Cold Synagogue, Mogilev

The Cold Synagogue or Školišča Synagogue (Yiddish: די קאַלטע שול, Belarusian: Халодная сінагога на Школішчы) was a wooden synagogue located in Mogilev near the intersection of Vyalikaja Hramadzianskaya (now Grażdanskaya) and Pravaya Naberezhnaya Streets. It was established around 1680. There was a cheder next to the synagogue. The interior was almost entirely covered with magnificent polychromes made in 1740s by the Słuck painter Chaim ben Yitzchak ha-Levi Segal. In the beginning of the 20th century, several ethnographic expeditions, by Alexander Miller, S. An-sky and Solomon Yudovin, and by El Lissitzky and Issachar Ber Ryback documented and photographed interiors of the synagogue. After the article by Lissitzky, interior murals of the synagogue became quite famous in artistic circles. It was decided in 1918 that the synagogue was covered by legal protection by the state authorities, but despite of it the synagogue was closed in 1938 and then dismantled by the authorities. The photos, drawings, and article by El Lissitzky is almost all evidence that preserved.