|
The Synagogue is owned today by the City, but it is part of a complex
of Jewish buildings constructed at the same time as the
Synagogue, which otherwise are still owned and used by the small but
active local Jewish community. These include the
Jewish community headquarters, with function rooms, offices and a
small, highly decorated prayer room.
Subotica includes an outstanding complex of buildings designed in
the Hungarian version of the distinctive Secessionist, or
Jugendstil, art nouveau style that was popular at the turn of the
19th-20th centuries.
The Synagogue was designed by Marcell Komor and Deszo Jakab, the
Budapest-based architects who also designed other
important local buildings including the Town Hall, with its soaring
tower, and the lakeside resort of Palic (Palics) to the north of town.
Jakab had a particular affection for Subotica, as his wife was from
the town.
In 1899, Komor and Jakab submitted a virtually identical design in
the competition for the Great Synagogue in the nearby Hungarian town
of Szeged. They lost the Szeged competition to fellow Budapest architect
Lipot Baumhorn, whose grandiose Szeged synagogue - a sumptuous, but
more traditional design - was completed in 1903.
At that time, Subotica was part of Hungary. A town of just over 80,000
people, it was home to about 3,000 Jews. The Jewish
Community eagerly embraced the Synagogue design by the courageous
"losers" of the Szeged competition, and construction
soon got under way. The community raised a significant amount of money
for the project by selling seats in the pews in advance to members
of the congregation. The tiny plaques bearing the engraved place-names
decorated the pews until the 1980s, when
most were removed by the Jewish Community and surviving relatives
of pre-war congregants.
 |
The official dedication of the synagogue in 1903
was cause for city-wide celebration. Wrote the Budapest Jewish
weekly Egyenlôség: "From the representative
of the state and the Lord Lieutenant to ordinary citizens, for
a few hours the life of the whole town was centered round the
new synagogue." Participants included the Mayor, government
officials, representatives of the army and priests from other
faiths. Thousands of townspeople gathered in the square outside
the building, and the firefighters' band played Jewish prayers
as a solemn procession moved from the old synagogue, carrying
the Torah scrolls under ornate canopies. At the entrance, Dezso
Jakab ceremoniously handed over a gilded key to the new temple
to the president of the Jewish community.
In 1926 the Synagogue was seriously damaged in a heavy storm
and had to undergo restoration.
|
Most of the stained glass windows -- by the great artist Miksa Roth
-- were broken and had to be replaced; few of the original were left
intact. Wall surfaces were replastered, but without all the decorative
elements and original color.
During World War II, Subotica and its surrounding region were annexed
to Hungary. Most of the town's 6,000 Jews were deported
to Auschwitz. Only a minority survived.
After the Holocaust, the Synagogue was largely abandoned. Despite
occasional religious services held there by the few Jews who had survived,
the state of the building deteriorated. Maintenance costs overwhelmed
the small community. In 1970, the Synagogue's central dome rotated
and tilted to the extent that there were fears that it would collapse
entirely, bringing down the whole building with it. Restoration of
the building became a burning necessity.
The Synagogue was designated a Monument of Culture in 1974, and thus
placed under official protection. In 1990 it was further designated
a Monument of Culture of Great Importance.
In 1978, the Jewish Community presented the Synagogue to the Municipal
government under the conditions that restoration and reconstruction
must be finished in the foreseeable future and that the building would
be used for cultural purposes only. .
A new - and to date unresolved -- problem thus emerged: what should
be the eventual future use of the building after its
restoration.
|
