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Kaunas Choral Synagogue

Kaunas Choral Synagogue

Justyn Golinewicz & Edmund von Mikwitz

Photo: Ivonna Nowicka · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Location
Kaunas, Lithuania
Client / Owner
Lewin Boruch Minkowski
Year
Completed 1872
Access
Public
Typology
Spiritual

The Choral Ohel Yaakov Synagogue is at 13 East Ožeškienės Street in Kaunas, Lithuania. Groundbreaking took place in 1871, and it was completed in 1872. The architects were Justyn Golinewicz and Edmund von Mikwitz. The merchant Lewin Boruch Minkowski donated the plot to the Jewish community and paid for most of the construction until 1873.

The brick building mixes Baroque Revival, Renaissance Revival and Moorish Revival styles. In 1902 Kaunas had more than 25 synagogues and Jewish prayer houses, and this is the only one still in use.

A Holocaust memorial stands behind the synagogue. Its 37 stone tablets list the towns and the number of Lithuanian Jewish children who were killed, an estimated 50,000 in total. It is an active Orthodox congregation and one of two operating choral synagogues in Lithuania.

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