Rykestrasse Synagogue

attacked synagogues and Jewish businesses. But since it was in a densely populated neighbourhood, authorities quickly doused the flames.

Its interior, which now seats up to 1,074 people, originally sat 2,000. It sat in communist-run East Berlin, where concern and maintenance funds for houses of worship were in short supply from an atheistic government.

The synagogue was originally a liberal one, with mixed male and female seating, and a choir singing on the sabbath. After more than a year of work to restore its prewar splendor, it was rededicated on August 31, 2007, as a more right wing, Orthodox synagogue, with separate seating and an Orthodox Minyan. The inauguration saw rabbis bringing the Torah to the synagogue, in a ceremony witnessed by political leaders and Holocaust survivors from around the world.

"It is now the most beautiful synagogue in Germany," the cultural affairs director of the Berlin's Jewish community, Peter Sauerbaum, said.

Today, Berlin has the largest Jewish community in Germany, with 12,000 registered members and eight synagogues.

Visiting the Synagogue

Public tours through the Rykestrasse Synagogue are available on Thursdays between 14:00 and 18:00 and Sundays between 11:00 and 16:00. Tours are offered in German; an English tour starts at 16:00 on Thursdays. Entry is permitted until 17:30 pm and no entry is permitted at any other time.

Services are held on Friday nights and Saturday mornings.

The Synagogue can easily be accessed by public transport through the underground line U2 (stations Senefelderplatz and Eberswalder Strasse) and the tramway line M2 (stations Knaackstrasse and Marienburgerstrasse).

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6972787.stm In pictures: Germany's biggest synagogue]
* [http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103AP_Germany_Biggest_Synagogue.html Germany's biggest synagogue reopening]
* [http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?ID=191884 Germany's biggest synagogue reopens as symbol of Jewish rebirth]