Old synagogues of Tiberias

Abulafia Synagogue

Beth Gavriel

The Old synagogues of Tiberias are a group of synagoues situated in the old city of Tiberias, Israel, that date form the 18th and 19th centuries.^[1][2]

They include:

• Etz Chaim Synagogue or Abulafia Synagogue, established in 1742 by Rabbi Chaim Abulafia on the site of earlier synagogues. Abulafiah immigrated to Tiberias from Istanbul in 1740 at the invitation of Zahir al-Umar. The synagogue he built still stands, although it underwent major reconstruction following the Near East earthquake of 1759, the Galilee earthquake of 1837 and the great flood of 1934.
• Karlin-Stolin Synagogue, established by Karlin-Stolin Hasidim who arrived in the Holy Land in the mid-19th century, settling in Tiberias, Hebron and Safed. In 1869 they redeemed the site of a former synagogue in Tiberias which had been built in 1786 by Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk and destroyed in the Galilee earthquake of 1837. Construction of a new synagogue started in 1870 and was assisted by funds from the diaspora. The synagogue has a notable Torah Ark in Eastern European style.
• Chabad-Lubavitch Synagogue.
• The El Senor Sephardic synagogue, now a standing ruin with an intact roof.
• A North African synagogue.

References

1. The Jews in Palestine in the eighteenth century: under the patronage of the Istanbul Committee of Officials for Palestine, By Y. Barnay, Translated by Naomi Goldblum University of Alabama Press, 1992, p. 15, 16
2. "The Jews: their history, culture, and religion" Louis Finkelstein, Edition: 3, Harper, New York, 1960, p. 659