Jewish Quarter

This was the entrance to the Jewish quarter. Jews lived in Lviv’s city center since the 14th century. Like Armenians and Ukrainians, they had their own separate quarter. In European cities separation was regulated both by city laws, and the rules of Judaism. In the Jewish tradition, the separating line was marked by the eruv – a limit marking the symbolic space lifting some of the restrictions of the Sabbath on carrying things. The entrance into the quarter from this side was through the Porta Judeorum, the Jewish Gate, which was attached to the outer wall of the building in this place. Like other gates in the city, for security reasons the gate to the Jewish quarter was locked every evening. Unlike other portals, the Jewish one was locked both from the outside, and the inside. The limits of the district were gradually expanded, because the community grew. In the mid-19th century, Jews were granted the right to live in other parts of the city as well.

Synagogues are symbolic spaces for Jewish culture, centers of traditional communities, and an important part of the city’s religious space. The first synagogue in this part of Lviv was built in the 14th century. Later, key buildings of the Orthodox community arose here:  the Golden Rose Synagogue  (1582), and the Great City Synagogue (opened in 1801). Prior to the Second World War, Lviv had around one hundred synagogues of various kinds of Judaism, including Reform and Hasidic. Over the centuries, the synagogues’ architecture changed – a testimony to change both in Jewish life, and in the life of the city and society as a whole. However, the defining elements of synagogue architecture remained unchanged:

-  the Aron Kodesh  – a niche or closet on the Synagogue’s eastern wall, facing the Jerusalem Temple and holding the synagogue’s most significant sacred object – the Torah scroll;

-  the bimah  – a raised platform in the prayer hall for reading the Torah;

-  the kupat tzedakah  – an alms box by the hall entrance.

During the German occupation of Lviv (1941–1944), the destruction of synagogues and objects of Jewish culture was part of the Nazi policy of the total annihilation of the Jews. In the summer of 1941 German detachments plundered the Golden Rose and the Great City Synagogue, involving members of the newly established Ukrainian militia to guard the perimeter. Later these two synagogues, as well as other synagogues in the city, were blasted as part of a systemic effort to destroy Jewish landmarks. Only two synagogue buildings physically survived the Holocaust: the building on Vuhilna St. (active until 1962) and the building on Brativ Mikhnovskykh St. (became active again after 1991).

After the war the sites of these destroyed synagogues were vacant – used as a public square, a parking lot, or a location for movie screenings. Excavations were carried out in the late 1970s, after which a public space improvement project was instituted. Today we can see the excavated foundations of the Golden Rose Synagogue, as well as one remaining wall and the doorway with the kupat tzedakah. Two entries to the prayer hall are visible on the site of the Great City Synagogue, and the building's foundations remain underground.

In the past this square housed synagogues. The stone main or  Great Synagogue  of the historical central Jewish quarter was built here in the 16th century. With time, the role of the main synagogue was taken on by the neighboring  Golden Rose Synagogue . The old synagogue continued functioning, but in the late 18th century it was disassembled due to its threatening dilapidation. In the early 19th century, the Jewish community built a new synagogue in the larger plot between the Arsenal and today’s Brativ Rohatyntsiv and Staroievreiska Streets. That new building took on the function of  the Great City Synagogue . The building had a large prayer hall, accessible for men from today’s Staroievreiska, and for women through an entrance in today’s Brativ Rohatyntsiv Street. During the German occupation, the Synagogue was partially demolished in the summer of 1941, and later blown up, like other synagogues of Lviv. The arches of the two entrances to the prayer hall survive. After the war the site became a public square, and in the late 1970s excavations were held here. In the future, this site will become part of the “Space of Synagogues” memorial space.

Commemoration initiatives for the Golden Rose Synagogue began in the 1990s. Archaeologists, in cooperation with the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, carried out archaeological excavations in 2007, and a memorial plaque was installed. In memory of the Jewish community of Lviv and the Holocaust the project “ Space of Synagogues ” was initiated here in 2008. The architecture of this space is a modern reading of the past of the particular sites through minimalist forms integrated into the present-day urban landscape. In accordance with UNESCO recommendations, the project is reversible, that is, it does not rule out implementation of other projects (including reconstruction of the synagogues) in the future. The first element of the memorial was unveiled in September 2016.

The preserved remains of  the Golden Rose Synagogue  reveal various layers of time. The synagogue, built in 1581–1582 by architect Paweł Szczęśliwy, was the center of Jewish religious life. The merchant Izak Nachmanowicz, who sponsored the construction, invested the synagogue with its first name, the Nachmanowicz Synagogue. Another name – the Turei Zahav (“Rows of Gold”) takes its origin from a treatise by David HaLevi Segal, a renowned thinker, rabbi, and Talmudic commentator, who prayed here in the second half of the 17th century. The building was destroyed during the German occupation of the city.

“Perpetuation” is a memorial  installation  with historical depictions and quotations from texts by Jewish residents of the area. The empty slabs symbolize voices from the past that we cannot hear. Every quotation in the original language is an invitation to see the diversity of the Jewish community and importance of individual experiences.

The installation includes a green space where the foundations of  the Beit Midrash  (“House of Learning”), historically the place of daily religious practice and study of religious texts by men, are marked. Built in the late 18th century, the building housed a library and seven prayer and study rooms. It was destroyed during the German occupation.

Site of  the Great City Synagogue , constructed in 1801. The building had a large prayer hall, accessible for men from today’s Staroievreiska Street, and for women – from today’s Brativ Rohatyntsiv Street. It was destroyed during the German occupation of the city. This area will likewise be marked as a memorial space.

Architectural project: Franz Reschke and Sophie Janke. Project documentation: Yurii Stoliarov. Golden Rose Synagogue Conservation Project: “Ukrzakhidproektrestavratsiia” Institute.

Implemented by the Lviv City Council in cooperation with the Center for Urban History (Lviv), the German Society for International Cooperation, and with support of Gesher Galicia (USA), Association of the Commemoration of Lwów Jewish Heritage and Sites (Israel), The World Monuments Fund (USA) and private donations.

This building housed the  mikveh  – a ritual bath, which is a necessary element of the Jewish district. According to the precepts of Judaism, men and women immerse their bodies before prayer, before marriage, or after ritual uncleanliness such as menstruation, contact with a dead body, childbirth, and certain skin conditions. Ablution in the mikveh is also mandated during conversion into Judaism. Important for a mikveh is the presence of natural running water, but rainwater can be an alternative. This mikveh used spring water. In the late 19th century the mikveh was renovated, a boiler room was installed for heating water, and a lavatory was equipped. The ground floor now had ticket windows and a changing room. The Jewish mikveh operated in this building until 1951, and later, until the 1970s, the building housed a communal bathhouse.

The building was constructed in the early 19th century for a Jewish primary school with German (then the official language) as the language of instruction. From 1889 onwards this held the Rabbi Abraham Kohn Volksschule for girls, and the community’s first library. The school was a result of the spread of Reform Judaism. This strain of Judaism aimed to include Jews in modern society while rejecting obsolete religious norms, introducing more order and decorum into the synagogue liturgy. Among other things, the movement propagated the wider involvement of women in prayer and learning. In the interwar period, the building housed the Tarbut (“Culture”) Zionist Society, which offered courses in Hebrew and Jewish history. These courses were the result of Zionist thought and the political movement for national self-determination and building a Jewish state. After the Second World War the building was used as a dormitory. The building became part of the Lviv History Museum in 1982.

The building was constructed in the early 17th century, in place of an earlier one destroyed by fire. Its first owner was Mordechai Izakowicz, son of well-known Lviv merchant Izak Nachmanowicz, who funded the Golden Rose (“Turei Zahav”) Synagogue. In the mid-18th century, the building belonged to Józef Zimelis, head of the kahal (local Jewish self-governing body). It held a Jewish hospital (hekdesh), likely one of the oldest in the region. The hospital was open to destitute members of the Jewish community who had fallen ill and had nobody to take care of them. Support of the hekdesh was a charitable duty of the community. This building was disassembled in 1795 and a new one was later built in today Rappaporta Street, in a plot that belonged to the Jewish cemetery. In the late 19th century, a large Jewish hospital was built here. Unlike a traditional hekdesh, this hospital admitted residents of Lviv and Galicia of all religions.

Constructed in 1910–1912 on the order of Maurycy and Max Sprecher, based on a project by Karol Boublik as a tenement house. After the First World War the building housed the publishing house and printing press of the daily Polish-language Jewish newspaper Chwila (“Moment”). This newspaper was one of the chief papers of Lviv, next to the Ukrainian-language Dilo (“Deed,”) and the Polish Gazeta Lwowska (“Lwów Gazette”). Gershon Zipper was the paper’s founder and first editor. In 1920 Henryk Hescheles became chief editor. Hescheles was a renowned journalist and activist, who lived in this very building with his family. He died in the summer of 1941 in the Lviv pogrom. His daughter Janina survived the war and wrote a memoir about the Holocaust in Lviv. In the Soviet period the building housed editorial offices, including the Russian-language Lvovskaia Pravda (“Lviv Truth”), the Ukrainian-language Vilna Ukraina (“Free Ukraine,”) and the editorial office of the Kameniar publishing house.

This building was constructed in 1663 on the order of Jewish merchant Solomon Friedman, next to the city wall, which had by then lost its defensive meaning. Today this is the oldest building in the street. Jewish merchants were an important part of the city’s fabric since the late Middle Ages. Through international trade, they connected Lviv to other cities of Europe. The social and economic life of Jews, as well as other ethnic and religious groups, was regulated by special laws – the royal privileges. These also pertained to property rights or real estate rentals. To this day a circular sign survives on the building – an emphyteusis or sign of perpetual conditional rent, which meant the right to rent for periods of over 100 years. Eventually privileges were replaced by laws, pertaining not to groups, but to every citizen individually. The building has housed the Judaica department of the Lviv Museum of the History of Religion since 2009.

The building was rebuilt from a late 18th century residential building, which had been erected upon the foundations of previous Renaissance-era houses – the Korkes and the Itzyk Brodzki buildings. The last major reconstruction in 1912 was undertaken by architect Jakub Scheller, on the order of the building’s owner Izak Grebel. The building is a typical example of an apartment building: the ground floor held shops, while the upper stories held the owners’ and tenants’ apartments. Samuel Neuwelt was among the building’s owners in 1871. Later, the building was owned by several generations of the Grebel family. By 1902 the building was home to its owner Lifsze Grebel, factor (trade deeds notary) and eventual owner Izak Grebel, bookkeeper Leon Schorr, and in 1916 – to obstetrician Rosalia Graff and artist Leon Berg. In the 1920s the building became the property of Hermann Stein. In the Soviet era it was nationalized and given to new residents. From 1988 onwards it was put on the local landmarks’ registry. After 1991 apartments were privatized. In 2010–2012, the building’s new owner Olha Bilichenko had restoration projects carried out, which restored the building’s authentic elements.

The square arose in the 18th century after the disassembling of city walls and two buildings – the Galezowski and the Kopl Tewlewicz houses. Its name changed several times. Its original name was plac Żydowski (i. e., Jewish Square), later Wekslarski (from 1871) and Koliivshchyny (from 1944). It was one of the historical Jewish quarter’s central spaces. A new well was dug at the newly established square to replace a previous one that had stood at the corner of today’s Staroievreiska (formerly Boimiv) and Fedorova (formerly Bliakharska) Streets. The well was plugged into the city water supply. The community paid an annual levy for the right to use the water. The city authorities cut off the supply in case of debts, and then the residents went to get their water in Rynok Square, a practice that led to conflicts. In the mid-19th century, the well was renovated after a project by Johann Schimser. It turned the square into a space of public life and a meeting place. The square was mostly home to Jews from merchant and craftsman families. Starting in the late 19th century, the quarter was increasingly home to not only Jews. The square’s appearance has not changed since the early 20th century. The year 2021 saw a reconstruction based on a project by Olha Kryvoruchko and the installation of signage marking the historic Jewish quarter. A new well with the names and professions of inhabitants, who lived and worked here from the late 19th century to the Second World War and the Holocaust, became an important element of the reconstructed square. Today it is once again a meeting place for the city’s residents.