JEWISH TEMPLE IN BUCHAREST
THE BIGGEST SYNAGOGUE IN ROMANIA
The Jewish Choral Temple in Bucharest is the biggest synagogue in Romania. It is also one of the most beautiful in the world. We visited The Choral Temple in a beautiful day of August 2018. It was part of our tour around the center of Bucharest. Since we have been living here for more than 20 years, we use to make such thematic tours. A very interesting experience as the Choral Temple is not only an architectural masterpiece. It is also a place full of history and stories. It is sad that many tourists coming to visit the Choral Temple are not from Israel. Many come from different European countries and even from Romania, the guide told us.
CHORAL TEMPLE BUCHAREST
By: BUCHAREST-TRAVEL.COM
Photographed In: Bucharest, Romania
Date Uploaded:2018-10-07
Description: The Choral Temple in Bucharest is was built from 1864 to 1866
WHERE IS THE JEWISH CHORAL TEMPLE IN BUCHAREST
Let’s imagine you are at Unirii Square, near Unirii Great Shopping Center which should be on your left. If you want to visit the Choral Temple you will have to have the HOUSE OF THE PEOPLE in your back. Now, walk on Corneliu Coposu Boulevard. Then you meet Saint Friday Street( Sf. Vineri) and, now turn left on this street. Now, you will only have to walk about 3 minutes until you will see on the right side the Choral Temple in Bucharest.
ADDRESS OF THE CHORAL TEMPLE BUCHAREST
By: BUCHAREST-TRAVEL.COM
Photographed In: Bucharest, Romania
Date Uploaded:2018-10-07
Description: Nowadays there are in Romania about 39 Jewish communities and many of them live in Bucharest and come to the Coral Temple which is quite near UNIRII SQUARE
TICKETS FOR CHORAL TEMPLE BUCHAREST
The ticket to visit the Choral Temple in Bucharest is 10 RON, which is less than 0.25 Euro( this was in 2018). For this money you have the guide who will tell you the entire story of the Jewish community in Romania. And also the history of the synagogue. He speaks very fast, so you have to pay attention. Anyway, if there are French visitors, he speaks French, if there are English and Romanian tourists, he speaks English. The Choral Temple in Bucharest is open from Monday to Thursday from 9 AM to 3 PM and Friday and Sunday from 9 AM to 1 PM. You can visit the synagogue on Saturdays. See updates on Facebook Choral Temple.
ENTRANCE TO CHORAL TEMPLE BUCHAREST
By: BUCHAREST-TRAVEL.COM
Photographed In: Bucharest, Romania
Date Uploaded:2018-10-07
Description: The Choral Temple housed in May 2015 a debate about the ten commandments and justice. It was in the presence of the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis the Prime Minister Victor Ponta
Between 1850 and 1914, the Jewish minority was the most important one from the religious point of view. We learned that from Keith Hitchins’s book – ROMANIA( Humanitas, 1994, page 171). In 1912, more than 240,000 Jews lived in Romania, which means 3,3% of the population. Yet, there were negociations about the Choral Temple in Bucharest since 1858. The new civil law adopted under Alexandru Ioan Cuza in 1862 allowed them to become Romanian citizens. But only if they sent a letter to the ruler of the country and if they waited for 10 years.
They were still seen as strangers. In 1866, after Cuza lost the power, the Constitution, under the Article 7, would not recognize any citizenship to those who were not under the Orthodox Church.
In time, all political parties tried to weaken the Jewish businessmen. Yet, in 1878, at the Congress in Berlin, the Constitution changed. Thus, the Jewish community could obtain citizenship.
DOOR OF THE CORAL TEMPLE IN BUCHAREST
By: BUCHAREST-TRAVEL.COM
Photographed In: Bucharest, Romania
Date Uploaded:2018-10-07
Description: In 1941, the extreme right political party, Iron Guard devastated the Choral Temple
ARCHITECTURE OF THE CHORAL TEMPLE
By: BUCHAREST-TRAVEL.COM
Photographed In: Bucharest, Romania
Date Uploaded:2018-10-07
Description: The first commemoration of the victims of Shoah or Holocaust in Romania was in October 2004. The Romanian President Ion Iliescu attended
Under the rule of Isac Leib Weinberg, the Community of Jewish Cult decided to build the Choral Temple in 1857. It was a sign of the Jewish religious modernization. The project actually started in 1864. It was, as architecture, a combination of Moorish and Byzantian style. In 1866, just before it was to be open, the temple is vandalized. King Carol I helped the reconstruction, together with the Romanian Church.
The Choral Temple in Bucharest will be officially open in 1876.
GUIDE FOR CHORAL TEMPLE
By: BUCHAREST-TRAVEL.COM
Photographed In: Bucharest, Romania
Date Uploaded:2018-10-07
Description: The Hebrew community in Romania bought the land for the Choral Temple, in 1857
HISTORY OF THE CHORAL TEMPLE IN BUCHAREST
In 1940, the Jewish population in Romania was about 800,000 people. Their situation was from bad to worse. That is because the alliance between Antonescu regime and the Nazis. They were all dismissed from all public service jobs. In August 1940 they lost all their political and civilian rights. In a few months they lost even their properties. The state took even their shares at banks. Yet, according to Hitchins, in 1943, there were still about 21.000 Jews employees in the state structures. More than that, from 1942 to 1944, Antonescu decided, to save about 80,000 people from the Jewish community. Despite Hitler’s will, he sent them to Palestine. The Choral Temple was devastated in 1941, by Iron Guard. That came after it was, anyway, damaged by the earthquake in 1940.
HISTORY OF THE JEWISH TEMPLE BUCHAREST
By: BUCHAREST-TRAVEL.COM
Photographed In: Bucharest, Romania
Date Uploaded:2018-10-07
Description: The reformist rabin Antoine Levy inaugurated the Choral Temple on the 6th of July 1867 and that was the moment when the synagogue became the center of Judaism in Romania
In 1945, the Choral Temple in Bucharest is repaired and it was the architect Iuliu Leoneanu who took care of that. What we see inside the building are the colors on the walls and the wooden sculpted furniture. Almost everything inside is Moorish and they used blue, green, red and yellow as colors and fake bricks outside.
INSIDE CHORAL TEMPLE
By: BUCHAREST-TRAVEL.COM
Photographed In: Bucharest, Romania
Date Uploaded:2018-10-07
Description: In 1958 The Choral Temple is officially declared architectural monument and in 1972 Golda Meir the Prime Minister of Israel attended the religious service during the visit in Romania on Friday the 22nd of May
In front of the Choral Temple in Bucharest, there is a menorah in the memory of the victims of Holocaust.
MONUMENT IN FRONT OF CHORAL TEMPLE
By: BUCHAREST-TRAVEL.COM
Photographed In: Bucharest, Romania
Date Uploaded:2018-10-07
Description: In front of the Choral Temple in Bucharest there was brought in 1991, a menorah, the traditional seven-lamp ancient Hebrew lampstand in the memory of those killed by Nazis in World War 2
