Great Synagogue of Alexandria

ОБЗОР

История Great Synagogue of Alexandria

Alexandria had one of the largest Jewish communities of the ancient world. Jews lived there from the early Ptolemaic period, and in the Roman era two of the city's five districts were known as Jewish quarters. Philo says there were many houses of prayer throughout the city, and he singles out one as the greatest and most celebrated of them. The Encyclopaedia Judaica suggests that this central synagogue may be the 'double colonnade' described in rabbinic literature.

The main description is a teaching attributed to Rabbi Yehudah, preserved in the Tosefta (Sukkah 4) and repeated in both Talmuds: whoever had not seen the double colonnade of Alexandria had never seen the glory of Israel. It was like a large basilica with a colonnade inside a colonnade, held seventy-one golden chairs for the elders, and had a wooden platform at its centre from which the sexton waved a scarf to signal the congregation to answer 'Amen'. Worshippers sat by trade, so that a poor stranger could find his fellow craftsmen and work.

When and by whom it was built is unknown. According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica the great synagogue went up in flames during the Jewish rebellion of 115–117 CE. The Jerusalem Talmud asks who destroyed it and answers 'Trajan the wicked', while the Babylonian Talmud has Abaye say that its people were killed by Alexander the Great. No remains have been identified.

МЕСТО

Where it stood

Historic: Roman Alexandria, Egypt; district and street unknown (Jews lived mainly in the eastern 'Delta' quarter). Today: unknown; placeholder pin at the centre of modern Alexandria (approximate).

Открыть большую карту →

Еврейская община

Jews settled in Alexandria at the beginning of the third century BCE, according to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, first in the eastern sector of the city near the sea; Josephus claimed an earlier presence going back to Alexander the Great. In the Roman period two of the city's five districts, named after letters of the Greek alphabet, were called Jewish quarters because most of their inhabitants were Jews, and Josephus placed Jews in the fourth or 'Delta' district. Philo put the Jews of Alexandria and Egypt at not less than a million, a figure that cannot be checked. The community was led at first by an ethnarch, who according to Strabo ruled and judged the people; under Augustus a council of elders (gerousia) presided over by archons took his place. The Jewish Encyclopedia gives this council seventy-one members, the same number as the golden chairs of the rabbinic description. The Encyclopaedia Judaica also mentions a Jewish court (bet din) and a records office among the community's institutions.

Архитектура и дизайн

No plan, excavation or contemporary image of the building is known, so its form rests entirely on rabbinic texts written down long after its loss. The Tosefta and the Jerusalem Talmud call it the diplostoon, a Greek word for a double stoa or double colonnade, and the Babylonian Talmud transmits the same word in a corrupted spelling. All versions compare it to a large basilica with 'a colonnade within a colonnade', which suggests a hall with an inner and an outer ring of columns. The Tosefta and Babylonian Talmud speak of seventy-one golden chairs matching the seventy-one elders of the Sanhedrin; the Jerusalem Talmud says seventy, inlaid with precious stones and pearls. At the centre stood a wooden platform (bimah). The claim that it sometimes held twice as many people as left Egypt in the Exodus is plainly hyperbole, and the stated values of the chairs are equally rhetorical. Philo calls one Alexandrian synagogue the greatest and most conspicuous, but he gives no architectural description. Some scholars, the Encyclopaedia Judaica notes, think the double colonnade was merely a large meeting place for artisans.

Жизнь в синагоге

The rabbinic description is chiefly about how the congregation worshipped in so vast a space. Because the people could not hear the prayer leader, the sexton (hazzan) stood on the wooden platform in the centre holding scarves. When a blessing was completed, or when someone began to read from the Torah according to the Jerusalem Talmud, he waved a scarf and the whole congregation answered 'Amen'. The congregation did not sit mixed together: goldsmiths, silversmiths, blacksmiths, coppersmiths and weavers each sat in their own section. The texts explain the purpose: a poor stranger who came in would find the members of his own craft and through them obtain a livelihood for himself and his household. The seventy-one golden chairs are said to correspond to the seventy-one elders, and the Jewish Encyclopedia notes that the Alexandrian council of elders itself had seventy-one members. No inscription, name of an officer or date of any service in this building is known.

Разрушение

The synagogues of Alexandria were first attacked in 38 CE under the Roman prefect Flaccus. Philo writes that the mob razed some synagogues to their foundations, set fire to others, and placed images of the emperor Gaius in the rest; in the greatest and most celebrated of them they set up a bronze statue of Gaius on a four-horse chariot. Whether that building was the double colonnade is not stated. The final loss came during the Jewish revolt of 115–117 CE in Egypt, Cyrenaica and Cyprus. Eusebius records that Greeks who fled to Alexandria imprisoned and killed the Jews in the city, and that the emperor Trajan sent Marcius Turbo against the rebels. The Encyclopaedia Judaica states that during this rebellion the great synagogue went up in flames. The Jerusalem Talmud (Sukkah 5:1) asks who destroyed it and answers 'Trajan the wicked'. The Babylonian Talmud (Sukkah 51b) instead has Abaye say that all who gathered there were killed by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, an attribution that cannot be historical. No source states exactly who set the fire.

Судьба общины

The revolt of 115–117 CE was, in the words of the Jewish Encyclopedia, attended by enormous loss of life. In Alexandria the Greeks gained the upper hand and massacred the Jewish inhabitants, and Eusebius describes the Jews of the city being imprisoned and killed. Roman forces under Marcius Turbo then suppressed the rising across Egypt and Cyrenaica. The Encyclopaedia Judaica says that as a consequence the community's economy was undermined and its population diminished; the great Hellenistic Jewish community of Philo's day never recovered its former place. Jews nevertheless lived in Alexandria again later: by the beginning of the Byzantine era their numbers had grown, and in 414 they were expelled from the city under Patriarch Cyril. A sizeable Jewish population was again present when the Muslims conquered the city, and a community continued there until modern times.

Место сегодня

The site of the great synagogue has never been identified. No ancient source gives its street or district, and no excavated remains in Alexandria have been attributed to it. Ancient writers place the main Jewish settlement in the eastern part of the city near the sea and in the fourth or 'Delta' district, but this tells us only the general area of Jewish life, not where this building stood. Ancient Alexandria lies largely beneath the modern city, and nothing of the double colonnade is known to survive. The map pin for this entry is therefore a placeholder at the centre of present-day Alexandria and should not be read as the location of the synagogue.

Помогите сохранить память

Вам есть чем поделиться?

Фотографии, документы, семейные истории и воспоминания об этой синагоге и её общине помогают сохранить её историю.