Tempel Synagogue

When Reform Jews opened their Moorish-revival synagogue in 1862, orthodox neighbors were scandalized: organ music, sermons in Polish and German, and, most shocking, women singing in the choir. The Tempel was the only 19th-century synagogue in Poland to survive World War II with its interior largely intact, including 43 stained glass windows that remain the sole preserved synagogue stained glass in the country. After serving as Nazi ammunition storage, it was restored with donations from around the world and now hosts the opening concert of Kraków’s annual Jewish Culture Festival.

Architect Ignacy Hercok modeled the building on Vienna’s Leopoldstädter Tempel, and its most famous rabbi, Ozjasz Thon, later sat in the Polish parliament between sermons. The women’s choir the orthodox found so scandalous held on well into the interwar years, long after most of Kraków’s ninety other synagogues had been reduced to rubble or storerooms. It survived the war as an ammunition depot and survived the peace as a concert hall, standing all the while as a symbol of the resilience of the Jewish people.