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| ITZ 304 Tempio
Israelitico, Rome Italy
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ITZ 305 Great Synagogue-
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Danzig , Poland
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ITZ 308
Strasbourg France
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| There
were Jews in Ostia, the port of Rome, in the 1st to 4th centuries.
Significant ruins of a 4th century synagogue were found there in 1961.
Traces of Roman Jewry reappear after about 1000, when they built a
synagogue. In 1870 the Jews of Rome gained equal rights and were
released from Papal rule and permitted to live elsewhere. Beginning in
1885, the unsanitary ghetto was demolished and space for a new synagogue
was bought. The architects, Costa and Armanni, designed the building in
Roman style, incorporating Greek and Egyptian elements. The cupola was
made of aluminum. |
From the 10
th to the 15 th century the city of Danzig had no Jewish community and
prohibited Jews from settling there. During the period of Polish rule
over Danzig (1454-1793), Danzig received a semi-autonomous status, and
the prohibition continued despite various rights the Polish kings
granted to Jews in the rest of Poland . Danzig , as a key Baltic port
and export center for Polish goods, was a destination center for Jewish
merchants, and Jews used whatever means they could to attend the trading
fairs there, including asking the Polish king to intervene on their
behalf.
1111By
the 18 th century organized communities of Jews existed in the suburbs
of Danzig . When Germany took control of Danzig , the Jewish residents
of the suburbs were granted legal status, and became associated with
German society and culture. By the late 1800s there were five Jewish
communities in Danzig . The communities united in 1883, and decided to
build a synagogue. The synagogue was completed in 1887. It was designed
in the Arab-Byzantine style.
1111Only
one other synagogue remained open for the mainly Eastern European
Orthodox community.
After World War 1 Danzig became a free
city, without visa restrictions. Suddenly Danzig became the goal of
thousands of Jewish refugees from Russia and Poland . The influx of
these refugees brought about a rebirth of Orthodox Jewry. Many of these
Jews were also Zionists and this caused rifts between them and the
German Jews who referred to themselves as “Germans with a Mosaic
persuasion.” However the Nazi victory in the
May 1933 elections put a stop to the
rift.
1111On
Kristallnacht, storm troopers burned synagogues and destroyed Jewish
property. Only timely intervention by community leaders saved the Great
Synagogue from destruction. A group of Jews mounted a guard around the
synagogue. As the situation worsened the need to flee became more and
more pressing. The American Joint Distribution committee sent dollars to
Danzig to buy the ritual objects of the community. The community also
sold off the Great Synagogue for only a fraction of its value. A tragic
scene unfolded when Danzig Jewry gathered for the last time in the Great
Synagogue on April 15, 1939 . The event symbolized for all the beginning
of the end of their community. They consoled themselves with the thought
that the sale of their beloved synagogue would help finance the
emigration of some community members, so that Danzig Jewry might live on
somewhere else. Some Jewish children found refuge
in England . Hundreds of Jews went on various illegal transports to
Israel . Many were sent to ghettos in Poland , and in the end to their
extermination.
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From the 14 th through the 18
th centuries, synagogue construction was banned in Alsace .Following
emancipation, Jews began to move from the small towns to the big cities.
Thus, by the beginning of the 19 th century, the Jewish population in
Strasbourg grew from 100 to over a thousand.Benjamin of Tudela, the 12
th century Sephardic traveler tells us that Jews lived in Strasbourg and
in the rest of France around 1170 C.E.The Quai Kleber Synagogue was
built in 1898. It was destroyed by the Nazis during World War two. In
1958, the imposing Synagogue de la Paix was built on the same spot, to
replace the old synagogue. Today many of Strasbourgs Jews live in the
area around the synagogue. |
| ITZ 306 Algiers,
Algeria |
TZ 06
Touro , New Port RI |
| Many
Synagogues built in Algeria after French colonization, were built in
European style. However, the Great Synagogue in Algiers was Moorish in
aspect. It features a dome with stepped merlons. |
Congregation
Jeshuit Israel was established in Newport Rhode Island in the year 1658.
The Jewish settlers were Sephardic merchants from Barbados . By 1680 the
Jewish community numbered eight families. They owned a cemetery and
created a school. All that was missing was a synagogue.
1111Touro Synagogue was named after
the congregations' first “chazzan” (reader) Reverend Isaac de Touro. He
arrived from Amsterdam in 1758, and provided fresh stimulus to the
Jewish community, which had worshipped in private houses for over one
hundred years. His sons, Abraham and Judah, were later to be major
benefactors of the Synagogue.
Under the leadership of Isaac Touro, the ground was broken for the new
Synagogue on August 1, 1759 . It was dedicated in 1763.
1111The exterior of the building does
not resemble any Jewish house of worship. This was intended as a
security device. Inside there are twelve columns supporting the women's
gallery, representing the twelve tribes of Israel . The bemah (reading
platform), contains a trap door which leads to a secret passageway. Some
say the congregants were descendants of Marranos, Jews who had been
forced to convert to Christianity in 1492. They designed the trap door
in case of emergency.
1111When George Washington visited
Newport in 1781, a town meeting was held in the Synagogue.
In 1946, Congress proclaimed Touro Synagogue a
National Historic Site .Touro
is the oldest standing Synagogue still in use in the United States .
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| ITZ 301 Scola Grande
Tedesca - Venice Italy
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Jewish Ghetto of Venice was established in 1516. Actually, it is
generally accepted that the word ‘ghetto' derives from Venice which
required Jews to live in an enclosed area once occupied by the
ghetto neuvo or ‘new foundry'. Jews from all over the world made
their way into the Venetian ghetto, including German Jews who
established the first synagogue: the Scola Grande Tedesca. A young Rabbi
described the ghetto as “Isaiahs Jerusalem.” However, as the Jewish
population grew, the ghetto became overcrowded, and more and more
stories had to be added to existing buildings, eventually, the ghetto
resembled an assemblage of towers. The Synagogues of the ghetto were all
built on the top floors. The Scola Grand Tedesca, established in 1528,
was the first synagogue to be built. But don't be fooled by its simple
exterior. It's elegant and posh sanctuary more than makes up for it. The
double door of the ark bears an elegantly stylized tree of life carved
on the outside. On both sides of the ark are chairs upholstered in red,
reserved for the elders of the synagogue. The oval women's gallery on
the second floor greatly enhances the decorative beauty of the Ark. The
walls of the first floor are made of marble on top and cherry wood on
the bottom. |
| TZ 16
Central Synagogue Manhattan NY |
TZ11
Dohaney St, Budapest Hungary |
TZ14 2nd Temple
Jerusalem Israel |
| Central Synagogue,
located on the corner of Lexington and 55th in Manhattan , is both a
National and New York City landmark. It was designed by Henry Fembauch
who is often cited as the first Jewish architect in America . Much of
the architectural design is based on the Moorish style of the Dohany
Street Synagogue in Budapest |
By 1893, the Jews of Budapest had
grown so numerous that they needed a new synagogue. The magnificent
structure seats about three thousand people, and is now the largest
synagogue remaining in use in Europe. The gateway is flanked by two
towers. The fa?ade is topped by the Tablets of the Ten Commandments.
1111 During
World War Two, the synagogue served as a concentration point from which
the Nazis sent many of the Budapest Jews to their extermination. Over
two thousand of those who died in the Jewish ghetto from hunger and cold
are buried in the courtyard of the synagogue. The synagogue was also
used as a shelter, and towards the end of World War 2, the building
suffered some severe damage from aerial raids during the battle for the
liberation of Budapest.
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| TZ 03 Mikve Israel-Curacao
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TZ
07- Altneushul Prague , Czech Republic |
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The
early Jewish colonists of Curacao used their far-flung network of
familial relations to establish Curacao as an international trading and
shipping hub. Within a few decades, Curacao became the Caribbean center
for much of the trading between the mother countries of Europe and their
colonies in the Americas .
1111 The Jews residing within the
city of Willemstad consecrated their first city Synagogue in 1674,
apparently timed to coincide with the arrival of the first rabbi (Chacham)
to Curacao , Josiau Pardo of Amsterdam .
1111 By 1729, the Jewish population
of Curacao , then numbering about one half of the white population of
the Island , had grown so large that a new synagogue was necessary. In
1732, the present day Mikve Israel was built. The interior of the
Synagogue was built to resemble The Great Synagogue of United
Congregation Talmud Torah, its mother congregation in Amsterdam .
1111 Like the tabernacle in the
wilderness, the floor of the richly ornamented Synagogue was (and
still is) covered with a thick carpet of white sand to remind the
congregants of their past: the MARRANOS in Portugal covered the
floors of their clandestine Synagogues with sand to muffle the sound
of their footsteps. Although the Jews of Curacao have always enjoyed
tolerance and freedom of worship, generation after generation has
chosen to perpetuate this custom.
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The Altneushul-or Old New Shul is the
oldest European Synagogue still in use. It was built in the last quarter
of the 13th century in the heart of the Jewish quarter of Prague . Jews
have prayed in this amazing synagogue for over 700 years. The chair of
the great 16 th century Rabbi Yehuda Loew, better known as the Maharal,
stands against the eastern wall.
1111The
shul's Gothic rib-vaulted ceilings and the Floral Gable above the Ark
are visible in the model of the interior.
1111During
the Middle Ages restrictions were placed on the heights of synagogues.
To circumvent this, the architect of the Altneushul lowered the floor
level below that of the street, thus creating an impression of soaring
ceilings (height).
1111Paradoxically,
the Nazis became the overseers of a project that resulted in one of
the worlds greatest collections of Judaica. They wanted to create a
Jewish Museum in which all Jewish property would be collected and
the Jewish Question would be explored. Prague was the chosen city.
In all, 153 Jewish communities from Bohemia and Moravia sent items
to what the Nazis called the ‘Central Jewish Museum'. The Nazis
private exhibition program began in the Altneushul, with an
exhibition of rare Hebrew books and manuscripts. Housing the
exhibition in Prague 's oldest synagogue allowed them to show
Judaica in context.
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| TZ 18
Synagogue Rebbai, Czortkow, Ukraine |
TZ 15 Jubilee Synagogue, Prague
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Rabbi David Moshe Friedman was
born in 1827, in the city of Ruzhin . In 1865 he moved to
Chortkov, and would become famous as the Chortkover Rebbe.
He was a direct descendant of the Maggid of
Mezeritch.Chortkov, also known as Sadagura, was a typical
Jewish settlement of 250 years old. It was a Jewish cultural
center for the Jews of the entire region. The Jews of the
town were mainly craftsmen and merchants. The Synagogue
Street had 11 synagogues, ritual and steam baths, and an old
age home and hospital. Apart from this Street there were
many prayer houses at the seat of the Wonder Rabbi, Rabbi
David Moshe Friedman.
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1111He
lived in the Rabbis Street in a fenced off district. The
palace was in the Moorish Gothic style with castle like
battlements. Around the castle stood blocks of houses
occupied by the Rebbes family. Hundreds of Hassidim would
visit their Rebbe each week. On the high holidays thousands
would come.The Rabbi was considered a Miracle Rabbi, his
kindness and patience were legendary. One day a Jew named
Nagler, from Eastern Galicia , came to the Rabbi. A farmer
had broken into his distillery and had drowned in a three
meter tall barrel full of hot alcohol. The Austrian
government was quick to blame him for the death. Naglers
trial was to take place in a week in the city of Ternopol .
So he hitched his horses to his carriage and traveled to
Chortkov on the way to Ternopol . The Rabbi heard his story
and told him to send his horses and carriage back home.
Instead he ordered him to travel by mail wagon. Nagler did
as the Rabbi said, although he couldn't mask his concern for
it would take him a long time to reach his destination by
mail wagon.In the mail wagon, Nagler could not stop sighing.
The woman sitting next to him asked him what his trouble
was. It turned out that her husband was one of the district
judges of Ternopol . She invited the man to her house. When
her husband heard Naglers story, he told him not to worry.
The next day at the trial, the judge acquitted him of all
the charges.
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1111The large prayer
hall called the “Great Hermitage,” could accommodate a
thousand worshippers. The walls were covered in plant motifs
designed by Jewish artists. The curtain of the Torah ark was
covered with precious jewels and pearls. The Rebbes court
was beautiful; a visit to the Rebbe was an unforgettable
experience. The pilgrims were mostly poor people, and the
Rabbi fed them generously. The dining room was big enough
for a thousand guests. Surrounding the Rabbis Street were
inns were they could stay. These visitors did much to
improve the economy of the city.Due to the proximity of the
city to the Russian border, commerce and trade with Russia
was of great importance. Therefore, the number of Jews
living in Chortkov reached 10,000 prior to World War 1. The
mayor and the majority of the city council were Jews, since
the city was 80% Jewish. The Lord of the City, Baron
Mustatza, was originally from Turkey . When Austria
conquered the area, his entire family was knighted. These
barons were very friendly to the Jews. World War 1 brought
ruin to the Chortkov. Less than 2,000 Jews remained in the
city. The year 1941 brought a sad ending to the Jews of
Chortkov. The Nazis instigated the Romanians to deport the
Jews to Transnistria. They were forced to travel on foot.
Most of them died along the way. The few survivors moved to
Israel .
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Urban renewal in Prague between the years 1896-1911
brought about the destruction of much of the original Jewish Town. A few
of the streets, six synagogues, and the town hall are all that is left
of the old Jewish Ghetto. Three of Prague's synagogues did not escape
destruction: the Gypsy Synagogue (built in 17th century), the Great
Court Synagogue (1626-1906), and the New Synagogue (16th century-1898).
The Jubilee Synagogue was built to replace them in 1906. It is a blend
of Moorish and Art-Nouveau architecture. |
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