In the rear building of a tenement at today's Rewolucji 1905 r. street 28 (formerly Południowa) stands a building that looks modest from the outside but hides inside one of the most important remnants of Jewish Łódź. This is the Reicher Synagogue - the only one of more than two hundred prewar synagogues and prayer houses in the city to survive World War II in almost untouched condition.
Who built the synagogue and why
The building was erected between 1895 and 1902, funded by the Reicher family, wealthy Łódź merchants. Its location in the rear courtyard, rather than facing the street, was no accident - many prayer houses in the towns of the Kingdom of Poland were built this way so as not to stand out on the main street. This particular architectural choice would prove crucial several decades later.
The ruse that saved the building
When the Germans occupied Łódź and began systematically destroying places of Jewish worship, most synagogues in the city were burned or blown up, including the most magnificent one - the Great Synagogue on today's Wolności street. The Reicher Synagogue survived because its owner, Wolf Reicher, faked a deed of sale of the building to a German associate. The new, formal owner set up a salt warehouse in the synagogue.
A trading warehouse did not interest the Germans the way an active synagogue would have - the building survived the war practically untouched, with its interior decoration preserved. It is a rare case in which ordinary merchant cunning proved more effective than any other form of heritage protection.
What to see inside
The synagogue's interior has retained its original layout - with the aron ha-kodesh (the place where Torah scrolls are kept) and the bimah, the raised platform for reading the Torah in the centre of the hall. For visitors who have never had the chance to see a synagogue in Poland, this is one of the few opportunities to see such an interior in a city where, before the war, the Jewish community numbered more than 200,000 people.
The synagogue today
The Reicher Synagogue is today one of two active synagogues in Łódź and the seat of the Jewish Religious Community. Weekly Sabbath services and Jewish holidays are held there. It is a place of a living community, not just a monument - worth remembering when planning a visit: the synagogue is not a museum open daily to casual tourists, but a place of worship where access outside service hours can be limited.
How to visit the synagogue
It is best to arrange a visit to the interior in advance with the Jewish Religious Community in Łódź or with the Marek Edelman Dialogue Centre, which runs thematic tours of Jewish Łódź and regularly includes the synagogue in its programmes. The building stands in the city centre, close to the main pedestrian street - it is a few minutes' walk from Piotrkowska.
What else to see nearby
The Reicher Synagogue combines well with other places connected to the city's Jewish history. A few minutes' drive away lies the New Jewish Cemetery on Bracka street, the largest surviving Jewish necropolis in Europe, and in another part of the city the Radegast Station, from which transports left for the death camps during the existence of the Łódź ghetto. Close to the centre is also the Park of Survivors with its monument to the Righteous Among the Nations.
Together, all these places show the full arc of the history of Jewish Łódź - from its prewar flourishing, through the destruction of the ghetto, to today's small but living community, whose centre remains the same building that survived thanks to one merchant's cunning. More places like this can be found among the churches and places of worship in Łódź, and a broader historical context is gathered in the "Poznaj Łódź" (Discover Łódź) series, linked from here.
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