New Synagogue

The New Synagogue was built in 1899, designed by the Jewish architect Gustav Landau Gutenteger from Łódź. It served as a private synagogue for progressives who, in the 1880s, had split from the community and maintained a large prayer house at 10 Aleja NMP (the so-called Rajcher Minyan). In 1893, they hired the renowned cantor Abram Ber Birnbaum, who led services, preached sermons, and later became cantor and preacher at the New Synagogue. He founded a Cantors’ School and the world’s first Cantors’ Union, which he led until his departure in 1913. He was succeeded by Cantor Abram Fiszel and preacher Dr. Chaim Zew Hirschberg. The synagogue was burned by the Germans on Christmas Day 1939. In the mid-1950s, the Jewish community transferred the building to the city for cultural purposes, and it was converted into the Częstochowa Philharmonic.