Obj. ID: 30275 Choral Temple in Bucharest, Romania
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The Choral Temple was built in 1867. It once served only the progressive and most affluent strata in the community, but now it is the main synagogue of the city. The Neo-Moorish building designed by the architects I. Enderle and G. Freiwald was modelled after the Leopoldstädter Tempel in Vienna (1858, arch. Ludwig Förster).
The inscription above the main entrance reads: כי ביתי בית תפלה יקרא לכל העמים [ישעיהו נו ז], For my house shall be called a house of prayer for all people [Is. 56:7], expressing the progressiveness of the community and its universal appeal.
The Temple was enlarged in 1932 (small prayer floor, conference room and library added), damaged in 1941, and restored in 2007-2015.
YIVO Encyclopedia, vol. 1, p. 254, ill. on p. 253;
Krinsky, Carol Herselle. Synagogues of Europe: Architecture, History, Meaning (New York, 1985).
Stoica, Lucia, ed. Atlas-ghid: istoria și arhitectura lăcașurilor de cult din București din cele mai vechi timpuri până astăzi (București: Editura Ergorom ’79, 1999)
Streja, Aristide and Lucian Schwarz, Synagogues of Romania ([Bucharest]: Hasefer Publishing House, 1997), p. 44, 190, 192, ills 25-27.