Rykestrasse Synagogue

Rykestrasse Synagogue Germany's largest synagogue, is located in the Prenzlauer Berg neighborhood in the Pankow district of Berlin. After more than a year of work to restore its prewar splendor was rededicated Aug 31, 2007. Friday's inauguration saw rabbis bringing the Torah to the synagogue, in a ceremony witnessed by political leaders and Holocaust survivors from around the world.

Its interior, which seats up to 1,074 people, 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, built in 1904, was set on fire during Kristallnacht - the Night of Broken Glass on Nov. 9, 1938, when the Nazis attacked synagogues and Jewish businesses. But since it was in a densely populated neighbourhood, authorities quickly doused the flames.

"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 biggest Jewish community in Germany, with 12,000 registered members and eight synagogues.

Visiting the Synagogue

Public tours of the Rykestrasse Synagogue are available from 2-6 pm on Thursdays only. Entry is permitted up to 5:30 pm. No entry is permitted at any other time.

Services are held on Friday nights and Saturday mornings.

The Synagogue can easily be visited from the nearby Senefelderplatz or Eberswalder Strasse U-bahn stations found on the U2 line.

External links

• In pictures: Germany's biggest synagogue
• Germany's biggest synagogue reopening
• Germany's biggest synagogue reopens as symbol of Jewish rebirth