New Orthodox Synagogue (Košice) Explained

New Orthodox Synagogue
Native Name:Slovak: Nová ortodoxná synagóga
Image Upright:1.4
Religious Affiliation:Orthodox Judaism
Rite:Nusach Ashkenaz
Festivals:-->
Organisational Status:Synagogue
Organizational Status:-->
Functional Status:Active
Location:Puškinova Street, Košice
Country:Slovakia
Map Type:Slovakia
Map Size:250
Map Relief:1
Architecture Type:Synagogue architecture
Year Completed:1927
Date Destroyed:-->
Capacity:800 worshipers
Dome Quantity:One
Materials:Concrete
Elevation Ft:-->
Footnotes:[1]

The New Orthodox Synagogue (Slovak: Nová ortodoxná synagóga) is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at Puškinova Street near the historic centre of Košice, Slovakia. The congregation worships in the Ashkenazi rite.[1]

History

The Jews to settle in Košice arrived after 1840, when the legal ban on Jewish residence was lifted. In 1930, the city's more than 11,500 Jews made up 16.4 percent of the city's population. Before The Holocaust, Košice was home to one of the largest and most important Jewish communities in Slovakia.[2] The Old Orthodox Synagogue in Zvonárska Street, constructed in 1899 to the design of János Balogh,[3] that,, is still standing, and was used as a place of worship until World War II.[4]

The New Synagogue, completed in 1927, was designed by the Budapest-educated architect . The façade uses both Neo-classical and local traditional motifs; and example of the latter is the attic storey in a style often found in renaissance buildings of Eastern Slovakia. The interior, largely constructed in concrete, is in the Modernist style with a domed central hall and a women's gallery with a metal mechitzah. The central bimah faces a Torah ark made of red marble. A school was built adjoining the synagogue and a mikveh (ritual bath) was planned but not constructed.[3]

Holocaust memorial plate

Transports of Jews from Kosice to Nazi camps were carried out during World War II. A bronze Holocaust memorial plate was installed on the front of the synagogue in 1992. It informs that more than 12,000 Jews of Košice were taken to concentration camps in 1944. It does not mention that more than 2,000 Jews from Košice's surroundings were concentrated here and then also sent to the concentration camps. Only 400 of all transported Jews survived.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Orthodox Synagogue in Košice . Historic synagogues of Europe . . n.d. . 21 July 2024 .
  2. Web site: Košice – Jewish Community Compound . https://web.archive.org/web/20180509181240/http://www.slovak-jewish-heritage.org/149.html . 2018-05-09 . Synagoga Slovaca . n.d. . 21 July 2024.
  3. Book: Borský, Maroš . 2007 . Synagogue Architecture in Slovakia: A Memorial Landscape of a Lost Community . Bratislava . Jewish Heritage Foundation . 9788096972005.
  4. Web site: Second Orthodox Synagogue in Košice . Historic synagogues of Europe . . n.d. . 21 July 2024 .