Russia’s Largest Synagogue Gets $300K Facelift
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Russia’s largest synagogue announced plans for a $300,000 facelift.
The Grand Choral Synagogue in St. Petersburg issued a tender Wednesday for interior renovations of the 155-foot tall hall, the Russian news site fontanka.ru reported.
The tender states that the works should be completed in 40 to 54 days and should cost about 10 million rubles, or about $300,500. The winner of the tender is expected to start renovations after Oct. 11, when the contractor is selected.
The tender is for the refurbishment of 44 oakwood pews and six railings. In addition, restoration work in needed on 20 windows, which should be adjusted and designed to fit the original style of the synagogue.
The report said the synagogue’s management finds the interior of the synagogue “unsatisfactory” because of wear and tear to the furniture, which has large cracks in the wood and broken decorations.
The Grand Choral Synagogue of St. Petersburg is the second largest synagogue in Europe. It was completed in 1888 and took eight years to build.
The synagogue was closed down in 1930 for several years under orders from the Communist government.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
