Kaposvár

The history of the Jewish community of Kaposvár goes back to the first few decades of the nineteenth century. The educational and social services were up and running by 1840 and the construction of the synagogue was completed in 1862. The building was extended in 1906. According to the photographs that remained of the synagogue, it was a building with a simple facade and a pitched roof. The women’s gallery was supported by a modern iron structure and the temple had a Torah Ark decorated with three twin-columns. Most of the 2,400 Jews of Kaposvár were killed in the Holocaust and the decimated community was no longer able to maintain the synagogue and sold it to the town in 1974. The town decided to blow up the then 118 year old synagogue in 1980 claiming that it stood in the way. Only the bronze tablets of the Ten Commandments remained more or less unharmed under the debris. The tablet containing the first five commandments remained totally intact, while the other tablet containing the other five of the commandments, among them ones on respect and honor between people was severely damaged. Both tablets stand today on the plot of the former temple as a monument to commemorate the synagogue that once stood there.