Sardis was under numerous foreign rulers until its incorporation into the Roman Republic in 133 BCE. The city served then as the administrative center of the Roman province of Lydia. Sardis was reconstructed after the catastrophic 17 CE earthquake, and it enjoyed a long period of prosperity under Roman rule.
Sardis is believed to have gained its Jewish community in the 3rd century BCE, as that was when the Seleucid king Antiochus III (223–187 BCE) encouraged Jews from various countries, including Babylonia, to move to Sardis. The historian Josephus wrote of a decree from Lucius Antonius, a Roman proquaestor of 50–49 BCE: "Lucius Antonius...to [the Sardian people], sends greetings. Those Jews, who are fellow citizens of Rome, came to me, and showed that they had an assembly of their own, according to their ancestral laws. [They had this assembly] from the beginning, as also a place of their own, wherein they determined their suits and controversies with one another. Therefore, upon their petition to me, so that these might be lawful for them, I ordered that their privileges be preserved, and they be permitted to do accordingly."1 (Ant., XIV:10, 17). "A place of their own" is generally taken as a reference to the synagogue at Sardis. Josephus noted that Caius Norbanus Flaccus, a Roman proconsul at the end of the 1st century BCE, upheld the rights of the Jews of Sardis to practice their religion, including the right to donate to the Temple in Jerusalem. (Ant., XVI:6,6).[3]
Archaeological expeditions
The first extensive scientific expeditions in the area took place between 1910 and 1914. Director of the Ottoman Imperial Museum (currently known as Istanbul Archeology Museums) Osman Hamdi Bey invited Prof. Howard Crosby Butler of Princeton University to carry out the expedition. They executed the last season in 1922, and Prof. Butler unveiled Temple of Artemis and Necropolis of Sardis. After these discoveries Prof. Butler died unexpectedly and excavations stopped for that period.[4]
Later on, in 1958, Archeology Professor George M. A. Hanfmann of Harvard University and Dean of the Architecture School at Cornell University, Prof. Henry Detweiler started a new series of expeditions. In collaboration with the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage and Museums affiliated to Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Turkish Republic, the annual archeological expeditions to Sardis continues to this day. This series of expeditions that has been going over six decades is called "the Archeological Exploration of Sardis". Every year a group of 50 to 80 including scholars, professionals and students competent in archeology, art history, archeology, anthropology and many other disciplines from all around the world travel to Sardis to participate in the explorations.[4]
In 1962,[5] these excavations unearthed perhaps the most impressive synagogue in the western diaspora yet discovered from antiquity, yielding over eighty Greek and seven Hebrew inscriptions as well as numerous mosaic floors. (For evidence in the east, see Dura Europos in Syria.) The discovery of the Sardis synagogue has reversed previous assumptions about Judaism in the later Roman empire. Along with the discovery of the godfearers/theosebeis inscription from Aphrodisias, it provides indisputable evidence for the continued vitality of Jewish communities in Asia Minor, their integration into general Roman imperial civic life, and their size and importance at a time when many scholars previously assumed that Christianity had eclipsed Judaism.
Architectural structure
The synagogue's plan resembles early Christian basilicas. However, thanks to the abundant Hebrew and Greek inscriptions and menorah representations that were found, it was successfully identified as a synagogue.[2]
The entryway was through a colonnaded forecourt in the east. It was roofed on the sides with an open center. In its original state, the forecourt was covered with painted plaster and decorated with marble. These decorations were added afterward, possibly during the 5th century CE. At the center of the forecourt, there was a fountain for congregants to wash their hands before the prayer.
Following the forecourt there was an assembly hall, large enough to hold nearly one thousand people. This hall is also decorated with marble. However, these decorations seem to have been placed on the walls earlier than the ones in the forecourt, during the early 4th century CE. Additionally, they have inscriptions in Greek including the donors' names on them. During the excavations, two shrines lying lateral to the center were discovered.[5]
Manisa (Magnesia), Jewish community
A model of the Sardis synagogue
A Romaniote Jewish community existed there since the Byzantine Empire, praying in the Etz Ha-Hayim Synagogue. After 1492, Jews expelled from Spain settled there, joining approximately one hundred Romaniote families. These newcomers founded two synagogues: Lorca and Toledo. At the end of the 19th century, the Alliance Israélite Universelle inaugurated two schools, one for boys in 1891 and one for girls in 1896. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Jewish community numbered about 2,000 out of a total population of some 40,000. Greece conquered Manisa in 1919, and when they retreated in 1922, a large conflagration destroyed much of the town including many Jewish institutions. Most of the Jews left their community and emigrated to France, South America, the United States, and Mandatory Palestine. Today, there are no Jews in Manisa. There were three Jewish cemeteries in Manisa.
The most ancient was damaged after the 1878 Turko-Russian war. In 1900 a wall was built around the second cemetery that was until then an open field. The third was acquired in the 1930s. The two ancient cemeteries have since been destroyed. At the time of writing his book, Abraham ben Mordecai Galante (d. before 1589) could still read some of the oldest tombstones. The tombstone data of the new cemetery has been collected and computerized by Prof. Minna Rozen (Diaspora Studies Institute of Tel Aviv University) but has not yet been published.[7]
Sardis or Sardes was an ancient city best known as the capital of the Lydian Empire. After the fall of the Lydian Empire, it became the capital of the Persian satrapy of Lydia and later a major center of Hellenistic and Byzantine culture. Now an active archaeological site, it is located in modern day Turkey, in Manisa Province, near the town of Sart.
A synagogue, also called a shul or a temple, is a place of worship for Jews and Samaritans. It has a place for prayer where Jews attend religious services or special ceremonies such as weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, choir performances, and children's plays. They also have rooms for study, social halls, administrative and charitable offices, classrooms for religious and Hebrew studies, and many places to sit and congregate. They often display commemorative, historic, or modern artwork alongside items of Jewish historical significance or history about the synagogue itself.
The Romaniote Jews or the Romaniotes are a Greek-speaking ethnic Jewish community. They are one of the oldest Jewish communities in existence and the oldest Jewish community in Europe. The Romaniotes have been, and remain, historically distinct from the Sephardim, some of whom settled in Ottoman Greece after the expulsion of Jews from Spain and Portugal after 1492.
Aphrodisias was a Roman city in the historic Caria cultural region of western Asia Minor, today's Anatolia in Turkey. It is located near the modern village of Geyre, about 100 km (62 mi) east/inland from the coast of the Aegean Sea, and 230 km (140 mi) southeast of İzmir.
The history of the Jews in Greece can be traced back to at least the fourth century BCE. The oldest and the most characteristic Jewish group that has inhabited Greece are the Romaniotes, also known as "Greek Jews." The term "Greek Jew" is predominantly used for any Jew that lives in or originates from the modern region of Greece.
Maresha was an Iron Age city mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, whose remains have been excavated at Tell Sandahanna, an archaeological mound or 'tell' renamed after its identification to Tel Maresha. The ancient Judahite city became Idumaean after the fall of Judah in 586 BCE, and after Alexander's conquest of the region in 332 BCE became Hellenised under the name Marisa or Marissa. The tell is situated in Israel's Shephelah region, i.e. in the foothills of the Judaean Mountains, about 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) south of Beit Gubrin.
The Great Synagogue, officially, the Great City Synagogue in Vilna, also the Great Synagogue of Vilnius, is a former Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located atI-2 Jewish Street in the Old Town of Vilnius, in the Vilnius County of Lithuania.
The Remah Synagogue, formally known as the Isaak Jakubowicz Synagogue, is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located at 40 Szeroka Street, in the historic Kazimierz district of Kraków, in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship of Poland.
Naaran was an ancient Jewish village dating to the 5th and 6th century CE, located in the modern-day West Bank, in the State of Palestine. Remains of the village have been excavated north-west of Jericho. Naaran is archeologically notable for the mosaic floor of a synagogue, featuring a large zodiac design, which was discovered at the site.
Beit She'arim Necropolis is an extensive rock-cut necropolis located near the ancient Jewish town of Beit She'arim, 20 km east of Haifa in the southern foothills of the Lower Galilee. Part of Beit She'arim National Park, the site includes the necropolis and remains of the town. Used from the first to fourth centuries CE, its peak occurred in the late second century when the Sanhedrin, led by Patriarch Judah I, relocated to Beit She'arim, and his family was interred there. In 2015, the necropolis was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Hellenistic Judaism was a form of Judaism in classical antiquity that combined Jewish religious tradition with elements of Hellenistic culture and religion. Until the early Muslim conquests of the eastern Mediterranean, the main centers of Hellenistic Judaism were Alexandria in Egypt and Antioch in Turkey, the two main Greek urban settlements of the Middle East and North Africa, both founded in the end of the 4th century BCE in the wake of the conquests of Alexander the Great. Hellenistic Judaism also existed in Jerusalem during the Second Temple Period, where there was a conflict between Hellenizers and traditionalists.
The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and ended with the First Jewish–Roman War and the Roman siege of Jerusalem.
Historic synagogues include synagogues that date back to ancient times and synagogues that represent the earliest Jewish presence in cities around the world. Some synagogues were destroyed and rebuilt several times on the same site. Others were converted into churches and mosques or used for other purposes.
The history of the Jews in Calabria reaches back over two millennia. Calabria is at the very south of the Italian peninsula, to which it is connected by the Monte Pollino massif, while on the east, south and west it is surrounded by the Ionian and Tyrrhenian seas. Jews have had a presence in Calabria for at least 1600 years and possibly as much as 2300 years. Calabrian Jews have had notable influence on many areas of Jewish life and culture. The Jews of Calabria are virtually identical to the neighbouring Jews of Sicily but are considered separate. However, the Jews of Calabria and the Jews of Apulia are historically the same community, only today are considered separate. Occasionally, there is confusion with the southern Jewish community in Calabria and the northern Jewish community in Reggio Emilia. Both communities have always been entirely separate.
The Gaza synagogue is a former ancient Jewish synagogue that was built in the early 6th century during the Byzantine period and destroyed in the first half of the 7th century. It was located in the ancient port city of Gaza, then known as "Maiumas", currently the Rimal district of Gaza City, in the State of Palestine. The archaeological ruins of the former synagogue were discovered in 1965.
The Priene Synagogue is a former ancient Jewish synagogue, that was discovered in the modern-day town of Priene in Güllübahçe, Söke, in the Aydın Province, in the Aegean Region, on the western boundary of Turkey. The former synagogue building is now an archaeological site and Jewish museum.
Ancient synagogues in Palestine refers to synagogues and their remains in the Land of Israel/Palestine region, built by the Jewish and Samaritan communities from the time of the Hasmonean dynasty during the Late Hellenistic period, to the Late Byzantine period.
Alf Thomas Kraabel was an American classics scholar and educator who worked extensively in Greek and Hellenistic Judaic studies. He served as a faculty member in the classics department at the University of Minnesota from 1963 to 1983, and served as the Dean of Luther College in Iowa before retiring in 2000.
The Synagogue of Philippopolis is a former Jewish synagogue, built in ancient Philippopolis. The synagogue run-ins are located on Maria Luiza Blvd, in the city of Plovdiv, in modern-day Bulgaria. Built in the 3rd century AD, the synagogue is the only ancient Jewish temple found in Bulgaria. The foundation of the temple, on part of the mosaic floor, is preserved.
The Origins of Judaism: An Archaeological-Historical Reappraisal is a 2022 book by Israeli professor of archaeology and ordained rabbi Yonatan Adler of Ariel University. The book examines the archaeological and historiographical record of Jewish religious practice, concluding that widespread adoption of the Torah as a binding law code probably originated in the time of the Hasmonean dynasty, in the 2nd–1st centuries BCE. Adler's work challenges a traditional scholarly dating of the emergence of Jewish religion to the periods of major Hebrew Bible composition, such as the late Iron Age, Babylonian exile, and early Second Temple periods, centuries before the Hasmoneans.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
