Timeline

Heritage classified

Key figures

Origin and history

The synagogue of Pavée Street, located at 10 Pavée Street in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, was built in 1913 by architect Hector Guimard for Agudas Hakehilos, a union of nine Orthodox Jewish communities of Russian origin. Financed by private funds, it symbolizes the massive immigration of Ashkenazi Jews into France at the beginning of the 20th century. Its agglomerated stone structure on reinforced concrete, typical of the innovations of the time, was inaugurated on 7 June 1914, although operational since October 1913. The famous Hazzan Gershon Sirota of Warsaw participated in the ceremony, but no representative of the Central Consistory attended.

Guimard's architecture, marked by a vertical rhythm and Art Nouveau decor (further furniture, luminaires, plant motifs in staff), reflects its evolution towards a more sober style after 1910. The building, small (5 m × 23 m), exploits the height with mezzanines and a zenithal canopy. Powered in 1941 by Nazi collaborators of the Revolutionary Social Movement, the synagogue was partially restored after the war, without regaining its original state. Today it remains an active Orthodox place of worship, inaccessible outside events such as Heritage Days.

The only religious building designed by Guimard, the synagogue was classified as a historical monument in 1989, including its liturgical furnishings. Its original plan, where the community halls precede the cultural space, illustrates the Orthodox will to integrate cult and social life, contrasting with the constitutory synagogues. Hazzanim Elinke Hirschin and Simon Pessine (died in Auschwitz in 1944) were among other notable figures, such as the rabbis Joël Leib Herzog and Chaim Yaakov Rottenberg, whose son Mordechai now heads the community.

External links