JTA - 12.02.2002

 

 

Prague Shul Damaged by Flood
Among Recipients of Grant Money

By Ruth E. Gruber

ROME (JTA) — A flood-damaged medieval synagogue in Prague. A shul in Shanghai used by World War II Jewish refugees. The oldest synagogue in Rio de Janeiro.

These sites were among this year’s recipients of restoration grants from the World Monument Fund. 

The fund’s Jewish Heritage Grant Program has announced 14 grants for this year, totaling nearly $236,000. 

...

The Jewish Heritage Grant Program is the only private, international, nonprofit initiative to recognize and respond to the loss of Jewish architectural heritage worldwide. 

It seeks to leverage additional funding and participation from local governments and cultural agencies on its designated projects. Principally funded by philanthropist Ronald S. Lauder, the grant program has contributed some $650,000 to more than 30 synagogues since it began disbursing funds two years ago. Some were synagogues abandoned after the Holocaust, but others are being restored as active places of worship for reviving Jewish communities. 

...

They include: 

...

• Georgia: the Tbilisi Synagogue, built in 1910-1903. The synagogue has been endangered for years and was further compromised by a recent earthquake. 

... 

• Russia: the House of the Jewish Society, built in 1881 and the only synagogue in Irkutsk. 

• Russia: the Tyumen Synagogue, built at the beginning of World War I in western Siberia. 

• Ukraine: the Zhovkva Synagogue, built in 1692.

For full article, click here