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, b'nai mitzvah, 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.
Torah reading is a Jewish religious tradition that involves the public reading of a set of passages from a Torah scroll. The term often refers to the entire ceremony of removing the scroll from the Torah ark, chanting the appropriate excerpt with special cantillation (trope), and returning the scroll(s) to the ark. It is also commonly called "laining".
Synagogue architecture often follows styles in vogue at the place and time of construction. There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. According to tradition, the Shekhinah or divine presence can be found wherever there is a minyan, a quorum, of ten. A synagogue always contains an Torah ark where the Torah scrolls are kept, called the aron qodesh by Ashkenazi Jews and the hekhal by Sephardic Jews.
The Old New Synagogue, also called the Altneuschul, situated in Josefov, Prague, is Europe's oldest active synagogue. It is also the oldest surviving medieval synagogue of twin-nave design.
The name South Manchester Synagogue refers to both an Orthodox Jewish community in south Manchester, England and to the buildings that it occupies. In 2002, the community relocated from synagogue buildings in the Fallowfield district of Manchester to new premises in Bowdon, Altrincham, Greater Manchester.
The First Roumanian-American Congregation, also known as Congregation Shaarey Shomayim, or the Roumanishe Shul, was an Orthodox Jewish congregation that, for over 100 years, occupied a historic building at 89–93 Rivington Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York.
The Bialystoker Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue at 7–11 Bialystoker Place in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. The building was constructed in 1826 as the Willett Street Methodist Episcopal Church; the synagogue purchased the building in 1905.
The Ibn Danan Synagogue is a synagogue in Fes, Morocco, dating from the 17th century. The synagogue is located in the Mellah district within Fes el-Jdid, one of the components of the historic medina of Fes.
Temple Adas Israel is an historic Reform Jewish synagogue located at the intersection of Washington and College streets in Brownsville, West Tennessee. Built in 1882 by German Jewish immigrants and descendants, it is the oldest synagogue building in Tennessee and one of fewer than one hundred surviving 19th-century synagogues in the country. On January 19, 1979, Temple Adas Israel was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Beth David Synagogue, formally Congregation Beth David, is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue located at 3344 East Main Street in the hamlet of Amenia, New York, in the United States. It is a small brick European-style building erected in the late 1920s.
The Włodawa Synagogue in Włodawa, Poland is an architectural complex consisting of two historic synagogues and a Jewish administrative building, now preserved as a museum. The complex includes the Włodawa Great Synagogue of 1764–74, the late 18th century Small Synagogue, and the 1928 community building. It is "one of the best-preserved" synagogues in Poland.
The Hebrew Congregation of Mountaindale Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue located at 6 Spring Glen Road, in the hamlet of Mountaindale, Sullivan County, in the Catskills region of New York, in the United States. The small stucco building was built in 1917 and expanded slightly in the 1930s. The interior is notable for its heavy use of marbleizing and other decorative touches. A 2009 traffic accident and fire caused some damage to the roof.
Ohave Shalom Synagogue, also referred to as the Woodridge Shul, is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, that practices in the Ashkenazi rite, located at 14 Maurice Rose Street in Woodridge, in the Catskills region of southeast New York, in the United States. The brick building was erected in 1930 by a splinter group from what was then the village's only synagogue, later absorbed into Ohave Shalom itself.
An aliyah is the calling of a member of a Jewish congregation up to the bimah for a segment of the formal Torah reading. A person receiving an aliyah is called an oleh (male) or olah (female).
Anshei Glen Wild Synagogue is a small former Orthodox Jewish synagogue located on Glen Wild Road, Sullivan County Route 58, in the unincorporated community of Glen Wild, New York, in the United States. The congregation was founded in 1913 by a local family and never had its own rabbi. The former synagogue is preserved virtually intact from the time of its construction in 1923. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.
The Plymouth Synagogue is a synagogue in the city of Plymouth, England and the home of the Plymouth Hebrew Congregation. Built in 1762, it is a listed Grade II* building and the oldest extant synagogue built by Ashkenazi Jews in the English speaking world.
Agudas Achim Synagogue, formally known as Congregation Agudas Achim, is a Reform Jewish synagogue located on Rock Avenue in Livingston Manor, Sullivan County, New York, in the United States. The stucco-sided wooden building was erected in the 1920s to serve the growing Jewish community in that area of the Catskills. It served the large summer population of Jews from the New York City area who vacationed at family resorts in the region.
Exeter Synagogue is in Synagogue Place, Mary Arches Street within the old city of Exeter, Devon, and is the third oldest synagogue in the United Kingdom. Originally built as a Sephardi synagogue for Dutch Jews trading in Exeter, it is now a synagogue of the Ashkenazi rite. Exeter Hebrew Congregation itself existed shortly prior to its construction.
Kesher Israel Congregation is an Orthodox synagogue located in the Uptown neighborhood of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in the United States. Founded in 1902, the congregation is officially affiliated with the Orthodox Union.
Ahavas Shalom Reform Temple ) is an historic former Reform Jewish synagogue building located at 503 Main Street, in Ligonier, Noble County, Indiana, in the United States.
