It is the only surviving and open to this day synagogue of Warsaw. At present, the site functions as the main synagogue in Warsaw and is a seat of the Chief Rabbi of Poland. It is the most important meeting point for the Jewish community, at the same time being a place of prayers and cultural events. Moreover, the feature represents an example of Romanesque Revival architecture with elements of Byzantine and Mauritanian ornamentation, erected at the turn of the 20th century.

History

In the 19th century Warsaw was home of the largest Jewish community in Europe. An idea of erecting an orthodox synagogue in the centre of the city was related to Zalman Nożyk. He was a haberdashery merchant based in Warsaw. Together with his wife, Ryfka, he lived in a tenement house on the nearby Próżna Street, at number 9. Zalman Nożyk bought the plot for the construction of the synagogue at Twarda Street in 1893. Construction works, most likely according to plans of a constructor Karol Kozłowski, began in the Spring of 1898. The building was opened on 12 May 1902, on the Lag ba-Omer holiday.

The benefactor of the synagogue died nearly a year after the opening celebration. His wife, Ryfka, died 11 years later. By will of the synagogue construction initiators, it was handed over to the Warsaw Jewish Community with a reservation that it retains the benefactors’ name and prayers in the intention of the founders will be held during holidays.

In 1923 the synagogue was renovated and a choir gallery was added, designed by Maurycy Grodzieński.

In 1940 the synagogue was closed and devastated by the Nazis. It served as a stable and feed warehouse. After the establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto, it found itself within the so-called Small Ghetto. On 20 May 1941, the German authorities allowed the opening of three synagogues for the believers, including the Nożyk synagogue. A ceremonious opening took place in 1941. Majer Bałaban became a rabbi and preacher of the synagogue. The synagogue was closed again in July 1942, after the liquidation of the Small Ghetto. Military actions during the Warsaw Uprising added to the devastation of the building.

After the war the building was subject to basic repairs and reopened for the Jewish community in the late 1940s. The remaining refurbishment works were carried out at the beginning of the next decade. In 1968 the synagogue was closed. Renovation was conducted in the years 1977-1983 under the supervision of Hanna Szczepanowska and Ewa Dziedzic. The synagogue was then extended by a new wing on the side of Grzybowski Square, which hosted offices of the Jewish Community. The synagogue was ceremoniously opened on 18 April 1983, on the fortieth anniversary of the outbreak of the Uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. Since 1988 prayers in the Nożyk synagogue have taken place with the participation of a rabbi residing in Poland.

Description

The synagogue building, with a silhouette resembling of the letter T, faces west with its front façade. It consists of two parts: a rectangular, three-nave and three-bay prayer room and a wide vestibule hosting, among others, a staircase to the narthex.

Decoration of the front façade of the Nożyk synagogue and its interior has been very meticulously arranged. A five-axial entrance façade is adorned with motifs related to the Jewish symbolism, among others, two decalogue boards with the Star of David above the entrance.

Inside, the main prayer room is surrounded from three sides by a gallery, which rests on alternately positioned cast iron square pillars and Mauritanian columns. The gallery balustrade is adorned with Romanesque motifs. A three-axial pulpit, crowned with a golden cupola with the Star of David, is located at the east wall of the main room. It contains the Torah ark (Aron Ha-Kodesh), i.e. a place where the Pentateuch is kept. Marble stairs with an openwork, iron balustrade, adorned with a motif of curved foliate braid, lead to the Torah ark. In the middle of the main nave, there is a square, two-entrance bimah surrounded by an iron balustrade. The main room and the vestibule also contain five commemorative plaques.

It is uncertain who the author of the building’s design was. In the light of recent establishments of Eleonora Bergman, it was most probably an architect Karol Kozłowski, although previous researchers listed, among others, Leandro Marconi and Juliusz Prechner. The silhouette of the synagogue seems to indirectly refer to the attempts at reconstructing the Temple of Jerusalem, based on the interpretation of the Biblical description. The composition of the front façade seems to be referring to the synagogue in Kassel, erected by Albrecht Rosengarten in 1836 and copied multiple times to date.

At present, the Nożyk synagogue of Warsaw not only is a place of prayers, but also an important centre of the Jewish Community in Poland. The basement of the building includes a mikveh (a ritual bath) and also a kosher shop.

Limited access to the historic structure. The synagogue can be visited between Monday and Thursday and on Sunday: from 09:00 to forty minutes before sunset. On Fridays it can be visited until sunset. On Shabbat and other Jewish holidays, the synagogue is closed for visitors. Entrance (donation): 10 PLN.

Author of the note  Bartłomiej Modrzewski, National Institute of Cultural Heritage, Branch in Warsaw 22 December 2017

Bibliography

• E. Bergman, Nie masz bóżnicy powszechnej. Synagogi i domy modlitwy w Warszawie od końca XVIII do początku XXI wieku, Warsaw 2007.
• Encyklopedia Warszawy, ed. B. Petrozolin-Skowrońska, Warsaw 1994.
• Synagoga im. Nożyków, Website of the Jewish Community in Warsaw, http://warszawa.jewish.org.pl/pl/dla-zwiedzajacych/warszawa/synagoga-nozykow/, accessed: 22 December 2017.
• Wojtysiak M., Radźwicka-Milczewska A., Synagoga [the so-called white record sheet], Warsaw 1979-81.
• Żydzie w Polsce. Dzieje i kultura. Leksykon, Tomaszewski J., Żbikowski A. (eds.), Warsaw 2001