First Synagogue Since WWII Opens in Estonia
TALLINN, Estonia — Jewish leaders and politicians from Estonia and Israel celebrated the opening of the Baltic country's first and only synagogue yesterday, six decades after previous houses of worship were destroyed in World War II.
President Ilves of Estonia and Vice Premier Shimon Peres of Israeli cut the ribbon at the front of the $2 million, 180-seat ultramodern synagogue in Tallinn after the Torah scrolls were brought inside amid music and dancing. "You can burn down a building, but you cannot burn down a prayer. And we are a praying people," Mr. Peres said.
Tallinn's previous synagogue, built in 1883, was destroyed in 1944 in air raids as Nazi troops fled the Red Army's advance. A university town southeast of the capital, Tartu, also had a synagogue, but it too was destroyed during the war.
Some 5,000 Jews lived in Estonia prior to World War II, with cultural autonomy declared by the government in 1926. The Soviet occupation of Estonia in 1940 ended the that autonomy, and hundreds of Jews were deported, as were thousands of other Estonians.
When the Nazis invaded in 1941, a majority in the Jewish community managed to escape to the Soviet Union, but the roughly 1,000 Jews who remained behind were sent to concentration camps around Estonia.
