Memorial Synagogue completed in Babyn Yar

14.04.2021, 13:02
Community
Memorial Synagogue completed in Babyn Yar - фото 1
Construction of the synagogue, which according to documents is recorded as a "small architectural form", began on March 25. The structure began to be assembled right behind the Menorah monument.

Pictures from the construction site were taken by the Kyiv Media editorial board.

First, metal structures were installed there, and then they were sheathed with boards made of hundred-year-old barn oak. The roof of the structure unfolds like a book. The synagogue's ceiling was painted with patterns, and the walls were painted with texts of prayers and carved animal figures that decorated ancient synagogues in western Ukraine, but they were destroyed by the Nazis during World War II.

The synagogue has two walls. The roof also opens when the structure is deployed, the wooden support. Thus, you can also pray in the synagogue from the street.

Although it was planned to complete the work before April 8, the facility is not yet fully completed, but visitors are already allowed here.

Memorial Synagogue completed in Babyn Yar - фото 70562

It should be borne in mind that this synagogue is an art object and not a full-fledged synagogue according to the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center. Despite these statements, a number of Jewish organizations criticized the project and accused the authors of anti-Semitism.

It was also said that there is an Orthodox cemetery and human remains at the site of the synagogue's installation. The Memorial Center hired a private enterprise, "Pamyat i Slava" for excavations, which reported that no graves were found at this site. True, fragments of a human skull were found, but it was assumed that they were brought here "in the bulk soil along with construction debris."

As the news about the creation of a Memorial Synagogue came out, a scandal has flared up around the project. So, in February, the Babyn Yar Memorial Charity Foundation issued a statement against the construction.

And the charity organization "Babyn Yar International Memorial Charitable Foundation "appealed to the District Administrative Court of Kyiv with a request to ban the construction of the small architectural form synagogue.