page_title: Synagogue architecture
section_title: Blueprint for synagogues
hierarchical_section_title: Synagogue architecture / Blueprint for synagogues
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: La synagogue de Lille, Nord. English: Synagogue of Lille, France.
context_page_description: Synagogue architecture often follows styles in vogue at the place and time of construction. There is no set blueprint for synagogues and the architectural shapes and interior designs of synagogues vary greatly. According to tradition, the Divine Presence can be found wherever there is a minyan, a quorum, of ten. A synagogue always contains an ark, called aron ha-kodesh by Ashkenazim and hekhal by Sephardim, where the Torah scrolls are kept.
context_section_description: The ark may be more or less elaborate, even a cabinet not structurally integral to the building or a portable arrangement whereby a Torah is brought into a space temporarily used for worship. There must also be a table from which the Torah is read. The table, called bimah by eastern Ashkenazim, almemmar (or balemmer) by Central and Western Ashkenazim and tebah by Sephardim, where the Torah is read (and from where the services are conducted in Sephardi synagogues) can range from an elaborate platform integral to the building (many early modern synagogues of central Europe featured bimahs with pillars that rose to support the ceiling), to elaborate free-standing raised platforms, to simple tables. A ner tamid, a constantly lit light as a reminder of the constantly lit menorah of the Temple in Jerusalem. Many synagogues, mainly in Ashkenazi communities, feature a pulpit facing the congregation from which to address the assembled. All synagogues require an amud (Hebrew for "post" or "column"), a desk facing the Ark from which the Hazzan (reader, or prayer leader) leads the prayers.
  A synagogue may or may not have artwork; synagogues range from simple, unadorned prayer rooms to elaborately decorated buildings in every architectural style.
  The synagogue, or if it is a multi-purpose building, prayer sanctuaries within the synagogue, are typically designed to have their congregation face towards Jerusalem. Thus sanctuaries in the Western world generally have their congregation face east, while those east of Israel have their congregation face west. Congregations of sanctuaries in Israel face towards Jerusalem. But this orientation need not be exact, and occasionally synagogues face other directions for structural reasons, in which case the community may face Jerusalem when standing for prayers.
  Historically, synagogues were built in the prevailing architectural style of their time and place. Thus, the synagogue in Kaifeng, China looked very like Chinese temples of that region and era, with its outer wall and open garden in which several buildings were arranged.
   The styles of the earliest synagogues resembled the temples of other sects of the eastern Roman Empire. The synagogues of Morocco are embellished with the colored tilework characteristic of Moroccan architecture. The surviving medieval synagogues in Budapest, Prague and the German lands are typical Gothic structures.
  For much of history, the constraints of anti-semitism and the laws of host countries restricting the building of synagogues visible from the street, or forbidding their construction altogether, meant that synagogues were often built within existing buildings, or opening form interior courtyards. In both Europe and in the Muslim world, old synagogues with elaborate interior architecture can be found hidden within nondescript buildings.
  Where the building of synagogues was permitted, they were built in the prevailing architectural style of the time and place. Many European cities had elaborate Renaissance synagogues, of which a few survive.   In Italy there were many synagogues in the style of the Italian Renaissance (see Leghorn; Padua; and Venice). With the coming of the Baroque era, Baroque synagogues appeared across Europe.
  The emancipation of Jews in European countries and of Jews in Muslim countries colonized by European countries gave Jews the right to build large, elaborate synagogues visible from the public street. Synagogue architecture blossomed. Large Jewish communities wished to show not only their wealth but also their newly acquired status as citizens by constructing magnificent synagogues. Handsome nineteenth synagogues form the period of Jewish imagination stand in virtually every country where there were Jewish communities. Most were built in revival styles then in fashion, such as Neoclassical, Neo-Byzantine, Romanesque Revival Moorish Revival, Gothic Revival, and Greek Revival. There are Egyptian Revival synagogues and even one Mayan Revival synagogue. In the nineteenth and early twentieth century heyday of historicist architecture, however
caption: Lille synagogue, France. An eclectic hybrid with Moorish, Romanesque and Baroque elements.
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