Synagogue

This is currently the only preserved synagogue in the Olsztyn district.

The construction of the first synagogue in Memel was initiated and financed in 1835 by the lumbermen Mordechai Wasbutzki and Meir Lifschitz. It was a square building with an entrance on the side of Synagogenstr. In the spring of 1939, after the Memel area was rejoined to Germany, the destruction took place. The area has not been rebuilt until the present.
Note: Sometimes there is the designation Polish School or also prayer house (Because there was only one official synagogue was allowed to exist on site).

In 1816 the stone synagogue was built. When in 1914 during World War I large parts of the city burned down, the synagogue building was also badly damaged. Pictures show that only the outer walls were preserved. In 1923 a reconstruction or a new building was planned, but this was not realized due to lack of money. The reconstruction carried out in 1930 retained the outer walls. The (no longer existing) mansard roof with curved gables was replaced by a hip roof 

A large fire  destroyed the entire city center in 1925, including the then wooden synagogue. The subsequently rebuilt synagogue was completed in 1928, with some rebuilding up to 1936.  At the end of June 1941, SS men from nearby Heydekrug locked up Jewish men from the town in the synagogue and later transported them away.

After the war from 1945, the building was used as a cultural center, and later as a warehouse and sports hall. After that, it stood empty for many years. Since 2007, the building has been renovated.

The house of learning was founded by Yisroel (Lipkin) Salanter. The new building was initiated by Rabbi Isaac Rülf, who collected numerous donations. The inauguration took place on September 25, 1875, with great public attention. The opening speech was given by the eminent Taimudist Leibush ben Jechiel Michael Weiser, called Malbim. The Teaching House also called Litvak synagogue was the center of the Jews coming from Lithuania.

The small brick synagogue was built in 1860 in what was then Wormditter Street. On the occasion of the opening, the "Ermländische Aussteuerverein" was founded by those present to support poor Jewish girls. After the turn of the century, the small community could no longer afford a rabbi. The cult officials changed frequently. In 1938 the synagogue was sold to the local Baptist congregation. Nevertheless, during the Reichspogromnacht there was devastation inside the building. During the fighting in the spring of 1945, the building was destroyed, and the remains were later leveled.

The village of Rosenberg (now Susz) belonged to the German Reich in West Prussia and at times in East Prussia until 1945. In the November pogrom night of 1938 most of the synagogues were destroyed. This preserved synagogue building is one of the few exceptions - it resembles the synagogue in Mrągowo (Sensburg) with its unplastered brick, exterior decoration and square floor plan. The museum of local history displays a model of the old town from the 1930s. The museum is open on the first Sunday of the month and by appointment by telephone.

The synagogue in Meseritz was built after a fire in the Jewish quarter and is a successor building of the original synagogue. It was built in the late classicist style. Since the synagogue came through the Progromnacht unscathed, but was repurposed as a storage room, it was preserved, but the condition of the building fabric was so bad due to lack of preservation, the Jewish community had to give up the synagogue due to scarce financial resources. Therefore, a private investor converted it into a commercial building.

On November 9, 1764, the new synagogue was consecrated in what was then Juden-Kirch-Straße 44, now Mennonitenkirchstraße.

Before that, the service had been held in the house of Krefeld's Mendel Meyer ab, which today, unfortunately, can no longer be located exactly.

The first leader of the community was Baer Abraham Onderich from Metz. For this synagogue, the banker Isaac Meyer donated ten years later a bench for cultic purposes (circumcision), which is preserved to this day and is with the Jewish community in Krefeld.

Since 1978, the Jewish community had rented premises on the second floor of the house Wiedstraße 17 for conversion into a prayer hall. This prayer room could be occupied in 1981. By the growing number of members of the congregation the place was hardly sufficient already in the 1990s.