Oldest synagogues in the world

The Santa María la Blanca synagogue was built in Toledo, Spain in 1190.

Fourteenth century Córdoba Synagogue

The designation oldest synagogue in the world requires careful definition. Many very old synagogues have been discovered in archaeological digs. Some synagogues have been destroyed and rebuilt several times on the same site, so, while the site or congregation may be ancient, the building may be modern. Still other very old synagogue buildings exist, but have been used for many centuries as churches, mosques, or for other purposes. And some very old synagogues have been in continuous use as synagogues for many centuries.

Oldest synagogues

General

Interior of the 13th-century Old New Synagogue of Prague

• The oldest synagogue fragments are stone synagogue dedication inscriptions stones found in middle and lower Egypt and dating from the 3rd century BCE.^[1]
• The oldest synagogue building yet uncovered by archaeologists is the Delos Synagogue, a possibly Samaritan synagogue that dates from at 150 to 128 BCE, or earlier, and is located on the island of Delos, Greece.^[2][3]
• The Jericho Synagogue, the oldest, securely dated, mainstream Jewish synagogue in the world was built between 70 and 50 BCE at a royal winter palace near Jericho.^[4]

Africa

Algeria

• Synagogue of Tlemcen was built around 1392 when Rabbi Ephraim ben Israel Al-Naqava (Enquaua), a Spanish refugee who was the son of the author of Menorah, settled in Agadir, he obtained permission for Jews to settle in the city of Tlemcen, where he built a synagogue.

Egypt

• Stone synagogue dedication inscriptions stones found in middle and lower Egypt (see above), and dating from the 3rd century BCE, are the oldest synagogue fragments found anywhere in the World.

Libya

• Slat Abn Shaif Synagogue, in Zliten, Libya, was built around 1090 and is over 900 years old.

Tunisia

• El Ghriba synagogue

South Africa

• The Gardens Shul, established 1841, is the oldest congregation in South Africa. Its 1863 building, which is still standing, may be the oldest synagogue building in the country.

Asia

Afghanistan

• In Herat, Afghanistan, the Yu Aw Synagogue still stands. Researchers date the Synagogue to 1393 C.E.^[5]

India

The Paradesi Synagogue in Kochi, India

• In Kochi, the South Indian State of Kerala, Paradesi Synagogue is believed to be built in 1568. It is the oldest Jewish synagogue in India.

Iraq

• A rabbi in the American army found an abandoned, dilapidated synagogue in Mosul dating back to the 13th century.^[6] It is located two miles northeast of Mosul, across the Tigris River, in a city called Nineveh. Nineveh was the city of the prophet Jonah; The Nineveh Synagogue was constructed by Daud Ibn Hodaya al-Daudi, Exilarch of Mosul. There is record of a second Synagogue, in Mosul, as early as 990 C.E. when the Gaon of Sura, Semah ibn Yitzhak, mentions "Sahl Aluf ibn Aluf our representative in Mosul", in 1170 Benjamin of Tudela notes that there are about 7,000 Jews in Mosul. In later years, when Petachiah of Regensburg visited Mosul, Nineveh was in Ruins.^[7]

Israel

Main article: Oldest synagogues in the Land of Israel

Ruins of the ancient synagogue of Kfar Bar'am in the Galilee

• In Israel, archaeologists have uncovered many ruins of synagogues from 2000 years ago, including several that were in use before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem. The ruins of the small synagogue at the top of Masada is one of the most well-documented; it dates from the time of the Second Temple.
• One of the oldest synagogues currently in use is the Ari Ashkenazi Synagogue in Safed, which dates from the 16th century CE.
• There are synagogues in Jerusalem located on the sites of far older synagogue buildings but, because the older buildings were destroyed by non-Jewish rulers of the city, the present buildings are reconstructions. The Karaite Synagogue in Jerusalem is the oldest of Jerusalem's active synagogues, having been built in the 8th century. It was destroyed by the Crusaders in 1099 and Jews were not allowed to live in the city for 50 years. In 1187 Saladin restored the site to the Karaite Jews who promptly rebuilt the synagogue. It has been active continuously since its foundation, except during the Crusades and Jordanian occupation of the city from 1948. In 1967, the Israeli government returned the synagogue to the Karaite community, who finished renovating it in 1982.

Jordan

• In Jerash, Jordan, the remnants of a synagogue dating from Late Antiquity have been found.

Palestinian territories

• The Shalom Al Israel synagogue in Jericho dates to the Byzantine period, and is frequented on the beginning of every Hebrew calendar month for prayers and services.

Syria

• The 2nd and 3rd century CE Dura-Europos synagogue is better preserved than other, older synagogues that have emerged from archaeological digs. It is often called the world's oldest preserved Jewish synagogue.
• Jobar Synagogue, described as "2,000 years old."

Turkey

• Sardis Synagogue was built by Babylonian Jews who were invited to Sardis by Seleucid King Antiochus III (223-187 BCE). The Jews of Sardis are mentioned by Josephus Flavius in the 1st century CE, who refers to a decree of the Roman proquestor Lucius Antonius from the previous century (50-49 BCE): "Lucius Antonius, the son of Marcus, vice-quaestor, and vice-praetor, to the magistrates, senate, and people of the Sardians, sends greetings. Those Jews that are our fellow citizens of Rome came to me, and demonstrated that they had an assembly of their own, according to the laws of their forefathers, and this from the beginning, as also a place of their own, wherein they determined their suits and controversies with one another. Upon their petition therefore to me, that these might be lawful for them, I gave order that their privileges be preserved, and they be permitted to do accordingly."1 (Ant., XIV:10, 17). It is generally understood that "a place of their own" refers to the synagogue serving the local Jewish community of Sardis. Josephus Flavius also mentions the decree of Caius Norbanus Flaccus, a Roman proconsul during the reign of Augustus at the end of the 1st century BCE, who confirms the religious rights of the Jews of Sardis, including the right to send money to the Temple of Jerusalem. (Ant., XVI:6,6)^{[8][9][10][11]}
  

  A recent view of the Sardis

Australia

• The Hobart Synagogue (1845) is the oldest surviving synagogue building in Australia.
• The Sydney Jewish Community (Great Synagogue (Sydney)) is the oldest congregation.
• The East Melbourne Synagogue (1877) is the oldest continuously-active synagogue in Australia.

Europe

General

Built around 1270, the Old New Synagogue in Prague (Czech Republic) is the world's oldest active synagogue.

• The oldest synagogue in Western Europe uncovered in an archaeological dig to date is the Ostia Synagogue in the ancient Roman port of Ostia, in Italy. The present building, of which partial walls and pillars set upright by archaeologists remain, dates from the 4th century CE. However, excavation revealed that it is on the site of an earlier synagogue dating from the middle of the 1st century CE, that is, from before the destruction of the Temple.^[12]
• The Ancient Synagogue of Barcelona, built in the 3rd or 4th century, has been described as the oldest synagogue in Europe. It was used as a synagogue until the massacre of the Jews in Barcelona in 1391, then used for other purposes until it was rediscovered and restored in the 1990s.^[13][14][15]
• The Köln Synagogue in Cologne, Germany has been excavated 2007/2009 and dates clearly pre Carolingian (bef. 780/90). There is at the moment some strong evidence that it dates back to the early 4th century when emperor Constantine in 321 issued a privilege for the Cologne Jews.
• The Erfurt Synagogue in Erfurt, Germany, which was built c. 1100, and is currently undergoing renovation, is thought by some experts to be the oldest synagogue building still standing in Europe.^[16][17]
• Santa María la Blanca, built in Toledo, Spain in 1190, has long been regarded as the oldest synagogue building in Europe still standing. It was consecrated as a church upon the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in the 15th century, but no major renovations were done. While still a consecrated church, it is no longer used for worship and is open as a museum.
• The oldest active synagogue building in Europe is the Alteneu Shul (Old-New Synagogue) in Prague, Czech Republic, which dates from the 13th century (probably 1270). The Altneu Shul was the pulpit of the great Rabbi Yehuda Loew, (the Maharal), and his creation, the golem of Prague, is rumored to be hidden within the synagogue.
• The Plymouth Synagogue, in Plymouth, England, is the oldest synagogue built by Ashkenazi Jews in the English speaking world.^[18]

Albania

• Vlora Synagogue was Albania's only Synagogue - a Sephardic Synagogue. It was built around 1500 C.E. by a community of 609 Jewish Families fleeing the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions. Shabbatai Tzvi was exiled to a nearby town where there were no Jews, Ulcinj, he died in 1675 C.E.^[19]

Austria

• The "Synagogue of St Stephens Parish" was built in Vienna around 1204 C.E; The first Jews lived in the area near the Seitenstettengasse; from around 1280, they also lived around the modern-day Judenplatz where they built another Synagogue around the same time. The center of Jewish cultural and religious life was located in this area of Vienna from the 13th to the 15th century, until the Vienna Gesera of 1420/21, when Albert V ordered the annihilation of the city’s Jews. Proof exists of a Jewish presence in Vienna since 1194. The first named individual was Schlom, Duke Frederick I's Münzmeister (master of the mint).^[20]

Belarus

• The Great Synagogue of Hrodna was built from 1576 to 1580 by Santi Gucci, who designed a Wooden synagogue at Rabbi Mordechai Yaffe's invitation.

Bosnia

• "Il Cal Grande Esnoga, a Sephardic Synagogue in the Jewish Quarter known as "el Cortijo" was built in 1587 C.E. The first Sephardim to arrive in Sarajevo arrived in 1565 during the Spanish Inquisition.^[21]

Croatia

• The Dubrovnik Synagogue in Dubrovnik, Croatia is the oldest Sephardic Synagogue still in use today in the world and the second oldest synagogue in Europe.^[22] It is said to have been established in 1352, but gained legal status in the city in 1408.^[23] Owned by the local Jewish community, the main floor still functions as a place of worship for Holy days and special occasions, but is now mainly a city museum which hosts numerous Jewish ritual items and centuries-old artifacts.

• The Split Synagogue^[24] was built in roughly 1500 C.E.^[25] Located on Zidovski Prolaz, or the Jewish Passage, is the second oldest continuously operational Sephardic Synagogue in the world. It was built into the western wall of Diocletian’s palace by Jews escaping the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal. In 1573 C.E. a Jewish Cemetery was approved and built on Marjan Hill, which overlooks the town of Split. Jews arrived in Dalmatia, during the early centuries of the Christian era, with the conquering Roman armies. Romans established the city of Salona just behind Split, in the 1st Century, where Jewish traders and craftsmen settled. Archaeological excavations have discovered artifacts of Jewish origin dating from this period and clues to the existence of a Synagogue dating back to the time of Diocletian who was Roman Emperor from 284 to 305 C.E.^[26]

Czech Republic

• The Alteneu Shul (Old-New Synagogue)(see above), in Prague, in the Czech Republic, which dates from the 13th century (probably 1270), is the oldest active synagogue building in Europe.

France

• Synagogue d'Avignon was built in 1221. In 1221, the Jewish community was transferred to an enclosed quarter in the parish of Saint-Pierre, around the Place Jerusalem. The Jewish ghetto was closed off by three doors (the only one of which remaining is the portal of the Calandre) and the inhabitants were under the protection of the pope. The Synagogue was built just after the move in 1221. The Jewish Quarter was originally northwest of the Place du Palais but was moved due to burnings and harassment.^[27]
• The Synagogue of Carpentras has been built in 1367. Today, only the underground parts (mikveh, bakery, butcher's) remain, as the synagogue was rebuilt in the 18th century.
• The Synagogue of Lunel is attested by Benjamin of Tudela in 1170.^[28]
  

  Entrance to the synagogue and gateway to the old Ghetto in Avignon

Germany

• The Köln Synagogue(see above), in Cologne, Germany, excavated in 2007/2009, dates from pre Carolingian (bef. 780/90 CE).
• The Erfurt Synagogue (see above), in Erfurt, Germany, which was built c. 1100, is thought by some experts to be the oldest synagogue building still standing in Europe.

Greece

• The Delos Synagogue (see above), a Samaritan synagogue on the island of Delos, Greece, is the oldest synagogue building yet uncovered by archaeologists anywhere in the World and dates from at 150 to 128 BCE, or earlier.
• The Kahal Shalom Synagogue on Rhodes (1577) is the oldest surviving synagogue building in Greece.

Italy

• The Ostia Synagogue, in the ancient Roman port of Ostia, is one of the oldest synagogue sites in Europe dating from the 1st Century.

• The Bova Marina Synagogue site in Bova Marina, Calabria. This site was discovered 1983. The remains of this ancient synagogue has been dated to the 4th Century.^[29]

• The Scolanova Synagogue built around 1200 and seized by the Roman Catholic Church and converted into a church in 1380. In 2006 it was again rededicated as a synagogue.

• The Ferrara Synagogue built in 1421. The last surviving synagogue in the Ferrara region of Italy.

• The Spanish Synagogue (Venice) located in the Venetian Ghetto of Venice. Founded in the 1490s by Spanish Jews.

• The Italian Synagogue (Venice) located in the Venetian Ghetto of Venice. Founded in 1575.

• The Padua Synagogue located in Padua and built in 1584.

• The Synagogue of Casale Monferrato built in 1595 in Piedmont.

Macedonia

• The Polycharmos Synagogue, of Stobi, Macedonia, was discovered in 1974; it was adjacent to a Christian Church. The Synagogue site, itself, has an archaeological record of two (2) older Synagogues under the foundation of the Polycharmos Synagogue dating to the 4th century B.C.E.^[30]

Netherlands

• The Portuguese Synagogue (Amsterdam) - on December 12, 1670, the Sephardic Jewish community of Amsterdam acquired the site to build a synagogue and construction work began on April 17, 1671, under architect Elias Bouwman. On August 2, 1675, the Esnoga was finished.

Poland

Inside of the Old Synagogue (Krakow)

• The fifteenth-century Old Synagogue (Kraków) is the oldest surviving synagogue building in Poland.

Portugal

• Belmonte synagogue, according to an inscription stored in the Synagogue of Tomar, was built around 1270 C.E. Belmonte is the spiritual centre of Crypto-Jewry, a place where an entire community of Conversos kept large parts of their faith intact and, 500 years after the Alhambra Decree was issued, returned to Judaism en masse.

• Great Synagogue of Lisbon was built by Yosef ben Yehuda Ibn Yahya ha-Zaken in around 1240 C.E. It was destroyed in an earthquake in 1755.

• The Synagogue of Obidos is located in the old Jewish Quarter and dates to the 7th Century C.E where a Jewish community was re-established after the Visigoths seized the village in 5th Century C.E.. Obidos was liberated in 1148, by the Jewish vizier, Yaish ibn Yahya; in return for its liberation King Afonso Henriques I rewarded Yaish ibn Yahya with a nearby town and annointed him "Lord of Unhos, Frielas and Aldeia dos Negros".

• Synagogue of Tomar is located in the historic centre of the city of Tomar, and houses a small Jewish Museum. The synagogue of Tomar was built in 1438 by the thriving Jewish community of the town. Today, the museum holds Judaica, fine art, several medieval Jewish gravestones, important architectural fragments from other buildings, including an inscribed stone from 1307 believed to have come from the Lisbon Great Synagogue (destroyed in the earthquake of 1755) and a 13th-century inscribed stone from the medieval synagogue in Belmonte.

Romania

• The 1671 Great Synagogue in Iaşi, is the oldest surviving synagogue in Romania.^[31]

Russia

• Grand Choral Synagogue in St. Petersburg was begun in 1880 and completed in 1888.
• Volgograd Synagogue was built in 1898.
• Moscow Choral Synagogue, completed in 1906, is the oldest synagogue in Mosocw.

Spain

• Calatayud (Calat al-Yehud, "Castle of Jews") was built around 1270 by Aharon ibn Yahya, destroyed, then rebuilt by a relative "Don Yosef ibn Yahya ha-Zaken".
• The Main Synagogue of Barcelona (see above), built in the 3rd or 4th century, has been described as the oldest synagogue in Europe.
• Santa María la Blanca (see above), built in Toledo in 1190, has long been regarded as the oldest synagogue building in Europe still standing.
• Synagogue of Córdoba, built in 1305, located in the Jewish Quarter of Córdoba
• Puente La Reina Synagogue, in Navarre, is documented in 1315 C.E. The town was wholly owned by Knights Templar from 1142 until their expulsion in 1359.
• Synagogue of Sahagun was located on Calle Santa Cruz; it was built around 1260 C.E.
• Zaragoza had two Jewish quarters: the old one, which was within the Roman walls, and the new one, which was on the other side of Coso street. Zaragoza Synagogue was authorized for construction, in the NEW Jewish Quarter by Prince Juan of Aragon in 1382. On Coso street, there are remains of Jewish baths from 1226, and a large synagogue, built around 1229 CE, once stood where the Real Seminario de San Carlos now stands.

Slovenia

• The Ljubljana Synagogue, according to Johann Weichard Valvasor's "History of Carniola" published in 1689, was constructed in 1213 along the Jews Path Zidovska steza on Jew Street Zidovska ulica; this implies the possibility of a Jewish presence in Slovenia as early as the 1100s.^[32][33] Rabbi Israel ben Ptaxja Isserlein, born in Regensburg 1390 C.E., arrived in Ljubljana in 1427 and stayed until 1445.

• The Maribor Synagogue (a/k/a Marburg Synagogue) was built in the 13th century. Located at Zidovska ulica 4 in the Jewish Square Zidovski trg, it is the second oldest Synagogue in Europe.^[34] The first documented evidence of a Jewish presence in Slovenia dates to the 13th Century C.E. when Yiddish and Italian-speaking Jews migrated south from Austria.^[32]

Ukraine

• Golden Rose Synagogue (Lviv), 1582, a standing ruin as of 2009.
• Golden Rose Synagogue (Dnipropetrovsk), originally constructed in the late 1850s, restored in 1999.

United Kingdom

Main article: Oldest synagogues in the United Kingdom

• Jew's Court, Lincoln is "probably the only standing medieval synagogue in England".
• Bevis Marks Synagogue in London, built in 1701 is the oldest synagogue building in the United Kingdom still in use.
• The Plymouth Synagogue (see above), is the oldest surviving Ashkenazi synagogue in continuous use in the English speaking world.
• Garnethill Synagogue, built 1879-81, is the oldest synagogue in Scotland.

North America

General

• The Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, is the oldest Jewish house of worship in North America that is still standing. It was built in 1759 for the Jeshuat Israel congregation, which was established in 1658.

Canada

Main article: Oldest synagogues in Canada

• The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue of Montreal is the oldest congregation in Canada.
• The 1863 building of Congregation Emanu-El (Victoria, British Columbia) may be the oldest synagogue building in Canada.

United States

Main article: Oldest synagogues in the United States

• Congregation Shearith Israel, 1654, is the oldest congregation in the United States, although its present building dates from 1897.
• Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, the building of which commenced in 1759, is the United States' oldest synagogue and began services in the current building in the year 1763; the congregation was founded in 1658. President Kennedy called Touro Synagogue "one of the oldest symbols of liberty".^{[citation needed]}
• Congregation Talmud Torah Adereth El (located on Easts 29th Street in Manhattan) has been operating services from that location since 1863. The congregation was founded in 1857. It has the distinction of being the oldest Synagogue in New York running services from the same location

South America and Caribbean

Recife, Brazil

The Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue, located in Recife stands on the site of the earliest synagogue in the Americas.

• The Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue in Recife, Brazil, erected in 1636, was the first synagogue erected in the Americas. Its foundations have been recently discovered, and the twentieth century buildings on the site have been altered to resemble a 17th century Dutch synagogue.

Jamaica

• The first synagogue, a Sephardic Synagogue, was built in Port Royal in approximately 1646, but was destroyed during the earthquake of 1692. Another Synagogue, Neveh Shalom Synagogue, was established on Spanish Town's Monk Street in 1704

Barbados

• Nidhe Israel Synagogue in Bridgetown, Barbados: one of the oldest Synagogues in the Americas, standing since 1654, restored and used by the Jewish community in Barbados to this day.

Argentina

• Sinagoga de la Congregación Israelita Argentina in Buenos Aires, Argentina: the oldest Synagogue in Argentina, standing since 1897 to this day.

Suriname

• Wooden, later brick synagogue Beracha ve Shalom ("Blessings and Peace") at Jodensavanne, Suriname, built between 1665 and 1671. Destroyed in 1832, ruins still exist.
• Neveh Shalom Synagogue, erection first completed in 1723 and rebuilt in 1842 or 1843, currently the only synagogue in use in Suriname.

Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles

• The Jewish community was founded in 1659. The Curaçao synagogue, congregation Mikvé Israel-Emanuel, built in 1732. When Jews were expelled from the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe the number of Jews in Curacao increased and by 1780 reached 2,000, more than half of the white population. The Curacao community became the "mother community" of The Americas and assisted other communities in the area, mainly in Suriname and St. Eustatius. It also financed the construction of the first synagogues in New York and Newport.

Sint Eustatius

• The Honen Dalim Synagogue, Oranjestad, Sint Eustatius, built in 1739, burned down by Admiral George Rodney after the capture of Sint Eustatius in 1781, partially restored in 2001.

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