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Obj. ID: 24156
Jewish Architecture
  Synagogue in Syzran, Russia

© Center for Jewish Art, Photographer: Levin, Vladimir, 2021

A prayer house in Syzran was mentioned in 1910 and the existing brick-style building of the synagogue could well be constructed around this date (10 Kirova St.; 81 Beizer, Our Legacy, 170. . The synagogue functioned until 1930 and later on the building was adjusted for offices. After WWII the building was extended upwards and divided into two floors. A clumsy attempt was made to adjust the new portion of the street façade to the original building. In 1998, the former synagogue was returned to the revived Jewish community.81 The original layout of the interior is not clear. It seems that the main entrance was situated in the southern façade (currently bricked up) and the entrance for women in the same façade led to a staircase in the eastern protrusion. Windows in the upper floor of the western, southern, and eastern façades and three columns in the interior seem original. Thus the only possible place for a Torah ark was at the western or northern walls. Currently the building serves a small and lovely community of local, mostly aged Jews. They are trying to reconstruct the building so that it will better serve the needs of the community, mostly as a meeting space. In the gathering hall, there is no Torah ark, but an open closet with a Torah scroll and several other symbolic objects. The scroll with beautiful staves is not local and its origin is unknown. A dilapidated wooden house next to the synagogue (8 Kirova St.) was used by a rabbi or by a Jewish school before the 1917 revolution. Currently, the community received ownership of the building and is planning to demolish it in favor of a new community center. A house where an illegal minyan gathered in 1950–1953 is situated a hundred meters from the synagogue, at 18 Kirova St.

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Summary and Remarks
Remarks

84 image(s)

sub-set tree:

Name/Title
Synagogue in Syzran | Unknown
Object Detail
Monument Setting
Unknown
Date
1910
Synagogue active dates
1910-1930, from 1980s(?)
Reconstruction dates
Artist/ Maker
Unknown
Historical Origin
Unknown
Community type
Congregation
Unknown
Location
Site
Unknown
School/Style
Unknown|
Period
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)

Levin, Vladimir and Anna Berezin, “Jewish Prayer in the Heart of Russia: Synagogues along the Volga,” Ars Judaica 18 (2022): 111–44, https://doi.org/10.3828/arsjudaica.2022.18.6.

Beizer, Michael, Our Legacy: The CIS Synagogues, Past and Present (Moscow-Jerusalem: Gesharim - Mosty Kultury, 2002), p. 170

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 |