Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art, Sinagoga da Abolição, Templo Israelita Brasileiro Ohel Yaacov

     

    District: Bela Vista – São Paulo – SP – Brasil

      Location: Abolição Street and Cravinhos Street

   Foundation:  In 1924: beginning of the construction of the first building, in Abolição Street

     Project: The original synagogue building, which was completed in 1928, was inaugurated in 1929. Mr. Nelson Benbassat was the architect who designed and built the second building of the Abolition Street Synagogue (there was a need to expand the space), after winning a project competition in 1958. In 1959, the “foundation stone” of the rebuilding of the synagogue took place, with the support of several families, including the Safra family in 1961. In 2003 the synagogue area was sold and religious services did not happen anymore in this building in the Abolição Street. In October 2005, the building was demolished. Religious services began to take place in a rented space, on Caçapava Street, in the B’nai Brith building. On August 21, 2008, the “foundation stone” of the new synagogue, located at Cravinhos Street, was placed, and on May 9, 2012,  the first phase of the synagogue was inaugurated.

  The synagogue received several denominations: “Sephardim Community of São Paulo” or Israelite Sephardic Community of São Paulo, Israelite Temple of the Portuguese Rite in 1946, or Brazilian Israeli Synagogue Shaar Hashamaim (from 1958), and Brazilian Israeli Temple Ohel Yaacov from 1963, a name that remains until our days.

   

Description of the building: The Synagogue of Abolition, as it is still known today, was built and rebuilt … yet it maintained the internal disposition of its banks, Bimah, and Aron Hakodesh in all the phases through which it passed. The first building had a landscaped recess at the front, side stairs joined at the entrance of the synagogue, with access through a double door, with arch at the top. On the building facade, on top, a circular window with a Maguen David, and three vertical windows on the sides. The men’s sector was on the first floor. The wooden benches on this floor, unlike the Ashkenazi synagogues already described, followed the pattern of Sephardim synagogues: they were facing to the central corridor of the synagogue, three rows on each side. The female sector was located on the upper floor, from which it was possible to accompany the prayers. On the side of the synagogue, there was a large space, where the children had fun as they went to the synagogue and where meetings were possible. The celebrations, as well as other activities, took place in a large hall, inside the synagogue. The second building, rebuilt, occupied the former yard, the facade was on the edge of the sidewalk, and large colored stained glass windows, created by Conrad, illuminated the interior of the synagogue. The banks in this second synagogue were also facing to the central corridor, and were marked with the names of their goers. It had four levels. At the entrance, on a lowered floor, the party room, a kitchen and bathrooms. The first floor, with access by two lateral stairs, had the male sector and the room of the Cohanim. A side ladder provided access to the female section. Another floor, a space for children, for teenagers and for the organ of the synagogue. On this floor was a terrace.

      

Chazanim: Elias Mizrahi, Assilam Cohen, David Souccar, Alberto Simon Levi, Moises Seruya, Jacob Mazaltov

      Current situation: The Synagogue at Rua Cravinhos has 2,705 square meters, a synagogue for 580 people, a smaller one for 100 people, a party room for 500 people, teaching rooms, lecture centers, library, auditorium and living area, Institute of Music, Kolel for young people and “after school program”. The original stained glass windows that were part of the synagogue on Abolition Street were restored and used in this building.