Obj. ID: 11507
  Architecture  Synagogue in Yaroslavl, Russia

To all appearances, the first wooden synagogue in Yaroslavl was built in 1881 before the community obtained permission for construction. Jews first petitioned for permission for a permanent synagogue in 1878 but this petition was rejected as well as their further applications in 1881, 1886, 1895, 1897, and 1898. Meanwhile “the house of Friedland” at Peshekhonskaia St. was used as “a temporary prayer house,” that was open only for holidays with special allowance of the local authorities. By 1913, “the house of Friedland” was dilapidated and the community received permission to erect a new synagogue.

The synagogue at 54 Chaikovskogo St. was constructed three years later, in 1916 . There are no known photographs or drawings of the original synagogue and it is difficult to understand how it was designed. Apparently, it was planned as a building with a large prayer hall in the east; its façades were decorated by columns and pilasters). The western part of the building has two floors, which may point to the existence of an upper-floor women’s section in the original design, while two protrusions in the western side served as entrances for men and women.

The synagogue was closed by the Soviet authorities in 1934 and the building was reconstructed as a women’s dormitory of a motor building factory. However, according to the testimonies of the Yaroslavl Jews, the prayers took place in a wooden barn at the synagogue’s plot until the 1950s.

The Jewish Cultural Association “Tse Ulmad” was established in Yaroslavl in 1991 and the religious community registered in 1993. The synagogue building was handed back to the community in 1994 and reconstructed in 2000.

The modern prayer hall occupies only a portion of the original one, while next to it social halls and offices are situated. The renewed synagogue belongs to the non-Hasidic Congress of the Jewish Religious Organizations and Associations in Russia (KEROOR) and is named Beit Aaron, after the grandfather of its benefactor, Aaron Chudnovskii. The upper floor of the building houses a small Jewish community museum, created in 1997. In 2015–2017, a new building housing two ritual baths, a kindergarten, and a rabbi’s apartment was constructed on the northern side of the original synagogue