The Great Choral Synagogue is the building of the main synagogue of Berdychiv on 5 Vinnytska Street, a valuable historical and architectural monument of the city. In the 19th century, Berdychiv was one of the largest Jewish cities in the Russian Empire and a center of Judaism in Ukraine, and this synagogue is a memory of that era.

History

The synagogue was built in 1850 at the expense of the Jewish community. It became one of the first choral synagogues in the Russian Empire—that is, those where the service was accompanied by a choir. The building could accommodate a thousand worshippers. It was not only a place of prayer: the synagogue was a center for the study of Judaism, a meeting place for the community, and its administrative center.

Architecture

The synagogue was single-story, rectangular in plan, with symmetrically arranged pilasters, the main facade facing west. The plastered brick walls were 10.5 meters high, the facade was 12 meters, and the side was 19.5 meters. In the center of the hall stood four columns surrounding a raised platform for the reader—the bimah. It divided the hall into nine equal bays. From here, the Bible and Talmud were read and commented on. On the eastern wall was an ornate ark for the Torah scrolls.

20th century

The Holocaust destroyed the Jewish community of Berdychiv. After the war, a small room in the former synagogue again became a place of prayer for those who returned. In 1946, the city authorities handed the building over to the community, and twenty years later it was rebuilt with the addition of a second floor. However, the community dwindled due to emigration abroad, and from 1964 the building housed a glove factory.

Nearby

In Berdychiv there is the Monastery of the Discalced Carmelites and the Church of Saint Barbara, as well as the old Jewish cemetery with the grave of Rabbi Levi Itzhak. More in the article Berdychiv District.

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