White Stork Synagogue

The White Stork Synagogue is a nineteenth-century synagogue in Wrocław, Poland. Rededicated in 2010 after a decade-long renovation, it is the religious and cultural centre of the local Jewish community, under the auspices of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland. It is the only synagogue in Wrocław to have survived the Holocaust.

The synagogue, which opened in 1829 when the city was known as Breslau and part of the Kingdom of Prussia, is a three-story Neoclassical designed by the architect Carl Ferdinand Langhans (1781–1869). Langhans was one of the foremost 19th-century architects of Silesia. He was among Germany’s foremost theater designers. He also designed the Breslau Actors' Guild Theater and Opera House. The original interior, now lost, was designed by the painter Raphael Biow (1771–1836) and his son Hermann Biow (1804–1850). The name was taken from an inn of the same name which had previously stood on the site.

The main prayer hall is surrounded on three sides with women's galleries. Two levels of galleries to the north and two on the south flank a single gallery on the eastern Torah ark wall. The wooden frame of the Torah ark and the damaged tablets of the Ten Commandments are all that remain of the original religious features.

During the Kristallnacht the interior of the building was destroyed by the Sturmabteilung who also tore up the Torah scrolls. On the same night, the New Synagogue, which served the city's Liberal community was burned to the ground by the Nazi paramilitary groups. The White Stork synagogue, which at the time served Conservative Jews escaped that fate, because it was located close to other buildings and the participants in the pogrom were concerned that any fire would spread to non-Jewish structures.

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