A short walk from Kitay-gorod, the Moscow Choral Synagogue has served as the principal Jewish house of worship in the Russian capital since the end of the 19th century. The exterior is deliberately urbane, a classical composition of columns and pediment crowned by a dome, designed to take its place among the city's civic architecture. Inside, the prayer hall opens under painted vaults, with the ark, the reading platform and the galleries organising a space built for a large congregation and for choral liturgy. The building's history follows that of Russian Jewry itself, through restriction, war, the Soviet decades and revival. Filmed in 4K, the programme reads the architecture, the ritual furnishings and the ornament, and observes the life of a congregation for which the synagogue remains a centre of gravity.
