While workers cleared out a plot of land for a parking lot, they discovered the remains of a synagogue in Otwock, Poland.
The workers discovered the synagogue’s walls and columns. The Polish Monument Preservation Authority made this discovery in the last several days, and work was immediately halted following the discovery.
The Goldberg Synagogue was originally built in 1927, at the initiative and expense of Shlomo and Chaim Goldberg, on Warsaw Street, opposite Otwock City Hall. It was designed by the Polish architect Eugenia Jablonska. The synagogue was destroyed in a fire by Nazis at the beginning of the Holocaust. Its library and study hall were destroyed, but its Torah scrolls were saved.
The synagogue could accommodate 650 worshipers. At the outbreak of the war, approximately 14,200 Jews lived in Otwock, according to The Jewish Virtual Library.
The Goldberg Synagogue was burned along with all the other synagogues in Otwock, Poland, in October 1939. After the war, about 400 Jews resettled in Otwock, but all left Poland shortly after that.
