BELGRADE SYNAGOGUE

 
 
 

     Welcome to Sukat Shalom, Dwelling of Peace, the synagogue of the Jewish community of Belgrade. Various Jewish and non-Jewish sources show that Jews settled in Belgrade even before the Turkish conquest. Even though formally the first Jewish community in Belgrade was established in 1866, a Sephardic community officially called the Religious-Educational Jewish Community, there were synagogues in Belgrade from the middle of the seventeenth century.  The historical difficulties experienced by Jews throughout the ages did not circumvent their temples. Sukat Shalom is the sixth synagogue erected by the Jewish community in Belgrade.

The synagogue's cornerstone was set on June 15, 1924. The building was finished on November 1, 1925. The ceremonial dedication of the synagogue was conducted during the summer of 1926, when the interior was finally finished. It is an Ashkenazic synagogue whose cornerstone was bi-lingual, Hebrew and Serbian, and signed by Rabbi Shlang, King Aleksandar Karadjordjevich and Queen Marija. The old Ashkenazic synagogue, from 1869-1925, was located not far away in a building that previously housed the national theatre.

In front of the synagogue there is a big and beautiful yard. Once there was a mikvah (ritual bath), cafeteria, sports hall, and apartments for the shochet and shamash on the first floor of the building. Upstairs there were apartments for the rabbi, teacher, cantor and in the attic they held religion classes. On the first floor of the synagogue there was seating for around 300 people and in the gallery, ezrat nashim, there were 180 places.

Not two full decades after the synagogue was constructed, during the Nazi occupation of 1941-1944 the temple was desecrated. German officers used it as a brothel. Not long after the end of the war the synagogue was re-consecrated. The sad rededication ceremony was attended by the few Belgrade Jews who survived the Holocaust. Considering this fact, today the few remaining members of the synagogue are both Ashkenazic and Sephardic.

The synagogue got its name, Sukat Shalom, in 2002 and today it is the only functioning synagogue in Belgrade and in Serbia.

 

Welcome to site Belgrade Synagogue. The website will be a kind of treasure  of important events and moments from the life of Jews in Serbia, as well as the school of their way of life and customs.

THE SUKKAT SHALOM SYNAGOGUE

 
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