Brodsky Choral Synagogue in Kyiv: History and Architecture

Many of us know the beautiful synagogue that graces the corner of Shota Rustaveli and Rohnidynska streets — but what do we really know about it? At first glance, the building hardly looks like one of the main houses of worship of the Jewish community. It looks more like a museum combining motifs of various ancient cultures, and one built quite recently at that. Don't trust your eyes, though. You might take it for a building less than twenty years old, yet it opened at the end of the 19th century. Let's take a closer look at the Lazar Brodsky Choral Synagogue.

First, a word about the patron who paid for the building and after whom it is named: Lazar Brodsky. This was far from the only Kyiv landmark that the sugar magnate helped finance. Among others, his money went into the Bessarabsky Market and the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute — buildings that are hard to imagine the Ukrainian capital without.

Lazar Brodsky was a true philanthropist who also did much for his own community: he supported the Jewish hospital in Kyiv and Jewish educational institutions. It was on his initiative that construction of Kyiv's largest synagogue began.

At first the synagogue's future looked uncertain. The Kyiv authorities refused to permit such an important Jewish house of worship in the city center, so Lazar Brodsky and Kyiv rabbi Yevsei Tsukkerman resorted to a clever trick. Since residential and utility buildings could be adapted for religious purposes, they petitioned the Senate in St. Petersburg for permission to fit out such a building, attaching a drawing of only the side facade of the synagogue, designed by architect Heorhii Shleifer. The trick worked, and the project was approved. The synagogue opened in 1898, on the very day Lazar Brodsky turned fifty.

For nearly three decades the synagogue served the Jewish community, but with the arrival of Soviet rule everything changed. The building was confiscated and for many years used for all sorts of purposes, from a school of political education to a sewing and tailoring school. In 1955 it was handed over to the Kyiv Academic Puppet Theater.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Jewish community began an active campaign to recover its historic religious buildings, and the Choral Synagogue was near the top of the list. In 1992 the President of Ukraine issued a decree on returning religious buildings to their communities, and that same year the synagogue hosted its first Hanukkah celebration in many years.

One issue remained unresolved, however: the puppet theater was still operating in the building. In 1997, at the request of Vadym Rabinovich, head of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress, the theater company moved out.

The Lazar Brodsky Choral Synagogue officially reopened on March 14, 2000.

As we noted, the synagogue's architecture doesn't resemble what one might expect of a major Jewish religious center. That is because there are no strict sacred rules for how a synagogue must be built — or, to be precise, there is just one: the building should face Jerusalem.

The Choral Synagogue is one of Kyiv's historic landmarks and the heart of the city's Jewish community. It will appeal to anyone interested in religion and history.

Address: 13 Shota Rustaveli Street, Kyiv.