The remains of the Second Temple in Jerusalem
What does the name mean?
Synagogue in Greek means a place for coming together, a meeting place, and that is what a synagogue (SIN-ah-gog) is.
History of the Jews
Roman religions
All our Roman Empire articles
What is a synagogue for?
It is a building where Jews come together and pray to their God. In this way it is a lot like a Christian church. The most important difference is that there is no altar in a synagogue.
What’s an altar?
What’s a Christian church?
Early synagogue at Capernaum, Israel
From the synagogue at Dura-Europos in Roman territory (see the togas?)
Why aren’t there any altars?
There is no altar because for Jews there was only one place where you could sacrifice to God, and that was in the big temple Solomon built in Jerusalem. When that temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, it was rebuilt under the Persians, and used until the time of the First Jewish Revolt. When Titus crushed the First Jewish Revolt in the 70s AD, he destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. Since that time, the Jews have mostly not offered sacrifices to their God.
The end of sacrifice
The First Temple
The Second Temple
Who were the Maccabees?
The First Jewish Revolt
The synagogue where Maimonides worked in Cairo, Egypt
What were the first synagogues like?
The earliest synagogues were probably just the living rooms or courtyards of people’s houses. Later on people began to build special places just to meet. Most synagogues have a rabbi, a leader, who organizes things and runs the place, and gives people advice.
What’s a rabbi?
More about Roman houses
Who was Esther?
One of the earliest well-preserved synagogues was dug up in the Roman town of Dura Europos in Syria, from around 200 AD. It had beautiful frescoes showing the story of Esther.
Synagogues in the Islamic Empire
Many beautiful synagogues were built in the Islamic Empire. This is a picture of a very fancy one from Cordoba in southern Spain.
Cordoba synagogue (1315 AD, rebuilt from Maimonides’ time)
What do people do in a synagogue?
What is the Talmud?
What is Rosh Hashanah?
So what is Sukkot?
What is Hanukkah?
And what is Purim?
How about Passover?
Learn by doing: visit a synagogue near your house
What’s a rabbi?
More about Yom Kippur
Bibliography and further reading about synagogues:
