What to visit today: the new Synagogue
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What to visit today: the new Synagogue

The new Synagogue was built in 1962 on a design by the architect Angelo Di Castro.

In the period following World War Two, the Jewish community had to choose between rebuilding the old synagogue or building a new one.  They opted for a new project, with the wish to create “ a monument to Jewish life, that can take on a symbolic significance as it involved a large, ancient community with a strong rabbinic tradition”, after the tragic events of the war.  (source: wikipedia)

The project was handed to the architect Angelo Di Castro from Roma, who created a design made from reinforced concrete in the same area where the old Temple stood. It is an original, daring construction that the designer based on the Tent in the desert, in memory of the Exodus.

The large hall has a slab in the centre, on which the Teba is placed, made from marble taken from the ruins of the old Synagogue, so that the testimony of the lost temple's glory could remain. An eighteenth-century wooden Ekhal is positioned opposite the Teba, which was recovered from the synagogue in Pesaro. The women’s gallery is on the first floor behind the Teba, accessed by two lateral staircases, completing the temple's internal architecture. In the high part of the apse, in the east, there is a red-coloured window, that reflects a colour onto the interior of the synagogue to remember the blood spilled by six million Jews during the Holocaust. The three “cowls” on the three portals are works by the sculptor Gino Marotta from Naples. Underground there is an oratory, faithfully reconstructed by the Cardini brothers of Querceta using the original stone from the Lampronti oratory donated by the Ferrara community. The wooden Aron doors have been accurately reproduced by the sculptor Mainardi from Livorno.

A building housing the Community Offices, the Archive and the Rabbi's residence was also designed by the architect Angelo di Castro, next to the Synagogue and connected to it by an underground passage. The new synagogue was inaugurated with a solemn ceremony on 23 October 1962, made possible by funding from the Italian State and from funds collected worldwide. 

The Oratorio Lampronti is currently used as a winter Synagogue, replacing the Higher Temple that is used during the Pesah-Succot period.

Both buildings can be visited on request, by telephoning the Community administration office. 

(Source: http://moked.it/livornoebraica/nuova-sinagoga)