Leon I. Bakhman

Born Lev Isakovich Bakhman in Russian Imperial Kishinev (today Chișinău, Moldova), Leon Bakhman was the first Jewish student enrolled at the St. Petersburg Academy of Fine Arts, where he completed his studies in the 1850s. Bakhman worked as a graphic illustrator for many years before collaborating with Ivan Shaposhnikov on the neo-Byzantine and Moorish revival Grand Choral Synagogue in St. Petersburg; though construction ended after eight years in 1888, the synagogue was not consecrated until 1893. The grand, imposing building, which needed permission from the tsar in order to be built, testifies to the prosperity and prominence of the Jewish community in this city, which was outside the Pale of Settlement and for which Jews needed special residence permits.