Before the Nazi German invasion of Poland in 1939, almost every Polish town had a synagogue or a Jewish house of prayer of some kind. The 1939 statistics recorded the total of 1,415 Jewish communities in the country just before the outbreak of war, each composed of at least 100 members (Gruber, 1995). Every one of them owned at least one synagogue and a Jewish cemetery nearby. Approximately 9.8% of all believers in Poland were Jewish (according to 1931 census).[1]
The list of actives synagogues in Poland cannot possibly include the hundreds of synagogue buildings which still stand today in about 250 cities and towns across the country – seventy years after the Holocaust in Poland which claimed the lives of over 90% of Polish Jewry. Devoid of their original hosts, many synagogue buildings house libraries and smaller museums as in Kraków, Łańcut, Włodawa, Tykocin, Zamość, Radzanów, but many more serve as apartment buildings, shops, gyms and whatever else community needs require. This isn't necessarily bad however, because the synagogues which remain empty are usually worse off due to lack of maintenance.[2]
Active synagogues in Poland
The Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland (ZGWŻ) with branches in nine metropolitan centres helps the descendants of the Holocaust survivors in the process of recovery and restoration of synagogue buildings once owned by the Jewish Kehilla (קהלה), and nationalized in Communist Poland.[3] The list of active and rededicated synagogues in the country include:
See also Synagogues of Kraków for a more complete list of 124 synagogue buildings with description of selected historical monuments of Jewish sacred architecture in the city
Łęczna is a town in eastern Poland with 19,780 inhabitants (2014), situated in Lublin Voivodeship. It is the seat of Łęczna County and the smaller administrative district of Gmina Łęczna. The town is located in northeastern corner of historic province of Lesser Poland. Łęczna tops among the hills of the Lublin Upland, at the confluence of two rivers—the Wieprz, and the Świnka. On December 31, 2010, the population of the town was 20,706. Łęczna does not have a rail station, the town has been placed on a national Route 82 from Lublin to Włodawa. And shall be considered as a start point to Kameralne Pojezierze, as the town has decided to rebrand the lakeland district, from Pojezierze Łęczyńsko-Włodawskie, or Pojezierze Łęczyńskie, to Kameralne Pojezierze.
Lubartów Ghetto was established by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II, and existed officially from 1941 until October 1942. The Polish Jews of the town of Lubartów were confined there initially. The ghetto inmates also included Jews deported from other cities in the vicinity including Lublin and Ciechanów and the rest of German-occupied Europe for the total of 3,500 Jews in its initial stages including 2,000 Jews from Slovakia. In May 1942 additional transport from Slovakia with 2,421 Jews arrived.
The Kielce cemetery massacre refers to the shooting action by the Nazi German police that took place on May 23, 1943 in occupied Poland during World War II, in which 45 Jewish children who had survived the Kielce Ghetto liquidation, and remained with their working parents at the Kielce forced-labour camps, were rounded up and brought to the Pakosz cemetery in Kielce, Poland, where they were murdered by the German paramilitary police. The children ranged in age from 15 months to 15 years old.
The Lesko Synagogue was a former Hasidic Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 16 Berka Joselewicza Street, in Lesko, in the Podkarpackie Voivodeship of Poland. The synagogue had functioned as a place of worship until 1942 when the building was deserted by the Nazis during World War II. In the 1980s the building was repurposed for use as part of the Muzeum Żydów Galicji, a Jewish history museum.
The Great Synagogue was a former Jewish congregation and synagogue, that was located on Uferstrasse, in Katowice (Kattowitz), in the Silesian Voivodeship of Poland, in what was then the German Empire.
The Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva Synagogue is a Hasidic Jewish congregation, synagogue, and yeshiva, located at 85 Lubartowska Street, in Lublin, in the Lublin Voivodeship of Poland.
The Włodawa Synagogue is a former Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue complex, located at 5-7 Czerwonego Krzyża Street, in Włodawa, in the Lublin Voivodeship of Poland. The synagogue complex comprises the Włodawa Great Synagogue, the Small Synagogue or Beit midrash, and a Jewish administrative building, all now preserved as a Jewish museum.
POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews is a museum on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. The Hebrew word Polin in the museum's English name means either "Poland" or "rest here" and relates to a legend about the arrival of the first Jews to Poland. Construction of the museum in designated land in Muranów, Warsaw's prewar Jewish quarter, began in 2009, following an international architectural competition won by Finnish architects Rainer Mahlamäki and Ilmari Lahdelma.
The Będzin Ghetto was a World War II ghetto set up by Nazi Germany for the Polish Jews in the town of Będzin in occupied south-western Poland. The formation of the 'Jewish Quarter' was pronounced by the German authorities in July 1940. Over 20,000 local Jews from Będzin, along with additional 10,000 Jews expelled from neighbouring communities, were forced to subsist there until the end of the ghetto history during the Holocaust. Most of the able-bodied poor were forced to work in German military factories before being transported aboard Holocaust trains to the nearby concentration camp at Auschwitz where they were exterminated. The last major deportation of the ghetto inmates by the German SS – men, women and children – between 1 and 3 August 1943 was marked by the ghetto uprising by members of the Jewish Combat Organization.
The Virtual Shtetl is a bilingual Polish-English portal of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, devoted to the Jewish history of Poland.
The White Stork Synagogue is a Conservative Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in Wrocław, in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship of Poland. Designed by Carl Ferdinand Langhans in the Neoclassical style and completed in 1829, the synagogue is located in the city's center, which was the northern edge of the former Jewish district.
The Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland, is a religious association formed by Jews living in Poland who adhere to Judaism. It was originally created in 1949 as the Religious Association of Judaism, and renamed in 1992. The Association's seat is located in Warsaw, with seven administrative branches throughout the country. ZGWŻ consists of approximately 2,000 members (1998) congregating in nine municipalities. The Union operates seven active synagogues and 15 prayer houses. Also, ZGWŻ publishes its own periodicals, as well as the popular Jewish Calendar. Since 2003, the president of the Union is Piotr Kadlčik.
Miriam Gonczarska is a Jewish spiritual leader who in 2015 received her Semikhah as the first European, and in the same time the first Polish, maharat.
Eleonora Bergman is a Polish architectural historian who has worked on the preservation of Jewish heritage in Poland. She was director of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw from 2007 to 2011.
The Prudnik Synagogue was a former Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in Neustadt in Oberschlesien, Germany, that today is located in Prudnik, Poland. The synagogue was destroyed by Nazis on November 9, 1938, during Kristallnacht.
The Four Denominations District is an area of the Old Town in Wrocław, Poland, between Kazimierza Wielkiego, Św. Antoniego, Pawła Włodkowica and Św. Mikołaja streets. The name has been used since 1995 on the initiative of Christian clergy together with Jerzy Kichler, an activist from the Polish Jewish community.
The Great Synagogue was a former Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, that was located in Oświęcim, in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship of Poland. Designed by Carl Korn and completed in 1873, the synagogue served as a house of prayer until World War II when it was destroyed by Nazis in November 1939.
The Maharshal's Synagogue, also known as the Great Lublin Synagogue, was a former Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, that was located on the northern slope of castle hill at the now nonexistent 3 Jateczna Street, in Lublin, in the Lublin Voivodeship of Poland. The synagogue served as a house of prayer until World War II when it was destroyed by Nazis in 1942.
New Synagogue is a synagogue located in Poznań at the corner of 17 Wroniecka Street and Stawna Street, near Rabbi Akiva Eger Square. It is currently the only freestanding synagogue remaining in Poznań. During the occupation, in 1941, it was converted into an indoor swimming pool for Wehrmacht soldiers; during this renovation, the building was devastated and altered. The synagogue is one of the historical monuments and attractions on the Poznań Royal-Imperial Route tourist trail.
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