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250 B.C.E. Synagogues in Egypt

Nile Celebration MosaicTwo documents concern synagogues in Egypt. Both date from the middle of the third century B.C.E. the first originated in Schedia, near Kafr ed-Dauwar, southeast of Alexandria. Schedia was an important customs post on the Nile; the Jewish settlement here may have had some relation to the river guard, which, according to Josephus (Against Apion 2, 64), had been entrusted to the Jews. The second inscription, comes from Krokodilopolis, capital of the Arsinoite Nome. The two texts are practically identical.

Synagogue in Elephantine

CIJ II, No. 1440; Horbury-Noy, No. 22

On behalf of King Ptolemy II and Queen Berenice his sister and wife and their children, the Jews [dedicated] this house of prayer.

Synagogue at Krokodilopolis

CPJud. III, Appendix I, No. 1532A; Horbury-Nov, No. 117

On behalf of King Ptolemy II, son of Ptolemy, and of Queen Berenice II his wife and sister and their children, the Jews in Krokodilopolis [dedicated] this house of prayer.

During the reign of Cleopatra VII, the existence of a synagogue in the southwestern suburb of Gabbary is attested (CIJ II, No. 1432; Horbury-Noy, No. 13). But the largest and most renowned of all, as Philo remarks, was built right in the heart of the Delta quarter of Alexandria. Its description by Rabbi Judah ben Ilai, dating from the Roman Antonine epoch (100 – 180 C.E.), has been preserved in the Talmud.

Synagogue in Alexandria

It has been taught, R. Judah said: Whoever has never seen the double colonnade [diple stoa, i.e., the basilica-synagogue] of Alexandria in Egypt has never seen Israel’s glory in his entire life. It was like a large basilica, with one colonnade within the other.

It sometimes held twice as many people as those who went forth from Egypt.

There were seventy golden thrones set up there, adorned with precious stones and pearls, one for each of the seventy elders, each one worth twenty five talents of gold, with a wooden platform in the middle.

The minister of the synagogue stood on it. When someone stood up for reading, the officer in charge waved the scarf, so the people could respond “Amen.”

They did not sit in a jumble, but each craft sat by itself, so that when a traveler came, he could join his fellow craftsmen, and on that basis his livelihood was provided. (Jerusalem Talmud, Sukkah 5:1, 55A-B

Source: Modrzejewski, Joseph M. The Jews of Egypt (p. 73, 74, 76, 78, 80, 83, 88, 91)

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