The wooden prayer hall was erected in Tomsk by Jews who'd been taken as children and forcefully conscripted to the Czar's army for 20 years
(July 17, 2025 / JNS) During preservation work this month on a rare wooden synagogue in Siberia—originally built nearly 120 years ago—workers uncovered a century-old scripture that had remained hidden in the attic since the Communists closed the building in 1930.
The scripture found at the Soldiers’ Synagogue in Tomsk is an annotated siddur, a prayer book containing a set order of daily, weekly and special prayers, Levy Kaminetsky, a Chabad emissary who in 2004 moved to the Russian city with his wife Gitty, told JNS.
The Soldiers’ Synagogue is one of just a few dozen wooden synagogues that dot Eastern Europe and Russia, many of which are falling into disrepair. The Russian government this year allocated tens of thousands of dollars toward renovating the building, which it gifted to the Jewish community in 2018. It has not served as a synagogue since 1930.