The Dublin Hebrew Congregation synagogue on Rathfarnham Road is for sale, with an asking price of €7.5 million.
The distinctive building, with its five Star of David windows over 10 squared panels, was designed by Irish architect Wilfred Cantwell and dedicated in 1953. Members of the Orthodox congregation there are downsizing to smaller premises nearby.
Maurice Cohen, chairman of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland, said the decision to sell what is popularly known as “the Terenure synagogue” was “not a story of decline” so much as of changing patterns of practice among Jews in Ireland.
“As with most religions, attendance at services is not as great as it used to be,” he said.
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Such attendance was more a feature of Orthodox Judaism than of Progressive or secular Judaism, he said, and many among the growing Jewish population in Ireland belong to the latter two groups. According to the 2016 census there were 2,557 Jewish people in Ireland, an increase of 28.9 per cent on the 2011 figure of 1,984.
Much of that increase was attributed to employees of multinational companies working in Ireland. Because of this factor, it is expected that the 2016 figure will be exceeded when findings of the 2022 census are published.
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Mr Cohen said upkeep at the Terenure synagogue was “very expensive” and “numbers [in attendance at services] have gone down dramatically”.
This was being exacerbated as “the older generation passes away while younger people were less likely to attend. It is an issue Judaism is debating,” he said.
Younger people and Progressive Jews were “not as prayer-centric” as Orthodox Jews, he said.
In general the situation of Judaism in Ireland was healthy, he said. A new rabbi and his family are to arrive in Dublin next August, while the current rabbi, Zalman Lent, is to open a community centre in Rathmines, Dublin. There are now also Jewish communities in Cork, Limerick and Galway.
Services will continue for the moment at the Rathfarnham Road location, Mr Cohen said, adding that what was being planned there amounted to “pragmatic revitalisation and an acknowledgment of the dynamism any community experiences”.
