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Obj. ID: 8885
Jewish Architecture
  Great Beit Midrash in Kėdainiai, Lithuania

© “Synagogues in Lithuania: A Catalogue” Archives, Photographer: Kazakauskaitė, Evelina, 2007

Quote from: Cohen-Mushlin, Aliza, Sergey Kravtsov, Vladimir Levin, Giedrė Mickūnaitė, Jurgita Šiaučiūnaitė-Verbickienė (eds.), Synagogues in Lithuania. A Catalogue, vol. 1 (Vilnius: VIlnius Academy of Art Press, 2010)

The Great Beit Midrash is a brick plastered building of rectangular plan, covered with a tin gable roof. The exterior emphasizes the inner structure: lesenes mark the building’s corners, and divide the side façades into two bays – a richly decorated part of the prayer hall in the southeast and a modest two-storey part in the northwest. The southeastern façade and the bays of the northeastern and southwestern façades, which correspond to the prayer hall, have four segment-headed tall windows each. Every window is surrounded by a plaster frame topped with a bent pediment and decorated with a fielded panel beneath the sill. The bays are crowned with a stepped zigzag frieze beneath the molded cornice. In the center of the southeastern façade a blind window indicates the interior placement of the Torah ark. The façade is topped with a high triangular gable containing a wide rectangular window with a sumptuous plaster framing and three small oculi on the sides and at the top. The opposite, northwestern façade is crowned with a triangular gable, pierced by two rectangular windows, which are flanked in their turn by two oculi and framed with raking and horizontal molded cornices; the latter runs around the building. This façade, as well as the two-storey bays of the side façades, are divided horizontally by two stringcourses on the level of the window sills of both floors. All the windows are rectangular, void of any decoration: two on each floor of each side façade, and four on each floor of the northwestern one. The main entrance portal with an architrave molding is situated in the center of the northwestern façade; it is surmounted by a wide rectangular window on the first floor. The side entrance, leading to the stairs of the women’s section on the upper floor, was situated in a small annex, attached to the northeastern façade.

In the interior, the western part of the building comprised a central vestibule flanked by two shtiblekh, above which the women’s section was situated. It is connected to the prayer hall by twelve pointed openings. The prayer hall is lit by twelve windows. Four massive central columns support the flat ceiling which is divided into nine octagonal coffers with central molded paterae. Judging from a photograph from the 1930s, which shows a brick chimney, a stove was situated next to the norhwestern wall of the hall. The stove is not preserved, nor are the glazing bars in the windows of the prayer hall, arranged as Stars of David. The Torah ark and the bimah, situated in the center of the hall among four columns, are also missing, but the niche in the center of the southeastern wall, where the ark was situated, has survived, even though its original shape remains unknown.

In the Soviet period the building was reconstructed, the interior was partially destroyed, an additional floor was inserted, but the exterior, as captured in a pre–WWII photograph, remained almost unchanged. In 2001–2 the building was renovated and converted into a multicultural center after a design by Diana Pikšrienė.

 

Summary and Remarks
Remarks

45 image(s)

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Name/Title
Great Beit Midrash in Kėdainiai | Unknown
Object Detail
Monument Setting
Unknown
Date
1857
Synagogue active dates
Until WWII
Reconstruction dates
Artist/ Maker
Unknown
Historical Origin
Unknown
Community type
Congregation
Unknown
Location
Lithuania | Kaunas County | Kėdainiai
| 12 Senosios Rinkos Sq.
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
Brick
Measurements
Height
Length
Width
Depth
Circumference
Thickness
Diameter
Weight
Axis
Panel Measurements
Condition
Extant
Documented by CJA
Surveyed by CJA
Present Usage
Museum
Present Usage Details
Condition of Building Fabric
B (Fair)
Architectural Significance type
Historical significance: Event/Period
Historical significance: Collective Memory/Folklore
Historical significance: Person
Architectural Significance: Style
Interior layout is partially preserved.
Architectural Significance: Artistic Decoration
Urban significance
Part of synagogue compound (shulhoyf)
Significance Rating
2 (Regional)
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
Southeast
Location of Apse
Location of Niche
Location of Reader's Desk
center, between four columns
Location of Platform
Temp: Architecture Axis
Arrangement of Seats
Location of Women's Section
West, above vestibule
Direction Prayer
Southeast
Direction Toward Jerusalem
Southeast
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

Cohen-Mushlin, Aliza, Sergey Kravtsov, Vladimir Levin, Giedrė Mickūnaitė, Jurgita Šiaučiūnaitė-Verbickienė (eds.), Synagogues in Lithuania. A Catalogue, 2 vols. (Vilnius: VIlnius Academy of Art Press, 2010-12)

Rupeikienė, Marija, Nykstantis kultūros paveldas: Lietuvos sinagogų architektūra (Vilnius, 2003), p. 66 ill. 42a.

Marija Rupeikienė, "Synagogues of Lithuania," in Lithuanian Synagogues (Exhibition Catalogue) (Vilnius: The Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, 1997) p. 30;

Pinkas hakehilot: Lita, ed. Dov Levin (Jerusalem, 1996) p. 583;

Y.D.Kamzon, Yahadut lita: tmunot vetziyunim (Jerusalem, 1959), ills. on p. 133;

www.zydai.lt/lt/content/viewitem/704/;

Yad Va-Shem Archives - archives of images, №65195 (shulhoyf), №45475 (shulhoyf), №47420;

Hamelits, no. 110, 21.5(2.6).1898, p. 5 - from Alex Valdman;

Rimantas Žirgulis, “Kėdainiai Jewish Community and Its Heritage,” in: Alfredas Jomantas (ed.), Jewish Cultural Heritage in Lithuania (Vilnius, 2006) (= R. Žirgulis, "Kėdainių žydų bendruomenė ir jos paveldas," in: Alfredas Jomantas (ed.), Žydų kultūros paveldas Lietuvoje (Vilnius: Savastis, 2005).), p. 242;

Keidan: sefer zikaron, ed. Yosef Khrust (Tel Aviv, 1977), pp. 33, 105-108, ill. after p. 104;

I. Ptashkin, “Mestechko Keidany” [Townlet Keidany], in Pamiatnaia knizhka Kovenskoi gubernii na 1899 god [Kovno province reference book for 1899] (Kovna, 1898), p. 71;

Yaakov Halevi Lipshits, Zikhron Yaakov, vol. 2 (Kaunas, 1927), vol. 2, p. 56

Type
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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
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Negative/Photo. No.
The following information on this monument will be completed:
Unknown |