Kfar Bar'am synagogue
 Ancient synagogue ruins. | |
  Shown within Israel | |
| Location | Northern District, Israel |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 33°02′37″N 35°24′51″E / 33.043611°N 35.414075°E |
Kfar Baram synagogue (
The façade of the 3rd-century synagogue faces south, towards Jerusalem, as the custom of most synagogues, and was replete with a covered portico containing six stone columns.[1]
It was first identified as a synagogue in modern times in 1852 – along with other similar remains in Galilee – by Edward Robinson in his Biblical Researches in Palestine.[2]
Etymology
The name is often assumed to mean "Son of the People," incorporating the
History
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The village was badly damaged in the Galilee earthquake of 1837. The local church and a row of columns and other standing remains of the ancient synagogue were thrown to the ground.[6]
Along with other such structures in the Galilee, the ruins were first identified as a synagogue in modern times in 1852 by Edward Robinson in his Biblical Researches in Palestine.[2] Robinson wrote of his visit to Kafr Bir'im:
As these remains were the first of the kind that we had yet seen; and were of a style of architecture utterly unknown to us ; we were at a loss for some time what to make of them. They were evidently neither Greek nor Roman. The inscription, if authentic, obviously marks both structures as of Jewish origin ; and as such, they could only have been synagogues. We were, however, not satisfied on this point, until we found at
Kedes, and perhaps other places in Galilee; all marked with the same architectural peculiarities. The size, the elaborate sculptured ornament, and the splendour of these edifices, do not belong to a scattered and down-trodden people ; such as the Jews have been in these regions ever since the fourth century. These costly synagogues, therefore, can be referred only to the earlier centuries of the Christian era ; when Galilee was the chief seat of the Jews ; and Jewish learning and schools flourished at Tiberias. All these circumstances would seem to mark a condition of prosperity and wealth and influence among the Jews of Galilee in that age, of which neither their own historians, nor any other, have given us any account.[7]
The village was captured October 31, 1948 by the Israel Defense Forces during operation Hiram and the villagers forced to leave.[8] On June 16, 1949, Kibbutz Bar'am was founded nearby by demobilized Palmach soldiers.
Archaeology
The Kfar Bar'am synagogue is preserved up to the second story and has been restored. The architecture is similar to that of other synagogues in the Galilee built in the
The synagogue is made of basalt stone, standard for most buildings in the area, and its façade faces south, towards Jerusalem, as the custom of most synagogues. The six-column portico is unusual.
An unusual feature in an ancient synagogue is the presence of three-dimensional sculpture, a pair of stone lions. A similar pair of three-dimensional lions was found at Chorazin.[11] A carved frieze features a winged victory and images of animals and, possibly, human figures.[12]
There was a second, smaller synagogue, but little of it was found. A lintel from this smaller synagogue is at the Louvre. The Hebrew inscription on the lintel reads, "Peace be upon the place, and on all the places of Israel."[13] A replica of the lintel is exhibited at the Bar-Dor Museum on Kibbutz Bar'am.
In 1901, publication of photos of the ancient synagogue led the Jewish Hospital of Philadelphia, (now the
See also
- Ancient synagogues in the Palestine region
- Archaeology of Israel
- Bar'am National Park
- Oldest synagogues in the world
Bibliography
- Aviam, Mordechai (2001-01-01). "THE ANCIENT SYNAGOGUES AT BARʿAM". Judaism in Late Antiquity 3. Where we Stand: Issues and Debates in Ancient Judaism. BRILL. pp. 155–177. ISBN 9789004294172.
References
- OCLC 745203905.
- ^ ISBN 978-90-04-11254-4. Retrieved 2023-02-12.
It must be remembered that the first of those to identify 'house of assembly' remains in the Land of Israel in the modern age was the American theologian, E. Robinson, considered to be the "father of the study of the Land of Israel"
- ^ Burial Places of the Fathers, published by Yehuda Levi Nahum in book: Ṣohar la-ḥasifat ginzei teiman (Heb. צהר לחשיפת גנזי תימן), Tel-Aviv 1986, p. 252
- ^ Hütteroth and Abdulfattah, 1977, p. 175
- ^ Robinson and Smith, 1856, pp. 68-71
- ^ "The earthquake of 1 January 1837 in Southern Lebanon and Northern Palestine" by N. N. Ambraseys, in Annali di Geofisica, August 1997, p.933,
- ISBN 978-0-8370-0251-4. Retrieved 2023-02-12.
- ISBN 0-521-00967-7, p. XXII, settlement #160.
- ^ Burial Places of the Fathers, published by Yehuda Levi Nahum in book: Ṣohar la-ḥasifat ginzei teiman (Heb. צהר לחשיפת גנזי תימן), Tel-Aviv 1986, p. 252 (Hebrew)
- OCLC 745203905.
- ^ Art and Judaism in the Greco-Roman World: Toward a New Jewish archaeology, Steven Fine, Cambridge University Press, 2005, p. 190.
- ^ Fine, 2005, p. 92.
- ^ Fine, Cambridge University Press, 2005, Chapter 1, "Building an Ancient Synagogue on the Delaware," pp. 12–21
- ^ Fine, 2005, pp. 13–14
External links
- Bar'am synagogue (Talmudic period)
- Ancient Synagogues in Bar'am and Capernaum article written by Jacqueline Schaalje, from Jewish Magazine, June 2001 Edition
- Bar’am National Park, an ancient synagogue and a Maronite church
- Coexistence - Kafar Berem[permanent dead link] article written by Hanna F. Farah