A synagogue, sometimes referred to as a shul or a temple, is a house of worship in Judaism. Synagogues have 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.
The Romaniote Jews or the Romaniotes are a Greek-speaking ethnic Jewish community native to the Eastern Mediterranean. 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.
In Judaism, Nusach (Hebrew: נוסח, romanized: nusaḥ, Modern Hebrew pronunciation nusakh, plural refers to the exact text of a prayer service; sometimes the English word "rite" is used to refer to the same thing. Nusakh means "formulate" or "wording".
Yissachar Dov Rokeach is the fifth, and present, Rebbe of the Hasidic dynasty of Belz. He is the son of Rabbi Mordechai of Bilgoray, the grandson of the third Belzer Rebbe, Rabbi Yissachar Dov Rokeach, and the nephew of the fourth Belzer Rebbe, Rabbi Aharon Rokeach, who raised him. He has led Belz since 1966.
Har Nof is a neighborhood on a hillside on the western boundary of Jerusalem with a population of 20,000 residents, predominantly Orthodox Jews.
The Four Sephardic Synagogues are a complex of four adjoining synagogues located in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. The four synagogues include the Eliahu Ha'navi Synagogue, the Yochanan ben Zakai Synagogue, the Istanbuli Synagogue, and the Emtsai Synagogue formed from a courtyard amidst the synagogues that was roofed in the mid-18th century.
Simchat Beit Hashoevah or Simchas Beis Hashoeiva is a special celebration held by Jews during the Intermediate days of Sukkot.
High Synagogue is an inactive 16th-century Orthodox Jewish synagogue located in the Kazimierz District of Kraków, Poland. Also known as the "Tall Synagogue", the name corresponds to its height or, alternatively, because the prayer hall was situated upstairs. It is the tallest synagogue in the city and is an example of Late Renaissance architecture.
The Ramban Synagogue is the second oldest active synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem, after only the Karaite Synagogue. It dates back in its current location to sometime around 1400. Tradition holds that as an institution, it was founded by the scholar and rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, also known as Nachmanides or Ramban, in 1267, but at a more southerly location on Mount Zion, to help rebuild the local Jewish community, which indeed expanded because of the synagogue's presence. The synagogue was moved to its current location around 1400, where it was destroyed in 1474, rebuilt in 1475, and continued functioning until being closed by the Muslim authorities in the late 16th century. The building was used for industrial and commercial purposes until its destruction in the 1948 Jordanian siege of the Jewish Quarter. After the 1967 Six-Day War, it was rebuilt over the old ruins and reconsecrated as a synagogue.
The Old Yishuv were the Jewish communities of the region of Palestine during the Ottoman period, up to the onset of Zionist aliyah and the consolidation of the New Yishuv by the end of World War I. In the late 19th century, the Old Yishuv comprised 0.3% of the world's Jews, representing 2–5% of the population of the Palestine region.
This article deals in more detail with some of the notable synagogues of Jerusalem that do not have their own page as yet.
St. Anne's Church is a Roman Catholic church located in the town of Trani, Apulia in Italy. Originally, it was built as the Scolagrande Synagogue by the Italian–Jewish community of Apulia during the Middle Ages; the structure houses now the Jewish Section of the Diocesan Museum of Trani.
David ben Shimon also known as Tzuf Devash and the Radvash was a rabbi who headed the North African Jewish community of Jerusalem in the Old Yishuv. Ben Shimon established Mahane Israel, one of the early neighborhoods outside the Old City walls.
The Baladi-rite Prayer is the oldest known prayer-rite used by Yemenite Jews, transcribed in a prayer book known as a tiklāl in Yemenite Jewish parlance. "Baladi", as a term applied to the prayer-rite, was not used until prayer books arrived in Yemen in the Sephardic-rite.
Knesset Yisrael, also known as Knesset, is the name of a group of three former courtyard neighborhoods in central Jerusalem. Known as Knesset Aleph, Knesset Bet, and Knesset Gimmel, the housing project was planned by the Vaad HaKlali Knesset Yisrael and funded by overseas Jewish donors. The houses were completed in stages from 1892 to 1926. Beneficiaries of the housing were poor Haredi Ashkenazi families and Torah scholars connected to the Central Committee kolel system. Today Knesset Yisrael is part of the Nachlaot neighborhood.
Avraham Al-Naddaf (1866–1940), the son of Ḥayim b. Salem Al-Naddaf, was a Yemenite rabbi and scholar who immigrated to Ottoman Palestine in 1891, eventually becoming one of the members of the Yemenite rabbinical court (Beit-Din) established in Jerusalem in 1908, and active in public affairs. His maternal grandfather was Rabbi Yiḥya Badiḥi (1803–1887), the renowned sage and author of the Questions & Responsa, Ḥen Ṭov, and a commentary on the laws of ritual slaughter of livestock, Leḥem Todah, who served as the head of Sanaa's largest seat of learning (yeshiva), held in the synagogue, Bayt Saleḥ, before he was forced to flee from Sana'a in 1846 on account of the tyrant, Abū-Zayid b. Ḥasan al-Miṣrī, who persecuted the Jews under the Imam Al-Mutawakkil Muhammad.
Jews of Catalonia is the Jewish community that lived in the Iberian Peninsula, in the Lands of Catalonia, Valencia and Mallorca until the expulsion of 1492. Its splendor was between the 12th to 14th centuries, in which two important Torah centers flourished in Barcelona and Girona. The Catalan Jewish community developed unique characteristics, which included customs, a prayer rite, and a tradition of its own in issuing legal decisions (Halakhah). Although the Jews of Catalonia had a ritual of prayer and different traditions from those of Sepharad, today they are usually included in the Sephardic Jewish community.
Ezekiel Judah, or Yehezkel Yehuda or Yahuda or Ezekiel Judah Jacob Sliman was a Jewish communal leader, indigo, muslin and silk trader, philanthropist and talmudist of Baghdad, who migrated to India, leading the Baghdadi Jewish community of Kolkata in his lifetime and establishing the city's first synagogues.
The Council of the Sephardi Committee or Sephardi Community Council was a Jerusalem-based committee which served as an unofficial governing body for the Sephardi Jewish community in the city prior to Israeli independence. The organization purchased property from donations and endowments, which were then made available to Jews in need of shelter and resources.
15 Plugat ha-Kotel Street, Jewish Quarter, Jerusalem