The Great Belz Synagogue in Jerusalem is the largest urban synagogue, surpassing in size the Main or "Great" Synagogue of the Capital on King George Street. Its "Aron HaKodesh" (cabinet for Torah scrolls) is the largest in the world and has been entered into the Guinness Book of Records. This mighty monolithic building, standing out against the cityscape, was built by the Belz Hasidic dynasty, one of the largest and most devout Hasidic movements known since the 19th century. The Great Belz Synagogue was constructed according to the descriptions of the Second Temple and resembles it in shape and size. The main synagogue of the Belz Hasidim in Europe was destroyed by the Nazis during World War II. Today, Belz is a tiny Ukrainian town in the Sokal district of Lviv region. In 2011, its population was only 2,359 people. Nothing remains of the huge Jewish community. The synagogue buildings, beit midrash, and Talmud Torah were blown up during the war. The town's history goes back to ancient times; it is one of the oldest towns in Western Ukraine. The first mention of it dates back to 1030. The town changed hands many times and was part of different countries. According to the treaty of February 15, 1951, on the exchange of territories between the USSR and Poland, it became part of the Ukrainian SSR (Lviv region). The first mentions of Belz Jews date back to 1469 and 1494. By 1570, there were already 20–25 Jewish families in the town, and wooden synagogue, mikveh, and other communal buildings had been built. Sholom Rokeach, a disciple of Yaakov Yitzchak Ha-Hozeh ("the Seer") from Lublin, born in 1783, was the rabbi in Belz from 1817 to 1855 and was recognized as a tzaddik (righteous one), the spiritual leader of the movement.
Hasidim tell the following story about Rabbi Sholom Rokeach. He and two of his friends vowed to stay awake for a thousand consecutive nights and dedicate these nights to Torah study. After several hundred nights, the friends dropped out, but Rabbi Sholom Rokeach fulfilled the vow to the end. On the last night of the thousand, the prophet Elijah appeared to him, and they studied together in chavruta (a study pair) until dawn. They studied the laws of synagogue construction. The prophet Elijah revealed to him the secrets of synagogue building from the perspective of its connection to the Jerusalem Temple. Rabbi Sholom Rokeach promised that in the town where he would become a rabbi, he would certainly build a synagogue exactly as the prophet Elijah had taught him.
In 1817, Rabbi Sholom Rokeach became the rabbi of the town of Belz. Belz became one of the centers of Hasidism in Galicia and the residence of its own Hasidic dynasty. Many people were drawn to the Hasidic court, and many became followers of this movement. In 1828, construction of the Great Synagogue began. Rabbi Sholom — by then already called Admor (this is how Hasidim refer to their Rebbe — "Adoneinu, Moreinu veRabbeinu," meaning "our master, teacher, and rabbi") — personally worked on the construction site throughout the entire 15 years of building. And in 1843, the Great Belz Synagogue was opened!
It was a huge building, so remarkable that its image adorned many postcards.
Belz was a typical Jewish town with a Hasidic community. For many years, more than half of Belz’s population were Jews (in 1914, about 3,600 Jews lived in the town, while there were 1,600 Ukrainians and 900 Poles). People worked, went to prayers and gatherings, married, and raised children.
During World War I, the Russian army occupied Belz (then part of Austria), and the town was burned and destroyed along with the Hasidic court. The synagogue was used as a military hospital. After the war ended, life in the town resumed. Before the war, the community was led by his son, Rabbi Aaron Rokeach, the fourth generation of Admorim from the Belz dynasty. His years coincided with the most terrible time for the Jewish community of Belz: World War II and the Holocaust of European Jewry. In September–late October 1939, when the war began, Poland, which included the town of Belz, was divided between Germany and the USSR. Belz ended up on German territory, and by agreement between the Soviet Union and Germany in October 1939, Soviet troops left Belz. On the last day of the Sukkot holiday, it became known in Belz that German troops had occupied the town. The head of the community, Admor Aaron Rokeach, announced that urgent escape was necessary. And the next night, all the Jews of Belz, every single one, crossed to the other side of the Solokiya River, a tributary of the Bug River. They found themselves abroad, on the Soviet side.
The occupying authorities gathered Jews from nearby settlements into Belz. A Jewish labor camp was established there. On June 2, 1942, about a thousand Jews were deported from Belz to the Sobibor concentration camp. The remaining Jews were driven into a labor camp for agricultural work. After the harvest in September, all of them — about 500 — were also sent to Sobibor. They were all exterminated.
What happened to those who crossed the border? They ended up in the Soviet Union, which also did not welcome Jews in such numbers with open arms. The entire community hid in various small towns and corners. During the war years, almost all members of the Belz community perished. According to the list of the Jewish organization "Joint": twenty people from Belz survived the Holocaust.
Of the entire large Rokeach family, only two brothers survived: the Admor himself, Aaron Rokeach, and his brother Rabbi Mordechai. No wives, children, or grandchildren — all perished.
The Jewish town of Belz ceased to exist. The fascists wiped off the face of the earth a huge community that had flourished for centuries. Almost all Jewish communal buildings were blown up (photo from 1941) and later dismantled for building materials.
The orphaned brothers Rabbi Aaron and Rabbi Mordechai moved to Israel in 1944 via Poland and Hungary.
They settled in Bnei Brak, and over the years the center of Belz Hasidism shifted to Jerusalem. The current fifth Admor of the Rokeach dynasty, Rabbi Issachar Dov (II), has led the Belz community, revived from the ashes of the Holocaust, for 49 years. Today, the Belz Hasidic court numbers 9,000 families, and the total number of Hasidim is about 40,000 people. It is the second largest Hasidic community in Israel.
In 1986, construction of the synagogue began, lasting until 2000. Today, the Belz synagogue is one of the largest and most magnificent synagogues in Jerusalem.
In the 1980s, Rabbi Issachar Dov Rokeach, the fifth Belzer Rebbe, led plans to build a huge synagogue in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Kiryat Belz. The building, designed with four entrances accessible from each of the four streets of the Hilltop neighborhood, was to be an enlarged copy of the structure that the first Belzer Rebbe, Sar Shalom, built in the town of Belz in 1843. Today, the Belz synagogue is one of the largest and most magnificent synagogues in Jerusalem.
Its main sanctuary accommodates 2,589 worshippers. The richly decorated wooden ark, entered into the Guinness Book of Records, is 12 meters high and weighs 18 tons. It holds 70 Torah scrolls. Nine chandeliers, each 5.5 meters high and 3.4 meters wide, contain more than 200,000 pieces of Bohemian crystal each.
In sharp contrast to the majestic synagogue, a simple wooden chair and stand used by Rabbi Aaron Rokeach when he arrived in Palestine in 1944 stand in a glass case next to the ark.
The massive synagogue building, opened in 2000, dominates the surrounding landscape. Due to its colossal size, the synagogue serves not only for prayers. Weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, and community gatherings are held there. The building also has small rooms for educational purposes.
The original synagogue in the town of Belz was approximately the same size, and the Nazis could not blow up the huge building — they forced the Jews at gunpoint to dismantle the synagogue brick by brick. The Jerusalem Belz synagogue is a symbol of the rebirth of the Jewish people in the land of Israel.
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belz_Great_Synagogue
https://ru.gojerusalem.com/items/199/Большая-Белзская-синагога/
https://vnu4ka.livejournal.com/464922.html
