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THE BIGGEST SYNAGOGUE IN ROMANIA
The Jewish Choral Temple in Bucharest is the biggest synagogue in Romania and also one of the most beautiful in the world. We visited The Choral Temple in a beautiful day of August 2018 on our way around the center of Bucharest. A very interesting experience as the Choral Temple is not only an architectural masterpiece but also a place full of history and stories. It is sad that many tourists coming to visit the Choral Temple are not from Israel,
they 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 one of the most beautiful synagogues in the world and 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 and walk on Corneliu Coposu Boulevard, until 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 and 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, but there was a surprise for us how many languages he can speak. 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.
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 in the presence of the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis the Prime Minister Victor Ponta and the leader of the Romanian Orthodox Church Daniel
Between 1850 and 1914, the Jewish community had been the most important one from the religious point of view, according to 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 if they sent a letter to the ruler of the country and if they waited for 10 years.
They were still seen as strangers. Yet, 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, which means Christians. Although all political parties tried to weaken the Jewish businessmen, especially in the alcohol problem where there was a kind of monopoly, in 1878, at the Congress in Berlin, the Constitution was changed and 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: Choral Temple in Bucharest was devastated by the members of the extreme right party Iron Guard in 1941 when many of the Jews were also arrested
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 in the presence of the Romanian President Ion Iliescu in front of the Choral Temple in Bucharest
Under the rule of Isac Leib Weinberg, the Community of Jewish Cult decided to build the Choral Temple in 1857, as a sign of the Jewish religious modernization, simultaneously with the same movement in the other European countries. The project will actually start in 1864 and it will be, as architecture, a combination of Moorish and Byzantian style. In 1866, just before it was to be open, the temple is vandalized and King Carol I will help for 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 where the Choral Temple would be built, in 1857 and that was the year when the first architectural project was designed and you will find this piece of history and many other information from the guide inside the Temple
HISTORY OF THE CHORAL TEMPLE IN BUCHAREST
In 1940, the Jewish population in Romania was about 800,000 people and their situation was from bad to worse since the alliance between Antonescu regime and the Nazis. They were all dismissed from all public service jobs and, soon, in August 1940 they lost all their political and civilian rights. In a few months they lost even their properties and shares at banks and other financial institutions. 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, despite Hitler’s will to save about 80,000 people from the Jewish community by sending them to Palestine. We don’t know if that worked, yet, we know that during the new extreme right regime, under Antonescu and the Iron Guard, the Choral Temple was devastated in 1941, 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
