Synagogue

Eldridge Street Synagogue in New York City, U.S.
Princes Road Synagogue in Liverpool, England
Exterior of Helsinki Synagogue in Helsinki, Finland
Yusef Abad Synagogue in Tehran, Iran
El Ghriba Synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia
Interior of the Samaritan synagogue in Nablus circa 1920
Aerial view of the synagogue of the Kaifeng Jewish community in China.
Ner tamid of the Abudarham Synagogue in Gibraltar
Sarajevo Synagogue, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (1902)
Congregation Emanu-El of New York
The Belz Great Synagogue (2000)
Choral Synagogue of Moscow
Interior of the Synagogue of Szeged
Interior of the Great Synagogue of Florence
Ashkenazi Synagogue, Sarajevo
Congregants inside the Great Beth Midrash Gur
Sardis Synagogue (3rd century AD) Sardis, Turkey
Fresco at the Dura-Europos synagogue, illustrating a scene from the Book of Esther, 244 CE.
The Paradesi Synagogue in Jew Town, Kochi, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Touro Synagogue, the oldest surviving synagogue building in the U.S.
Touro Synagogue, the oldest surviving synagogue building in the U.S.
Painting of the interior of the Portuguese Synagogue (Amsterdam) by Emanuel de Witte (c. 1680)
First century synagogue at Gamla
First century synagogue at Masada
First century synagogue at Magdala
First century synagogue at Herodium
Mosaic in the Tzippori Synagogue
Ruins of the ancient synagogue of Kfar Bar'am
Central Synagogue of Aleppo, Aleppo, Syria (5th century)
Paradesi Synagogue, Kochi, India (1568)
Sofia Synagogue, Sofia, Bulgaria (1909)
Beth Sholom Congregation, Elkins Park, USA (1959)
Great Synagogue of Jerusalem (1982)
Ohel Jakob synagogue, Munich, Germany (2006)
Bimah of the Saluzzo Synagogue, Saluzzo, Italy
Bimah of the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, USA
Cast-iron Bimah of the Old Synagogue in Kraków, Poland
The Great Synagogue of Tunis, Tunisia
The Zarzis Synagogue, Tunisia
The Old Synagogue (Erfurt) is the oldest intact synagogue building in Europe.
The New Synagogue in Berlin, Germany
The main synagogue of the city of Frankfurt am Main (Germany) before the Kristallnacht
The Roonstrasse Synagogue in Cologne, Germany
Beth Yaakov Synagogue, Switzerland
The Great Synagogue of Basel in Basel, Switzerland
The Turku Synagogue in Turku, Finland
The Grand Choral Synagogue of St. Petersburg, Russia
The Great Synagogue of Santiago, Chile
The Synagogue in the Gerard Doustraat in Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, Netherlands
The Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest, Hungary
Synagogue, Szombathely, Hungary
Gothic interior of the 13th-century Old New Synagogue of Prague, Czech Republic
The Great Synagogue in Plzeň, Czech Republic
The Lesko Synagogue in Lesko, Poland
The Bobowa Synagogue in Bobowa, Poland
Sukkat Shalom Synagogue in Belgrade, Serbia
Jakab and Komor Square Synagogue in Subotica, Serbia
The Jewish Street Synagogue in Novi Sad, Serbia
Kadoorie Synagogue in Porto, Portugal, the largest synagogue in the Iberian Peninsula
The Baal Shem Tov's shul in Medzhybizh, Ukraine (c. 1915), destroyed and recently rebuilt.
The Cymbalista Synagogue and Jewish Heritage Center at Tel Aviv University
The synagogue of Kherson, Ukraine
Or Zaruaa Synagogue, Jerusalem, Israel founded in 1926.
The Hurva Synagogue towered over the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem from 1864 until 1948, when it was destroyed in war
The remains of the Hurva Synagogue as they appeared from 1977 to 2003. The synagogue has been rebuilt in 2010.
The Ashkenazi Synagogue of Istanbul, Turkey
The interior of a Karaite synagogue
The Paradesi Synagogue in Kochi, India
The Great Choral Synagogue in Kyiv, Ukraine
Great Synagogue of Rome, Italy
Abuhav synagogue, Israel
Ari Ashkenazi Synagogue, Israel
Santa María la Blanca, Spain
Córdoba Synagogue, Spain
El Transito Synagogue, Spain
Sofia Synagogue, Bulgaria
The Choral Temple, Bucharest, Romania
Synagogue of Târgu Mureș, Romania
Interior of a "caravan shul" (synagogue housed in a trailer-type facility), Neve Yaakov, Jerusalem
Ohev Sholom – The National Synagogue in Washington, D.C.
Sanctuary ark, Lincoln Square Synagogue, New York City (2013), created by David Ascalon
The Central Synagogue in Manhattan, New York City
Temple Emanu-El, Neo-Byzantine style synagogue in Miami Beach, Florida
Bevis Marks Synagogue, City of London, the oldest synagogue in the United Kingdom
Stockholm Synagogue, Sweden
Brisbane Synagogue, Australia

Jewish house of worship.

- Synagogue

500 related topics

Relevance

Jewish prayer

Prayer recitation that forms part of the observance of Rabbinic Judaism.

Morning Prayer, 2005.
Jews praying in Jerusalem (HaKotel HaMaaravi), 2010.
Rabbi Yisrael Meir HaCohen Kagan—the "Chofetz Chaim"—at prayer towards the end of his life.
An Israeli soldier lays tefillin at the Western Wall (Kotel) prior to prayer.
Members of the Israel Defense Forces' Givati Brigade pray the Evening Service (Ma'ariv) at the Western Wall, October 2010.
IDF soldier, Asael lubotzky prays with tefillin.
Minyan Ma'ariv prayer in a Jaffa Tel Aviv flea-market shop
Jewish women praying by the Western Wall, early 1900s
Women praying in the Western Wall tunnel at the closest physical point to the Holy of Holies

Synagogues may designate or employ a professional or lay hazzan (cantor) for the purpose of leading the congregation in prayer, especially on Shabbat or holidays.

Sanctuary

Sacred place, such as a shrine.

Sanctuary marker (S) at Holyrood Abbey, Royal Mile, Edinburgh
Ajax violates Cassandra's sanctuary at the Palladium: tondo of an Attic cup, ca. 440–430 BCE
The sanctuary at St. Mary's Cathedral, Sydney
The back of the church sanctuary at Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew.
The Church as a Place of Refuge
Remains of one of four medieval stone boundary markers for the sanctuary of Saint John of Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire

In most modern synagogues, the main room for prayer is known as the sanctuary, to contrast it with smaller rooms dedicated to various other services and functions.

Place of worship

Specially designed structure or space where individuals or a group of people such as a congregation come to perform acts of devotion, veneration, or religious study.

The Erechtheion in Athens, Greece, is associated with some of the most ancient and holy relics of the Athenians, such as the Palladion, a xoanon of Athena Polias

Temples, churches, mosques, and synagogues are examples of structures created for worship.

Yom Kippur

Holiest day of the year in Judaism.

Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur, by Maurycy Gottlieb (1878)
On the eve of Yom Kippur by Jakub Weinles
Cliffs of Mount Azazel
Ayalon Highway in Tel Aviv, empty of cars on Yom Kippur 2004
Sandy Koufax
Gabe Carimi

Jews traditionally observe this holy day with a day-long fast, confession, and intensive prayer, often spending most of the day in synagogue services.

Beth midrash

Hall dedicated for Torah study, often translated as a "study hall."

A typical Beth Midrash, Yeshivas Ner Yisroel, Baltimore.
Zal, Toras Emes Yeshiva, Jerusalem
Beth Midrash - Machon HaGavoah LeTorah, Bar-Ilan University

It is distinct from a synagogue (beth knesset), although the two are often coextensive.

Mikveh

Bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity.

A contemporary mikveh at the Temple Beth-El synagogue in Birmingham, Alabama
Pool of a medieval mikveh in Speyer, dating back to 1128
Excavated mikveh in Qumran
Modern mikveh – schematic illustration
Medieval Mikveh room in the old Synagogue of Sopron, Hungary, which dates to the 14th century
A medieval mikveh in Besalú, Spain
A mikveh from Boskovice in the Czech Republic
Mikvah Mei Chaya Mushka in Crown Heights, Brooklyn
The mikveh at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, California
Restored mikveh in White Stork Synagogue, Wroclaw, Poland.

The existence of a mikveh is considered so important that a Jewish community is required to construct a mikveh even before building a synagogue, and must go to the extreme of selling Torah scrolls, or even a synagogue if necessary, to provide funding for its construction.

Shofar

Ancient musical horn typically made of a ram's horn, used for Jewish religious purposes.

Shofar
Shofar
Blowing the shofar
Shofar (by Alphonse Lévy Caption says: "To a good year"
At Old Jerusalem's Rabban Yochanan ben Zakai Synagogue, a flask of oil and a shofar await the Mashiach.
Jewish "Slichot" prayer service with shofar during the Days of Repentance preceding Yom Kippur at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, 2008.
Yemenite Jew blowing the shofar, late 1930s
Cross section of an animal's horn. To make a shofar, the bone (crosshatches) and fleshy sheath (white) are removed, leaving the actual horn.
Shlomo Goren blowing the shofar in front of the Western Wall, June 1967
A musician blows the shofar during a performance by Shlomo Bar, 2009.
A Dall Sheep with horns.
Greater Kudu, Namibia.
A small shofar made from a ram's horn.
A shofar made from the horn of a Greater kudu.
A small shofar made from a ram's horn.
A Jewish Haredi man blowing a Shofar, 2012
Hasidic Jew, blowing the kudu shofar in Uman, Ukraine, 2010
A Jewish Israeli man blows the shofar at the Western Wall, Jerusalem.

The shofar is blown in synagogue services on Rosh Hashanah and at the end of Yom Kippur; it is also blown every weekday morning in the month of Elul running up to Rosh Hashanah.

Temple menorah

Described in the Hebrew Bible as a seven-branched candelabrum used in the Tabernacle and in the Temple in Jerusalem.

A reconstruction of the Menorah of the Temple created by the Temple Institute
Maimonides' drawing of the menorah.
Depiction of the menorah on a modern replica of the Arch of Titus in Rome, displayed in the Beit Hatfutsot: Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv.
Stone with menorah that was found in the archaeological site Magdala.
Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by Francesco Hayez. The menorah is carried away by Roman soldiers, on the bottom-left corner. Oil on canvas, 1867.
Painting on Genseric sacking Rome by Karl Bryullov (1833-1836), depicting the menorah taken away by the Vandals.
Seven-branched menorah, Eshtemoa synagogue (4th–5th century CE). Rockefeller Museum
19th century Hanukkah menorah from Austria-Hungary. Musée d'Art et d'Histoire du Judaïsme
150x150px
225x225px
The Emblem of Israel shows a menorah surrounded by an olive branch on each side and the writing "ישראל" (Israel) based on its depiction on the Arch of Titus.
The Knesset Menorah outside the Knesset (Israeli Parliament).
The Jewish Legion cap badge: menorah and word קדימה Kadima (forward)
Menorah monument at Jewish Cemetery of Theresienstadt concentration camp
Menorah monument to the 33,771 Jews murdered at Babi Yar, Ukraine
Menorah memorial of the State of Israel with memorial wreaths, KZ Mauthausen memorial, Austria
Second Temple period stone tablet from a synagogue in Peki'in, Israel
Drawing from a prayer book depicting the lighting of the Menorah, 1738, from the collections of the National Library of Israel
In this 1806 French print, the woman with the menorah represents the Jews being emancipated by Napoleon Bonaparte
Kippa and menorah from the Harry S Truman collection
The menorah presented to Tsar Boris III from the Bulgarian Jewish community (Tsarska Bistritsa)
Sephardic style menorah from Spain
A menorah on the flag of Iglesia ni Cristo
Fray Juan Ricci (1600–1681), sketch of the menorah as described in Exodus, undated. Biblioteca Statale del Monumento Nazionale di Monte Cassino, cod. 469, fol. 199v
Illustration of menorah published in Acta Eruditorum, 1709

As a symbol, the menorah has been used since then to distinguish Jewish synagogues and cemeteries from those of Christians and pagans.

Romaniote Jews

The Romaniote Jews or the Romaniotes (Ῥωμανιῶτες, Rhomaniótes; רומניוטים) are a Greek-speaking ethnic Jewish community native to the Eastern Mediterranean.

Members of the Romaniote Greek Jewish Community of Volos: rabbi Moshe Pesach (front left) with his sons (back). Prior to 1940.
Mosaic floor of a Jewish synagogue in Greece, built 300 AD, Aegina.
Colonel Mordechai Frizis (1893–1940) from the ancient Romaniote Greek Jewish community of Chalkis with his wife Victoria.
Moshe Pesach, Chief Rabbi of the Romaniote Greek Jewish community of Volos, Greece in 1939.
View on the Torah Ark of the Kehila Kedosha Yashan Synagogue of Ioannina with the typical Romaniote Shadayot (Votive offerings similar to the Byzantine Christian tradition) hanging on the Parochet and a Romaniote "Aleph" on the right side (a circumcision certificate with Berachot (mostly the Shiviti) and ancestral details).
Kehila Kedosha Janina, New York
A woman weeps during the deportation of the Jews of Ioannina on March 25, 1944. The majority of the Jews deported were murdered on or shortly after April 11, 1944, when their train reached Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Municipal Ethnographic Museum of Ioannina with Romaniote items
Statue of Mordechai Frizis in Chalkida

Today there are still functioning Romaniote synagogues in Chalkis, which represents the oldest Jewish congregation on European soil, Ioannina, Veria, Athens, New York and Israel.

Masada

Ancient fortification in the Southern District of Israel situated on top of an isolated rock plateau, akin to a mesa.

Aerial view of Masada, from the north
A caldarium (hot room) in northern Roman-style public bath (#35 on plan)
Funeral to the human remains unearthed at Masada, 1969
Model of the northern palace
Set of three Masada commemorative stamps, issued by Israel in 1965
The Northern Palace's lower terrace (#39 on plan)
Stepped pool interpreted by Yadin as a Herodian swimming pool, possibly used as a public ritual immersion bath (mikveh) by the rebels (#17 on plan)<ref name="OConnor">{{cite book |title=The Holy Land: An Oxford Archaeological Guide from Earliest Times to 1700 |series=Oxford Archaeological Guides |author=Jerome Murphy-O'Connor |year=2008 |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=385 |isbn=978-0-19-923666-4 |quote=... a small, deep, stepped pool with a triangular balcony. The niches for clothes led to its identification as a swimming pool. There are those who prefer to think of it as a ritual bath (mikveh); it may well have been used as such by the Zealots. |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=m3Yy9FDcT8gC&q=%22began+in+the+north+in+1537+and+continued+down+the+east+and+west+sides%22&pg=PT48 |access-date=12 August 2016 }}</ref><ref name="Yadin">{{cite book |title=Masada |authors=Mikha Livne and Ze'ev Meshel, introduction by Yigael Yadin, maps and pictures by the Masada Archaeological Expedition |year=1965 |location=Jerusalem |publisher=Direction des parcs nationaux |quote=Piscine hérodienne (Herodian swimming pool) |language=fr }}</ref>
Byzantine church (#26 on plan)
Aerial view showing Masada and the Snake Path from the northeast
Masada's western Byzantine gate (#23 on plan)
Roman siege camp F and section of the Roman circumvallation wall
Cable car (Masada cableway) heading down from Masada

The synagogue, storehouses, and houses of the Jewish rebels have also been identified and restored.