Synagogue, Religious building in New City North, Switzerland

The synagogue in Biel is a long rectangular masonry building with a gabled roof, standing gable-end to Rüschlistrasse. Four corner towers barely project from the facades, topped by onion domes, and an octagonal lantern with round windows crowns the ridge. The long sides have three window axes with horseshoe arches above rectangular lower sections; round windows with Stars of David close the narrow sides, and the west facade bears the tablets of the Law.

Jews were barred from settling in Biel from 1450 to 1830. After legal equality under the Bernese constitution of 1846, the Israelitische Corporation Biel formed two years later, and in 1858 the community fitted out a prayer room in a former indienne manufactory. In 1882 it bought a plot beside Leo Heer's printing works; architects August Eduard Haag and Johann Jacob Frey designed the synagogue, handed over on 7 September 1883 with a consecration sermon by Geneva's chief rabbi Joseph Wertheimer.

The building reflects how the Jewish community made a home in this city and established their religious practices here. The interior layout follows Orthodox traditions, with distinct spaces arranged to serve different groups of worshippers.

The synagogue stands at Rüschlistrasse 3 in the Neustadt Nord quarter, southwest of Biel's old town, opposite the NMB Neue Museum Biel. The entrance portal and round window are joined under one arch on the west facade, where the Hebrew inscription over the door lintel is worth pausing for. The building is protected as a cantonal cultural property, so visits depend on the community; the prayer hall is reached from the street side.

The twelve round stained-glass windows with biblical themes from the Torah were made in 1995 by the Israeli artist Robert Nechin from En Hod. The corner towers only regained their onion domes in 1999, after they had been removed in 1956.