Russia - Table of Contents
............... Architecture Around the
World
Holocaust Memorial Synagogue
Poklonnaya Gora, Moscow, Russia
1998
Poklonnaya Gora is the point at which
German forces were halted on their march to Moscow in 1941-42 by the
Red Army. Oversized tank barriers and a monument had marked the
location for some years, but as the fiftieth anniversary of the Soviet
victory in the Great Patriotic War approached 2, a large memorial
complex was created to commemorate the war dead. A museum is at the
center of the site, flanked by a Russian Orthodox church, a mosque, and
a synagogue.
The synagogue was the last of the four major buildings to be constructed, its late debut due to the emergence of a funding source only when the Russian Jewish Congress was established in 1996. A modern structure developed by Moshe Zarhi, a noted Israeli architect, with interior and exterior design work by Frank Meissler, the synagogue includes a sanctuary, display cases on upper floors surrounding the synagogue in which various archival materials and artifacts of Russian Jewish history are displayed, and a museum on the lower floor. A large menorah stands outside the building. - Betsy Gidwitz, A Survey of Jewish Lifew in Moscow, October 20-29, 1998 (Jan. 2011)
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