Site_Synagogue - Old Jewish Synagogue

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My Grandfather’s Shtetl

Old Jewish Synagogue
We left the Jewish Memorial Monument feeling emotionally drained and drove back towards town turning left down a small unsealed side road with old houses on either side. These would have been Jewish Family houses and part of the Ghetto during the war. Rounding the corner to our right we pulled up beside the old Jewish Synagogue which stood on the left hand side of the road depicting the No 5 on the building. The synagogue appeared quite derelict and in need of repair. It was sad to see the state of what once would have been a thriving shul full of activity.

Here Grandfather Lejb Zelcer would have had his Bar Mitzvah.

We obtained a Marriage Record document from the Biala Podlaska Civil Registry Office regarding Lejb’s brother Izaak Zelcer from Wolczyn “who announced three times in the Wolczyn Synagogue on the 3^rd, 8^th, and 10^th of October 1936 that he was to marry Estera-Malka Rotenberg of Biala Podlaska“. Note: Wolczyn is the Polish spelling of Volchin. We wanted to explore inside the old synagogue but unfortunately the door had a big padlock on it. The covered porch over the front door of the synagogue as Andrea Simon had seen it in 1997 had now collapsed to the ground and lay to the side of the building. The water well that Ann Williams had recalled collecting water from as a child was still in use and an old man appeared to be living in a small new brick building in the grounds of the synagogue. Ann Williams family the Berizovski’s lived opposite the synagogue but we weren’t sure exactly which house it was. An old wooden outhouse (toilet) stood behind the synagogue and there was also an old wooden house within the grounds with a sunken in roof. We helped ourselves to some apples off the trees as Ann had said they were very good for eating.