Saving the Great Synagogue. Systematizing the Synagogues in Bucharest
Saving the Great Synagogue. Systematizing the Synagogues in Bucharest

Summary/Abstract: The article aims to assess the urban islands of resistance of the history of the Jews of Bucharest in the face of communist systematization and the transformation into targets in the face of the „victory of socialism” of a symbolic building of religious, historical and architectural importance. The synagogue, whose salvation meant defiance of the Ceaușescu regime, becomes the only surviving number of a demolished Adamache street, surrounded by a block of flats built like a fortress around it. Hidden history, this is how the image of the Great Synagogue could be read today, surrounded by a communist block specifically designed to change perspectives, entrance and to symbolically punish the synagogue saved at the last moment. Such miracles were rare, but behind them there are desperate efforts of specialists to save the history and art of the city. A synagogue that could be built only after the great fire of 1847, which was saved from burning in the pogrom of January 1941, was saved again due to intense diplomatic efforts în 1986. Unfortunately today the beautiful Great Synagogue, arranged in its last form by arch. Petre Antonescu is threatened by a potential seismic event, far from being consolidated.

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