Voința Temple, Bucharest

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История Voința Temple, Bucharest

The Voința Temple (Templul Voința, 'the Will Temple') stood on Bulevardul Dacia in Bucharest, close to the junction with Calea Moșilor. The building was completed in 1878, according to the 2010 survey of Jewish sites in Romania by the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad, which also records that it was a listed national monument. Almost nothing else about the congregation that built and used it has been found: its founders, rabbis, size and architect are unknown.

Unlike the Cahal Grande, Malbim, Fraterna, Gaster, Adath Ieshurim and Carpenters' temples, which were demolished under Nicolae Ceaușescu's rebuilding of central Bucharest in 1984-1987, the Voința Temple outlived Communist rule. Local residents remember it standing derelict toward the end of the 1980s, with its stained-glass windows still intact. The 2010 report states that in the 1990s, before Romania adopted an action plan for its Jewish heritage, the building was purchased and then demolished by the buyers despite its monument status. Witnesses writing online place the demolition of the last ruined walls in 1997. A tall building that houses the headquarters of Poșta Română, the Romanian postal service, now stands on the site, according to the same local accounts.

МЕСТО

Where it stood

Historic: Bulevardul Dacia, near the intersection with Calea Moșilor, Bucharest (house number unknown). Today: site reported to be occupied by the Poșta Română headquarters, Bulevardul Dacia 140, Sector 2, 020065 Bucharest (approximate).

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Еврейская община

Almost nothing is recorded about the congregation of the Voința Temple. No source consulted names its founders, its rite, its membership or any of its rabbis, cantors or presidents, and no community records for it were found. The name Voința means will or determination; it belongs to a group of Bucharest synagogue names that express an ideal, alongside the Fraterna, the Unirea Sfântă (Holy Union) and the Credința (Faith) temples, but why the congregation chose it is unknown. The building stood on Bulevardul Dacia near Calea Moșilor, outside the old Văcărești Jewish quarter that was razed in the 1980s. A resident wrote in 2017 that the land belonged to the Jewish community. Whether the congregation was still active after the Second World War, and when it ceased to meet, is unknown. Its later history probably followed that of Bucharest Jewry as a whole, which shrank sharply after 1945, but no source describes the Voința congregation itself in those years.

Архитектура и дизайн

No photograph, drawing or plan of the Voința Temple has been found, so its appearance can be described only from a few remarks by people who saw it. A resident who remembered the building toward the end of the 1980s wrote that it was an old synagogue fallen into disrepair which still kept very fine stained-glass windows, undamaged at that time. Another local commenter, discussing a synagogue on Bulevardul Dacia between Calea Moșilor and Strada Silvestru, asked whether it looked like a two-storey house, which may suggest a modest building set among the houses of the street rather than a free-standing monumental temple; that question was never answered. The 2010 American survey records that the building was a listed national monument, which implies that its architecture was judged to be of value. The architect, builder, style, capacity and interior arrangement are all unknown.

Жизнь в синагоге

No account of worship, education or communal activity at the Voința Temple has been found. The sources consulted do not say whether it followed the Ashkenazi or Sephardi rite, whether it was a Hasidic, traditional or reformed congregation, or whether it ran a school or charitable society. Its name places it among the many Bucharest congregations named after civic virtues, which were often founded by mutual-aid societies of artisans and small traders, but that is a general pattern and not documented for this building. When the building was surveyed for the 2010 report it was no longer in use; residents describe it as abandoned and derelict by the end of the 1980s. Whether services were still held there after 1945, and when the congregation finally closed, is unknown. The fate of its Torah scrolls, furnishings and stained glass is likewise unknown.

Разрушение

The Voința Temple survived the Iron Guard pogrom of January 1941 and the Communist demolitions of the 1980s, which destroyed most of the synagogues of the old Jewish quarter; none of the sources consulted records damage to it in either episode. The Communists did not demolish it. By the late 1980s it stood empty and decaying. After the fall of the Communist regime it was sold. The 2010 report of the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad says that in a few cases in the 1990s synagogues were purchased and then demolished by the buyers, and that this was the fate of the Voința Temple on Dacia Avenue even though it was a listed national monument. The report does not name the buyer, the seller or the date. Two local residents writing online place the demolition in 1997: one saw it under way, when only a few walls were left, and recalled that one wall collapsed onto the roof of the neighbouring house without injuring anyone.

Судьба общины

No source consulted describes what happened to the members of the Voința congregation during or after the Second World War. Radio Romania International records that several Bucharest synagogues were damaged by the Iron Guard in 1941, during the Legionnaires' rebellion and pogrom, and that most of the surviving synagogues of the old Jewish quarters were demolished by Ceaușescu's Communist regime between 1984 and 1987; the Voința Temple is not named among the buildings harmed in either episode. Today, according to the same source, only three Jewish houses of worship in Bucharest remain in regular use, the Coral Temple, the Great Synagogue and the Holy Union Temple, serving a community of about 4,000 people. The fate of the Voința congregation, its last members and its religious objects is unknown.

Место сегодня

According to residents' accounts, the site of the Voința Temple on Bulevardul Dacia, near the junction with Calea Moșilor, is now occupied by a tall modern block housing the headquarters of Poșta Română, the Romanian postal service, at Bulevardul Dacia 140 in Sector 2. That identification comes from local memory and has not been confirmed by a cadastral plan or heritage-register entry, so the map pin marks the postal headquarters as an approximate location. No part of the synagogue is known to survive, and no marker recording it on the site has been reported.

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