in Poland 16th-century synagogues in Poland Buildings and structures demolished in 1939 Former Orthodox synagogues in Poland Fortress synagogues Renaissance architecture in Poland Renaissance synagogues Synagogues completed in 1594 Synagogues in Poland destroyed by Nazi Germany Synagogues in Przemyśl

History

Destruction

See also

References

External links