The twelve shuls

שולהויףThe Shulhoyf

At the heart of the building is a covered, daylit court of about 8,000 square feet, with house-fronts around it and the facade of the Great Synagogue of Vilna on its north side. Twelve working shuls open onto it. Each is rebuilt from documented evidence; each has minyanim; each holds a Sefer Torah in its aron.

The Worms, Gwoździec and Volozhin rooms rise two levels. The ezras nashim galleries are reached by the courtyard stair and lift concealed behind the Great Synagogue facade. The Shabbos Gate opens from the south side of the court onto a garden walk to the street, so that the shuls can be reached on Shabbos and Yom Tov without passing through the museum.

The Bridge of Rising Letters crosses above the court at thirty-two feet, carrying visitors from the Rising Path to the Finale Hall.

S1

Worms, with the Frauenschul

Rhineland, 1034 and 1174

The Rashi shul and its women’s synagogue, rebuilt from the documented fabric; two levels on the north side of the court.

S2

Altneuschul

Prague

The oldest synagogue in continuous use in Europe, with its twin-nave hall and the saw-tooth brick gable on the court.

S3

Remuh

Krakow

The shul of the Rema in Kazimierz, founded by his father; the Rema rests in its courtyard, and his Mapah is set on the Shulchan Aruch in every shul in this court.

S4

Gwoździec wooden synagogue

Galicia

A full-size interpretive reconstruction of the wooden synagogue with its tiered roof and painted cupola ceiling; its own fire compartment.

שולהויף

The covered court: house-fronts, the Great Synagogue facade, the Bridge of Rising Letters above.

S5

The Gaon’s Kloiz

Vilna

The small beis medrash of the Vilna Gaon, beneath the Finale Hall on the east side of the court.

S6

Volozhin beis medrash

Lithuania

The mother of the yeshivos, founded by Rav Chaim of Volozhin; two levels, with the benches set for learning in pairs.

S7

The Baal Shem Tov’s shul

Medzhybizh

The small wooden shul on the south side of the court, beside the Shabbos Gate and the garden walk.

S8

Pressburg yeshiva beis medrash

Hungary

The beis medrash of the Chasam Sofer and his descendants, where the Hungarian yeshiva world was shaped.

S9

Frankfurt IRG synagogue

Germany

The synagogue of the Israelitische Religionsgesellschaft of Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch, destroyed in November 1938.

S10

The Soviet underground minyan

Russia

A hidden room off Gallery 8: the minyan that met in an apartment under the Soviet decades, with its Sefer Torah.

S11

Lubavitch beis medrash

Lubavitch and Rostov

The beis medrash of the Rebbeim of Chabad, from Lubavitch to the last years in Rostov; opens from the north-east corner of the court.

S12

Karlin beis medrash

Karlin by Pinsk

The beis medrash of the Karliner chassidim, known for the fire of its davening; opens from the south-east corner of the court.

Minyanim

A court that davens

Each shul keeps its own nusach and its own minhagim. The minyan schedule, with zmanim for Passaic, is published here when the Osiyos Core plugin is active.

Schedule to follow.

Dedicate a shul

Twelve rooms, twelve names

Each shul can be dedicated by a family or a kehillah, in memory of the community it comes from. Dedications are recorded in the Registry and on the shul itself.

Dedicate a shulAsk about a shul