What is your shul like? Is it big? Is it small? Is it a basement with some folding chairs and tables or is it a great, big building with a high ceiling? Today we visit ten of the most amazing shuls in the world.
The biggest shul in the world is the Belzer Shul of Yerushalayim. It has 8,000 seats. On Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, when many Belzer chassidim from around the world come to spend the Yamim Noraim with their rebbe, another 2,000 seats are added. There are over 70 sifrei Torah in the massive aron kodesh. The Belzer Rebbe wanted this huge shul to be built as a lasting memory of the Great Shul of Belz that his great-great-grandfather, Rav Shalom of Belz, built in 1843. That shul sat 5,000 people.
The oldest shul in the world still in use is Prague’s Altneu Shul, built in 1270. There’s a legend that the Maharal of Prague hid the clay to make his golem in the attic of this shul.
Altneu is Yiddish, meaning “old-new,” because it was once a new shul, but when other shuls were built in Prague, they called it the “old, new shul.” Some say that the word altneu comes from the Hebrew “al tenai” meaning “on condition.” The legend goes that some of the stones used to build the shul were brought there from the Beis Hamikdash by malachim to be used on condition the stones are returned to Yerushalayim when Mashiach comes.
North America’s oldest shul is the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1763 by Chazan Isaac Touro, a Jew from Holland. Holland was once owned by Spain and many Spanish and Portuguese Jews fled from to Holland, because Holland was a free country, while Spain and Portugal killed Jews who didn’t convert to Christianity. These Jews came to America and founded the Touro Synagogue. The floor of the shul has a trapdoor leading to an underground tunnel — apparently its first congregants were traumatized by their experiences and weren’t taking any chances.… In 1790 George Washington wrote a letter to the shul members, which is still prized to this day. He also came to visit the shul — and he wasn’t the only president to visit; Jefferson, Truman, Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy also paid the shul a visit.
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