synagogue

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synagogue

1. 
a. a building for Jewish religious services and usually also for religious instruction
b. (as modifier): synagogue services
2. a congregation of Jews who assemble for worship or religious study
3. the religion of Judaism as organized in such congregations
Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Synagogue

A place of assembly, or a building for Jewish worship and religious instruction.
Illustrated Dictionary of Architecture Copyright © 2012, 2002, 1998 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved

synagogue

A place of assembly for Jewish worship.
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Synagogue

 

in Judaism, a community of believers and a house of worship. Synagogues originated in Palestine in the fourth century B.C. and in Egypt in the third century B.C. After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans in A.D. 70 and the expansion of the Diaspora, synagogues were established wherever Jews lived. The first synagogues were instrumental in the growth of monotheism.

Religious services take place in the synagogue, and the Bible and Talmud are read and discussed. In the Middle Ages, deviation from the dogmas of Judaism resulted in excommunication from the synagogue. Both Uriel Acosta and Spinoza were excommunicated.

The architecture of synagogues varies greatly. The common features are a rectangular shape, three or five aisles, an ark of the law at the eastern wall in which the scrolls of the Torah are kept and, in front of the ark, a raised platform for the reading of sacred texts.

REFERENCE

Wischnitzer, R. The Architecture of the European Synagogue. Philadelphia, Pa., 1964.
The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
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