Reconstruction the Old
Synagogue of Gombin
By Ada Holtzman, August 2000, revised December 2003
My beautiful Gombin... Its grand Synagogue, destroyed by the Nazis after , a pearl in the crown of Jewish Polish folklore art, symbol of Jewish culture gone and destroyed, vanished from the earth...
I wish to rebuild it. It is possible, when Bnai Gombin join hands and work together with all our honorable lecturers, advocates, professors, Rabbis, doctors, businessmen, film makers, princes from the islands and all dedicated people all over the world, united in their wish to keep the memory of ancestors' lost shtetl: GOMBIN...
See my web site: http://www.zchor.org/SYN.HTM
I once sent this forum some messages in the subject and a whole correspondence with the Canadian architect, Chris Fairbrother. He had original idea to restore the wooden synagogue of Gombin. I guess it was too much even for a man of vision as this man has been... May be other projects fill his days and may be he might just show upagain... I have a feeling he eventually will...I copy him and other who show interest in this message.
At the meantime, three things have happened, and are the background to my renewed proposal, sent to your comments/reflection/check/ideas...
Reconstruction the synagogue at Moshe
Verbin's Kibbutz: Kibbutz Yakum near Hertzelia Israel. He is the artist who
built 26 models of wooden synagogues from the kingdom of Poland and whose works
of beauty and art I am proud to host at this URL: http://www.zchor.org/verbin/verbin.htm
He had the permission from the Israel Land Registry Office to build on a plot of land in his Kibbutz Yakum (20
minutes from Tel Aviv) a , which will
host his synagogues models. In spite of many appeals and efforts,he didn't manage to raise the money needed for
this small museum and thepermission was
withdrawn recently... My original idea was to rebuild synagogue in his Kibbutz,symbol of the past heritage, restored in the
State of Israel, in the middle of a Kibbutz,which
is a symbol of the future. But since he lost the plot, it must be rebuilt thenin another part of the globe or the Holy Land...
Gąbin Poland.
During our mission to the inauguration of the Gombin Jewish cemetery, August .I saw to my amazement that NOTHING WAS BUILT of the plot of the .And what made me so bitterly sad was to see that it actuallyserves as the town's place of rubbish and trash...The idea of rebuilding the synagogue right where it was, stroke me than.
Reconstruction in Chelmno, the site where the
extermination of the Jews of Gombin took place. You remember Chelmno and the excavations they do
there. Thousands and of personal
items of the victims are dug from the earth. "The Blood of Your
Brothers Are Calling You from the of the
Earth"...
A group of distinguished scholars and personalities is getting organized in order to build a museum in the Chelmno site itself (to replace old small one) and make it a special museum also for the LIFE,before theend, including visits to Jewish Lodz, the main community of the victims. The group is in its preliminary stage of organization, searching support, ideas andresources. They wish to change the Israeli Youth Missions traditional itinerary,which does not Chelmno in any of its routes! I was honored to meet the lady behind the organization and she was with idea of involving a society of successor generation of one small , which was in Chelmno in their plans.
Reconstruction of the synagogue in the
Holocaust memorial Site in Berlin. More than 10 years passed and the monument
is not yet ready! The Germans destroyed, the Germans should reconstruct, making
the place a holy site for contemplation and remembrance. At least not only
empty stones will fill up the monument site, but also this pearl of Jewish art,
place of prayers, place of reconciliation and of love.
Who will finance it? The one who financially helped us to restore the , the one who did just that to endless other Jewish Communities through Poland, the one who jumped out of the death train headed to Treblinka, the one who did not forget his roots and his promise to his mother: Zygmunt Nissenbaum! I was very saddened to learn of his death a few years after this was written, but I believe his children will continue the commemoration activities of the Nissenbaum Foundation.
The synagogue will serve, in part, as a museum to all the cemeteries preservation works by the Nissenbaum Foundation in Poland. My idea is to have there also a room for Gombin - where Minna Packer's documentary film "Back to Gombin" will be on a permanent display, as well as the Sam Rafel's 1937 film and all the exhibits now in Lukaszewskismall museum. Another room will be Tolerance Room dedicated toeducational seminars,study groups, conventions etc, concentrating on education of the young generation, in the subjects of the Holocaust, Jewish heritage, Tolerance, etc.
I have no idea what the rabbinical position is, regarding restoration of an old synagogue in a foreign country where there are no Jews anymore.. I think this was never done before anywhere in Europe although I know in Oswiecim a brick synagogue was rebuilt a few years ago.
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The synagogue will be built 1 x 1, exactly as it was and the leading architects will be the couple Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka, Warszawa,expertson the subject, writers of many books with drawings and schemes of wooden synagogues, Gombin's among them. |
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The restored synagogue will put Gąbin on any Jewish tourism itinerary, and thus the Municipalityof Gombin and the Polish various Authorities have to participate (financially) in the project.
Another
idea I have is to make an international symbolic sue caseagainst the Germans. They
paid reparations to the State of Israel and survivors, but they never
paid
anything for destroying the Jewish culture. It is time they do! We Shall
Not Forget
and We Shall Not Forgive!
Many dreams became true. Many ideas which sounded insane at their times, became reality in the course of history. Who can grasp the beauty and wisdom of 18th century popular architect who built a synagogue at those times, dimensions: 17x16x18 meters, when no computers and nocars and no machinery... If he could, why not we???
Reconstruction the Wooden Synagogue of Zabludow
Last Updated December 12th, 2003