Menorah center, Dnipro

Menorah center
Menorah center
	"Menorah center" general view, Golden Rose synagogue
Location
Location	Sholom-Aleikhema St., 4/26, Dnipro, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine, 49500
Geographic coordinates	48°27′50″N 35°03′12″E / 48.46389°N 35.05333°E
Architecture
Completed	2012

The Menorah center (Ukrainian: Центр "Менора") is a cultural and business center of the Jewish community in Dnipro in Southern Ukraine. Some sources declare it to be the biggest multifunctional Jewish community center in Europe^[1] or in the world.^[2] The heart of the complex is the historic Golden Rose central synagogue, built in the 19th century.

Conception

The idea to create Menorah center, as one of the biggest such centers in the world, belongs to the President of the Dnipropetrovsk Jewish community Gennadiy Bogolyubov^[3] and the President of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine (also the founder of European Jewish Union) Ihor Kolomoyskyi. They both provided full financial support for the project implementation. The supposed concept of the Menorah center construction is to combine three functional elements (spirituality, culture and business) in one complex building. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, was born in Nikolayev, Ukraine, but raised in Dnipro, then known as Yekatrinoslav, where his father served as chief rabbi until his 1939 arrest by Soviet authorities.

Dedication

The dedication ceremony of the Menorah center took place on October 16, 2012, with guests that included Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Yaakov Bleich, Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel Shlomo Amar, Israel Minister of Information and Diaspora Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovitch, representatives of Jewish institutions (including Hillel, the Jewish Agency, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee), Ukrainian state and local authorities, and diplomatic corps.^[4]

General description

The center is built in the shape of a seven-branched synagogue candelabrum (menorah). It consists of seven marble^[2] towers, the highest of which is 20 stories (77 m.) tall.^[5] The construction has total floor area of about 50,000 sq.m. There are a synagogue, museums, office premises, shopping spaces, publishing house, art galleries, kosher restaurants and cafes, conference halls, banquet halls, a luxury hotel, youth hostel, classrooms, tourist information center, visa center of Israel. General project design was made by architect Alexander Sorin.

Signs and labels in Menorah are written in four languages - English, Ukrainian, Russian and Hebrew. The official address of the center is Sholom-Aleikhema St., 4/26, Dnipro, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, 49500, Ukraine.

One of the center's declared priorities is to use business profits for funding charitable projects.^[6] The presumed purpose is to serve Jewish community of about 30,000 in Dnipro and its other population disregarding background.^[2]

Opinions about the Menorah center

Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetsky — chief Rabbi of Dnipropetrovsk region:

The idea here is also to build a presence, a great beacon of light that tells the Jews of Ukraine: ‘We are here. Come join us. The time for hiding is over.^[1]

Chaim Chesler — founder of Limmud in the former Soviet Union:

During my lifetime I have visited hundreds of Jewish sites throughout the world, but I have never seen such an extraordinary complex of buildings and I doubt if I will ever do so again.^[5]

Beth Moskowitz — representative of Boston's Jewish Community Relation Council:

We all thought that there would be no Jews here today in 2012. And to see the amount of Jews that actually take part in the Menorah center and in the synagogue, in the Golden Rose synagogue, the activities here—it’s hard to believe. I actually think this is the center for Jewish community and the center for thriving and there has been an incredible revival.^[7]

Activities

Business forum “Ukraine is a country of entrepreneurs” for young business people was hosted by the Menora center on November 24, 2016. More than 400 representatives of small and medium-size enterprises took part in that forum.

The Ukrainian Association of Patriots (UKROP Party) held there its conference and a general meeting of supporters from all over Ukraine in November, 2016.

Some Ukrainian Jewish refugees from armed conflict zone in Donetsk and Luhansk regions have used the Menorah center facilities for resettlement and rehabilitation.^[8]

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Menorah Center has become a center for humanitarian aid to refugees who have fled the various battle zones.^[9] It is also said to sheltering its patron, Ihor Kolomoyskyi.^[10]

Infrastructure

Synagogue

Golden Rose central synagogue.

Museums

Museum "Jewish Memory and Holocaust in Ukraine".^[11]

It is the largest in the former Soviet Union.^[5] It covers 3,000 sq.m. and use up-to-date technologies (multimedia installations, video and audio records broadcasts, hologram images). The museum has the information center, libraries, classrooms.