Synagogues in Poland

Synagogues In Poland

Before the Nazi German invasion of Poland in 1939, almost every Polish town had a synagogue or a Jewish house of prayer of some kind. The 1939 statistics recorded the total of 1,415 Jewish communities in the country just before the outbreak of war, each composed of at least 100 members (Gruber, 1995). Every one of them owned at least one synagogue and a Jewish cemetery nearby. Approximately 9.8% of all believers in Poland were Jewish (according to 1931 census).

The list of actives synagogues in Poland cannot possibly include the hundreds of synagogue buildings which still stand today in about 250 cities and towns across the country – seventy years after the Holocaust in Poland which claimed the lives of over 90% of Polish Jewry. Devoid of their original hosts, many synagogue buildings house libraries and smaller museusm as in Kraków, Łańcut, Włodawa, Tykocin, Zamość, Radzanów, but many more serve as apartment buildings, shops, gyms and whatever else community needs require. This isn't bad however, because the synagogues which remain empty are usually worse off due to lack of maintenance.

Read more about Synagogues In Poland:  Active Synagogues in Poland

Famous quotes containing the words synagogues and/or poland:

    Therefore when thou doest thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.
    Bible: New Testament Jesus, in Matthew, 6:2-3.

    From the Sermon on the Mount.

    It is often said that Poland is a country where there is anti-semitism and no Jews, which is pathology in its purest state.
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