| Great Synagogue of Warsaw | |
| Native Name: | Polish: Wielka Synagoga w Warszawie |
| Image Upright: | 1.4 |
| Rite: | Nusach Ashkenaz |
| Festivals: | --> |
| Organizational Status: | --> |
| Functional Status: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Tłomackie street, Warsaw, Masovian Voivodeship |
| Country: | Poland |
| Map Type: | Poland Masovian Voivodeship |
| Map Size: | 250 |
| Map Relief: | 1 |
| Coordinates: | 52.2446°N 21.0024°W |
| Architect: | Leandro Marconi |
| Architecture Type: | Synagogue architecture |
| Architecture Style: | Neoclassical |
| Groundbreaking: | 1875 |
| Year Completed: | 1878 |
| Date Destroyed: | May 16, 1943 |
| Materials: | Brick |
| Elevation Ft: | --> |
| Footnotes: | [1] |
The Great Synagogue of Warsaw (Polish: Wielka Synagoga w Warszawie) was a former Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue, that was located on Tłomackie street, in Warsaw, in the Masovian Voivodeship of Poland. Designed by Leandro Marconi and completed in the Neoclassical style in 1878, at the time of its opening, it was the largest Jewish house of worship in the world. The grand synagogue served as a house of prayer until World War II when it was destroyed by Nazis on May 16, 1943.
The Great Synagogue was built by the Warsaw's Jewish community between 1875 and 1878 at Tłomackie street, in the south-eastern tip of the district in which the Jews were allowed to settle by the Russian Imperial authorities of Congress Poland. The main architect was Leandro Marconi. It was opened on 26 September 1878 in celebration of Rosh Hashanah.
The synagogue served the acculturated members of Warsaw's Jewish population. Like other such prayer houses in Central and Eastern Europe, its worship was conducted in a relatively modernized fashion, although it did not approach ideological religious reform. Sermons were delivered in Polish rather than Yiddish, an all-male choir accompanied the service, and an organ had been installed, which played only at weddings. Liturgy and other principled issues remained wholly untouched.[2]
After the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, on May 16, 1943, the SS blew up the building. It was not rebuilt after the war, when few Jews remained or returned to Warsaw after the Holocaust by the Nazis.
It was blown up personally by SS-Gruppenführer Jürgen Stroop on 16 May 1943.[3] This was the last act of destruction by the Germans in suppressing the Revolt of the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw. Stroop later recalled:
Since the 1980s, the site was redeveloped for construction of a large skyscraper, devoted mostly to office space. It was once known as the Golden Skyscraper and is currently commonly referred to as the Blue Skyscraper (Polish: Błękitny Wieżowiec).
A scale model of the Great Synagogue is displayed in an exhibit at the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews.[4]