The Central Synagogue was founded by the multi-millionaire  Lazar Brodsky, 1989. It was not possible to get permission to build the Synagogue at once, because the tsarist authorities at that time restricted the rights of Kiev’ Jewish community. Brodsky had to resort to a ruse. His appeal to the Senate contained the design of a side facade that looked like the facade of an ordinary building, only part of which was going to be used as a meetinghouse. In 1926 the Soviet authorities closed the synagogue. After the war it was reconstructed as a theatre. The puppet theatre was situated here until 1997. Nowadays the synagogue has been restored.