Obj. ID: 26548
Jewish Architecture Wooden Synagogue in Valkininkai, Lithuania
The Great Synagogue was built in 1798-1800 by master builder Mordechai son of Gershon, as stated in the inscription on the vault behind the Torah ark. The noble owner of the town, Granowski, supported the construction of the synagogue.
The synagogue burnt down on 25 June 1941, in the fire that started from a German bomb.
The synagogue had a lofty square prayer hall crowned by a three-tiered roof and a low women’s section attached to its northern wall. Nearby stood a wooden Beit Midrash.
On the west, a low vestibule was attached. It was flanked by two pavilions which were probably intended for the office of the community (kahal). After the dissolution of the kahal in 1844 a small prayer room was situated in the southern pavilion, while the northern one was used as a gnizah - a place where old sacred texts and ritual objects were kept until their burial in the cemetery.
5 image(s)
sub-set tree:
Farber, Shlomo, “Beit ha-kneset ha-yashan,” in Ha-ayarah be-lehavot: sefer zikaron le-kehilat olkenik, pelakh vilnah, edited by Shlomo Farber (Tel Aviv: Vaad Yotzei Olkenik ve-ha-svivah, 1962), 68–84.
Kravtsov, Sergey, “Synagogue Architecture in Lithuania,” in Synagogues of Lithuania. A Catalogue, ed. Aliza Cohen-Mushlin, Sergey Kravtsov, Vladimir Levin, Giedrė Mickūnaitė, and Jurgita Šiaučiūnaitė-Verbickienė, vol. 1 (Vilnius: Vilnius Academy of Arts Press, 2010), 43–72
Niunkaitė Račiūnienė, Aistė, Lietuvos žydu̜ tradicinio meno ir simboliu̜ pasaulis: Atvaizdai, vaizdiniai ir tekstai (Vilnius: Valstybinis Vilniaus Gaono Žydu̜ Muziejus, 2011)
Piechotka, Maria and Kazimierz, Heaven’s Gates: Wooden Synagogues in the Territories of the Former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Translated by Krzystof Z. Cieszkowski. (Warsaw: Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews, 2015)
Yaniv, Bracha, The Carved Wooden Torah Arks of Eastern Europe (Oxford: The Littman Library of Jewish Civilization, 2017)