Kaunas Synagogue

The Kaunas Synagogue, also known as the Choral Ohel Yaakov Synagogue (Lithuanian: Kauno choralinė sinagoga), is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 13 East Ožeškienės Street,, in Centras eldership, Kaunas, in the Kaunas County of Lithuania.

Designed by Justyn Golinewicz and Edmund von Mikwitz in an eclectic mix of the Baroque Revival, Renaissance Revival, and Moorish Revival styles, the building was completed in 1872^[1] and is one of two operating choral synagogues in Lithuania.^[3]

In 1902, before the Holocaust in Lithuania, it was one of over 25 synagogues and Jewish prayer houses in the city.^[4] The radically designed synagogue claims to have one of the most beautiful arks in the entire Jewish world.^{[citation needed]}

The plot for the new synagogue was bestowed to the Kovno Jewish community by the merchant Lewin Boruch Minkowski, the father of Oskar Minkowski and Hermann Minkowski; until 1873 he also subsidized the major part of its construction.^[2][5] A memorial to the estimated 50,000 Lithuanian Jewish children killed during the Holocaust can be found at the rear of the building, complete with 37 stone tablets showing in which towns and cities they lost their lives and just how many of them died in each one.

On 20 April 2011, the anniversary of Hitler's birthday, a sign saying "Jews out" and "Hitler was right" ("Juden raus" "Hitleris buvo teisus") were hung in front of the synagogue.^[6]

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  Synagogue entrance
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  Structure on the synagogue roof
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  General view
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  Holocaust memorial in front of the synagogue
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  Synagogue interior
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  Synagogue interior
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  Synagogue interior
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  Synagogue interior
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  Synagogue interior
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  Synagogue interior
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  Plaques with those Jewish soldiers fallen in World War I and Holocaust victims from Kaunas

1. ^ ^{a b} "Choral Ohel Yaakov Synagogue in Kaunas". Historic Synagogues of Europe. Foundation for Jewish Heritage and the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. n.d. Retrieved August 14, 2024.
2. ^ ^{a b} "Synagoga chóralna w Kownie (ul. Elizy Orzeszkowej 17; lit. Ožeškienės g. 17)" [The Choral Synagogue in Kaunas (ul. Elizy Orzeszkowej 17; lit. Ožeškienės g. 17)]. Virtual Shtetl (in Polish). POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. 2017. Retrieved August 14, 2024.
3. ^ "Įspūdingiausios Lietuvos sinagogos" (in Lithuanian). Žydai Lietuvoje. January 23, 2008. Archived from the original on January 20, 2014. Retrieved November 7, 2009.
4. ^ "Kovno". Jewish Encyclopedia. 1905.
5. ^ "Kaunas: Dates and Facts". datos.kvb.lt. 1872.
6. ^ "Kaune prie sinagogos neonaciai pakabino plakatą su šūkiais "Juden raus" ir "Hitleris buvo teisus", Vilniuje plevėsavo nacių vėliavos (dar papildyta, nuotraukos)". Klasikinis lrytas.lt (in Lithuanian). Archived from the original on February 19, 2013. Retrieved October 6, 2012.

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