Img. ID: 272951
The kloyz was established in 1858 by B. and R. Epstein, members of a prominent family. The current building was erected in 1915 by a wealthy benefactor Mordechai Epstein (1844–1916).
The building of Epstein’s Kloyz is located in a courtyard between 3 Gėlių and 4 (former 8) Šv. Stepono Streets. In 1916 there were 50 regular worshippers; the kloyz paid the owner of the house annual rent of 250 rubles. By 1933 the number of worshippers dropped to 42. In the interwar period the kloyz was famous for its fund for loans without interest intended for Jewish women.
The building of the so-called “brick style” is constructed of yellowish brick upon a brick and boulder socle, and is covered with a hipped roof of asbestos sheets. The kloyz was situated on the first and second floors, while the ground floor housed workshops and stores, which had wide arched doorways. The prayer hall has an irregular square plan, oriented towards southeast, while the women’s section was supposedly situated at a gallery along the northwestern wall. The prayer hall was lit through four pairs of segment-headed windows – two pairs at the southwestern façade, one at the southeastern and one at the northeastern façade. Each pair is surmounted by a small round niche (maybe original window) and a straight pediment with bent middle part. Four small segment-headed windows of the women’s gallery are situated in the upper tier of the northwestern façade. The prayer hall was accessed through an outer staircase, leading to the balcony on the northeastern façade, where a wide portal is situated to the right of the windows; the women’s gallery was reached by the next flight of stairs, leading to a doorway in the upper level of northeastern wall.
During Soviet times some openings were transformed and new openings were made. In 2008 the former kloyz stodd abandoned.