The Grand Edirne Synagogue in Turkey that went through renovation from 2010 until the beginning of 2015 with funding from General Directorate for Foundations will open its doors again on March 26th after a special ceremony. Jewish community head, İshak İbrahimzadeh, who visited the synagogue before the opening ceremony, said the opening of the restored synagogue was a milestone that made him very happy.

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç and Turkey’s chief rabbi, İshak Haleva, will attend the opening, along with many other Jewish community members from both Turkey and abroad. Faina Kukliansky Lithuanian Jewish (Litvaks) Community chairperson was invited byDeputy Prime Minister  of Turkey H.E. Bülent Arınç to take part in the ceremony marking the reopening of the historic Grand Synagogue of Edirne, a town known as Adrianople in ancient times; became the second capital of the Ottoman Empire in  the 14th century A.D. before Istanbul, and it preserved its importance as the most prominent imperial city in the Balkan domains for centuries to come. Jews lived for at least twenty centuries in Edirne, a city that once was the center of Jewish life in the Balkans Region. However, today there aren’t any Jews living in the city.

The Grand Synagogue in Edirne was built during the reign of Sultan Abdul Hamid II by the architectural model of the famous Leopoldstädter Tempel in Vienna in Moorish style and opened to worship in 1907. It was known as the second largest synagogue in Europe at that time. However, it fell into disrepair in the following decades and finally abandoned in 1983.