the synagogue at babyn yar:

turning a nightmare of evil into a shared dream of good

The first major massacre of the Holocaust took place over two days in September 1941 in the Babyn Yar ravine, Kyiv, Ukraine.

80 years on, honor was paid to those murdered during those unspeakable events through the creation by the visionary Swiss architect Manuel Herz of an extraordinary, jewel-like, wooden synagogue which now memorializes the history and horror of Babyn Yar, a living sanctuary of hope for humankind.

The exhibition was the 2023 headline project for Koffler Arts in Toronto, created in partnership by the Dutch-Canadian Historian and Curator Robert Jan van Pelt, the Swiss Architect Manuel Herz and the Ukrainian-Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky, together presenting the Babyn Yar synagogue for the first time in its full historical, political, artistic and spiritual contexts.

The Synagogue at Babyn Yar: Turning the Nightmares of Evil into a Shared Dream of Good includes a short presentation of the Babyn Yar massacre and its afterlife in both official Soviet and informal Jewish memory; the dramatic history of the Babyn Yar site after 1945; the current condition at Babyn Yar as an eloquent natural reserve and public park; the debate within the Architectural Board of the Babyn Yar Foundation on Jewish spatial and architectural traditions that triggered the idea to construct a synagogue; the key idea of Manuel Herz’s project in the double context of now utterly bygone East European Jewish architectural traditions and the tradition of the moveable pop-up books or Harlequinades; a documentation of the Synagogue’s design development; the remarkable mobilization of Ukrainian builders and artists that allowed for the construction of the synagogue in record time; the profoundly moving commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the massacre at the new synagogue in October 2021; the threats to the synagogue in the current war, and the profound significance of the synagogue for the future of Jewish architecture.

Key objects & moments

Historical photographs
Immersive photo murals
Models and objects of inspiration for the synagogue
Synagogue model (operational with gears, crank, bespoke music, lighting)
Contemplation theater with projection of Babyn Yar skyscape

exhibit specifications

1,600 - 3,500 sqft / 160 - 350 square meters
Available to museums globally, March 2024 - December 2031

The exhibition was conceived and created by Robert Jan van Pelt, Curator and Manuel Herz, Architect. Ukrainian murals specially photographed by Maxim Dondyuk and directed by Edward Burtynsky, and photographs of the Babyn Yar site by Iwan Baan. Exhibition originally produced and installed by Douglas Birkenshaw for Koffler Arts, now on an international tour with Dala Projects.