Oct. 3, 2011, 4:06 p.m.
The synagogue that is in existence today was founded in 1885; it replaced the older wooden temple - according to a local legend - built for the Jews by the Dominican brothers. During The Second World War the nazis placed here firemen barn. After 1945 it served successively as car depot, storehouse magazin.
The history of Jewish community in Sejny reaches the end of the 18th century. First synagogue - a wooden one, covered with shingle - was constructed in 1778. It was prior Bortkiewicz from the Dominican order (they were owners of the town those days) who gave special permission for this construction. In 1885 rabbi Moses Becalel Luria started a new brick temple, which replaced the wooden one. This is the temple that is in existence today. The name White Synagogue came from the color of the elevation and the temple’s interior. It is an eclectic construction with the elements of gothic, neoclassicism, and baroque.
There are three aisles in the synagogue. On the eastern side there is niche where the Torah used to be kept. During the Second World War the building Germans used the temple as firemen barn. It survived the war, however. But the disgrace and dilapidation of the miraculously-saved building continued after 1945: it served successively as car depot, storehouse magazine, and a fertilizer store. The renovation of the building started in 1978 and lasted until 1987. In 1990 the town gave the building to the Borderland. Now it contains White Synagogue Gallery, and the Borderland Tiny-Bookstore. It is also a meeting-point, scientific conferences, exhibitions, concerts, and theater performances.
