The Great Temple in Rădăuți is a Jewish place of worship in the municipality of Rădăuți, located on 1 Mai street no. 2, in the city center. It was built in 1883, some sources erroneously indicate 1879 as the year of construction.
The first synagogue in Rădăuți was built in 1830 by Eliahu Gewölb, in the city center.
As a result of the increase in the number of Jews in the city, the synagogues became insufficient, and in 1880, during the visit of Emperor Franz Joseph I to Rădăuți, a delegation of Jews requested his support. They needed land to build a large synagogue. The emperor gave his consent by making available to the Jewish community a plot of land in the center of the city, near the park.
The construction of the temple dragged on for several years as a result of disagreements between Orthodox and modernist Jews regarding its project. If the Orthodox wanted the temple to be built in the traditional style of synagogues, the modernists wanted a temple similar to the one in Chernivtsi, with a round dome on top. In the end, a compromise was reached, and the temple was built in the style of the Temple in Chernivtsi, but with two twin towers instead of a dome. The west wing was reserved for women.
The inauguration of the temple took place on August 18, 1883, the birthday of Emperor Franz Joseph I, the first service being celebrated by the new chief rabbi of the city, Yitzhak Kunstadt.
The Great Temple in Rădăuți was built in the Moorish style, being a massive building with two tall towers covered with domes that give the building the appearance of an Orthodox cathedral. The main entrance is under one of three arches supported by four massive columns. The windows of the temple are circular, finished in arches. The interior of the temple presents decorations made in a mixture of styles: Renaissance, Baroque, Moorish.
The city of Rădăuți had chief rabbis who led the religious activity of the community. This position was fulfilled by Hirsch Shapiro (1861-1881), Yitzhak Rabin Kunstadt (1883-1909), Dr. Yaacov Hoffman (1912-1923), Dr. Yaacov Nacht (1925-1928), Dr. Shimshon Stein (1930 -1932, 1933-1940), Yitzhak Rabinowitz (1932-1933) and Yisroel Hornick (1945-1947). The latter was the last chief rabbi of Rădăuți.
On May 17, 2005, unknown persons entered the Temple through a broken window and broke the lock from Aron Kodeș, took out the three holy scrolls, stripped them of their wrappings and placed them on the table. Nothing was stolen.
In the list of synagogues in Romania published in the work "Seventy years of existence. Six hundred years of Jewish life in Romania. Forty years of partnership FEDROM – JOINT", published by the Federation of Jewish Communities in Romania in 2008, it was stated that the Great Temple in Rădăuți was in operation.
Source: wikipedia.org