Rykestrasse Synagogue
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rykestrasse Synagogue, Germany's largest synagogue, is located in the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood in the Pankow district of Berlin. After more than a year of work to restore its prewar splendor, it was rededicated on August 31, 2007. Friday's inauguration saw rabbis bringing the Torah to the synagogue, in a ceremony witnessed by political leaders and Holocaust survivors from around the world.
Its interior, which seats up to 1,074 people, sat in communist-run East Berlin, where concern and maintenance funds for houses of worship were in short supply from an atheistic government.
The synagogue, built in 1904, was set on fire during Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass on Nov. 9, 1938, when the Nazis attacked synagogues and Jewish businesses. But since it was in a densely populated neighbourhood, authorities quickly doused the flames.
"It is now the most beautiful synagogue in Germany," the cultural affairs director of the Berlin's Jewish community, Peter Sauerbaum, said.
Today, Berlin has the largest Jewish community in Germany, with 12,000 registered members and eight synagogues.
[edit] Visiting the Synagogue
Public tours through the Rykestrasse Synagogue are available on Thursdays only, between 2 and 6 pm in German language and at 4 pm in English. Entry is permitted until 5:30 pm and no entry is permitted at any other time.
Services are held on Friday nights and Saturday mornings.
The Synagogue is linked by public transport through the underground line U2 (stations Senefelderplatz and Eberswalder Strasse) and the tramway line M2 (stations Knaackstrasse and Marienburgerstrasse).
[edit] External links
- In pictures: Germany's biggest synagogue
- Germany's biggest synagogue reopening
- Germany's biggest synagogue reopens as symbol of Jewish rebirth
