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Obj. ID: 10227
Jewish Architecture
  Synagogue in Kazan, Russia

© Center for Jewish Art, Photographer: Berezin, Anna, 2021

In 1880, Jews in Kazan had two prayer houses. The bigger and better one belonged to the Litvaks, while the Hasidim took shelter in a small rented house: one room was used as a prayer hall and the second – as a women’s section and Talmud Torah school. As it happened in other cities, prayer gathering and official allowance to gather did not always coincide. In 1889, Jews for the first time petitioned for a permission to open a synagogue, and after several attempts the permission was granted in 1897. While the community negotiated with the authorities about the location of the plot or excessive decoration of the synagogue (designed by K.S. Oleshkevich in 1901 in “eastern style”), the community continued to pray in rented rooms. For example, a prayer hall damaged in the pogrom of 1905 was located in downtown (the house of Smolentsev at Bolshaia Prolomnaia St.; this prayer hall was fixed and functioned until 1912.65 That year the community bought a house, where the synagogue is located today. By 1915 the rearrangement was finished; an upper floor was added to the existing building, the façade was redecorated with elements of the Art Nouveau style, and a spacious prayer hall was constructed in the courtyard. The new synagogue (15 Profsoiuznaia St.) was inaugurated on March 12, 1915.66 The synagogue was closed by the Soviet authorities in 1929 and its building was converted into the House of Jewish Culture. Later it was occupied by the House of Pioneers and the House of Culture. In 1940, the former prayer hall was remodeled into a theater hall and the building façade changed into an early Stalinist NeoClassicism. After the closing of the synagogue, the religious life of Kazan Jews continued in an illegal minyan. In 1947, the minyan was officially registered, but the registration was recalled in 1953.68 The revived Jewish community received the synagogue building back in 1996 and undertook renovation works.69 By 2015, to honor the centennial of the synagogue, the government of Tatarstan provided funds for an additional restoration of the synagogue. As a result, the façade of the building was restored in the Art Nouveau style, the vestibule was decorated with marble and mosaic panels, and the prayer hall was remodeled. There are two mikvaot and a small Jewish community museum in the synagogue.

Summary and Remarks
Remarks

34 image(s)

sub-set tree:

Name/Title
Synagogue in Kazan | Unknown
Object Detail
before reconstruction
Monument Setting
Unknown
Date
1915
Active dates
1915-1929, from 1996
Reconstruction dates
1940, 1996, 2015
Artist/ Maker
Unknown
Origin
Historical Origin
Unknown
Community type
Congregation
Unknown
Location
Site
Unknown
School/Style
Unknown|
Period Detail
Collection
Unknown |
Documentation / Research project
Unknown
Iconographical Subject
Unknown |
Textual Content
Unknown |
Languages of inscription
Unknown
Shape / Form
Unknown
Material / Technique
Material Stucture
Material Decoration
Material Bonding
Material Inscription
Material Additions
Material Cloth
Material Lining
Tesserae Arrangement
Density
Colors
Construction material
Measurements
Height
Length
Width
Depth
Circumference
Thickness
Diameter
Weight
Axis
Panel Measurements
Condition
Extant
Documented by CJA
Surveyed by CJA
Present Usage
Present Usage Details
Condition of Building Fabric
Architectural Significance type
Historical significance: Event/Period
Historical significance: Collective Memory/Folklore
Historical significance: Person
Architectural Significance: Style
Architectural Significance: Artistic Decoration
Urban significance
Significance Rating
0
Ornamentation
Custom
Contents
Codicology
Scribes
Script
Number of Lines
Ruling
Pricking
Quires
Catchwords
Hebrew Numeration
Blank Leaves
Direction/Location
Façade (main)
Endivances
Location of Torah Ark
Location of Apse
Location of Niche
Location of Reader's Desk
Location of Platform
Temp: Architecture Axis
Arrangement of Seats
Location of Women's Section
Direction Prayer
Direction Toward Jerusalem
Coin
Coin Series
Coin Ruler
Coin Year
Denomination
Signature
Colophon
Scribal Notes
Watermark
Hallmark
Group
Group
Group
Group
Group
Trade Mark
Binding
Decoration Program
Suggested Reconsdivuction
History/Provenance
Main Surveys & Excavations
Sources

Levin, Vladimir and Anna Berezin, Jewish Material Culture along the Volga
Preliminary. Expedition Report (The Center for Jewish Art, 2021), https://cja.huji.ac.il/home/pics/projects/CJA_Report_on_the_Volga_expedition_2021.pdf (accessed June 6, 2023)

Michael Beizer, Our Legacy: The CIS synagogues, Past and Present (Moscow-Jerusalem. 2002), ill. of project on p. 19, pp. 102-104 with ills.;

Israel Tayar, Sinagoga - razgromlennaia, no ne pokorionnaia (Jerusalem, 1987), ills. after p. 212;

Rossiiskaia evreiskaia entsiklopediia (Moscow), vol. 5 - 2004, p. 17 with ill.;

Yantovskii, Shimon, Sud'by evreiskikh obshchin i ikh sinagog, SSSR, 1976-1987 (Jerusalem, 2003), ills on p. 324-5;

David E. Fishman, “‘To Our Brethren Abroad’: Letters and Reports by Soviet Rabbis, 1925–1930,” Jews in Russia and Eastern Europe 1–2(54–55)(2005), p. 156

Type
Documenter
Vladimir Levin, Ekaterina Oleshkevich, Ekaterina Sosensky, Anna Berezin | 2021
Author of description
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Architectural Drawings
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Computer Reconstruction
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Section Head
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Language Editor
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Donor
Dr. Betsy Gidwitz | 2021
Negative/Photo. No.
The following information on this monument will be completed:
Unknown |