The 17th century large baroque synagogue of Leczna on Boznicza Street (known as the Great Synagogue) is a rare survivor of the pre-War Jewish community. During the War the building was seriously damaged and afterward suffered from neglect and active dismantling by the local community.  Plans for demolition were discussed in the 1950s but fortunately withdrawn, and in the mid-1960s the building was reconstructed, with some modifications but largely preserving the synagogue's most significant architectural features, among them the central four-column brick bimah with ornamental renaissance-style cornices, and the two-columned brick Torah ark with decorative 17th century stucco details and ochre-colored Hebrew inscription "Know before whom you stand - before the King of the Kings; Holy, Blessed He". 

Beginning in 1966, this synagogue housed a Regional Museum, a branch of the Museum in Lublin, with displays of ethnographic and archeological items and artifacts from the history of the town and region, as well as a small but precious judaica collection. 

In 2013 ownership of the synagogue was restituted to the Polish Jewish community, today therefore held by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland (FODZ). The town is included in the Foundation's much-admired and much-publicized project - the Chassidic Route - designed for visitors and researchers desirous of making heritage and memory tours in southeastern Poland. Pressure by Lublin to transfer operation of the museum from the regional level to the local city level resulted in the decision in 2014 to move the museum out of the building.  The judaica collection was put into a storage in Leczna.

In cooperation with the municipality in Łęczna, the Foundation plans to designate the former synagogue as an educational and cultural center, provisionally named the Center for Intercultural Dialogue.

Learn more about the Chassidic Route
 

Explore the Interactive Map of the Chassidic Route on the website of the World Monuments Fund

Article by Jewish Heritage Europe (September 2013)   » back