Hechal Yehuda Synagogue, Orthodox Synagogue in Old North, Tel Aviv, Israel.
Hechal Yehuda Synagogue stands at 13 Menahem ben Saruq Street in central Tel Aviv, on the site of the historic village of Sumayil. Architects Yitzhak Toledano and Aharon Haim Rosso shaped the reinforced concrete building as a seashell, its ribs converging toward the Torah ark. The north facade is bare concrete with bas-reliefs of Jewish symbols by painter Yechezkel Kimchi.
This house of worship was completed in 1980 as a memorial to the Jewish community of Thessaloniki that was destroyed during World War II. The building marks an important moment when Tel Aviv chose to remember and honor a lost diaspora community through architecture.
The congregation follows the Sephardic rite, and worshippers include Greek-Sephardi Jews from Thessaloniki alongside Sephardim from other communities and a few Ashkenazim. The synagogue published mahzorim in the Thessaloniki rite and released a musical album, Mahzor Saloniki. Its shell form was chosen because the shell is the one natural form whose ribs converge on a single point, here the Torah ark.
The synagogue stands at 13 Menahem ben Saruq Street, next to Migdal HaMeah, on the site of the historic village of Sumayil. The shell-shaped north facade of bare concrete, with its bas-reliefs, faces the street and can be seen without entering. It is an active Orthodox congregation, so visitors should dress modestly and avoid prayer times.
The shell form was chosen because it is the only natural shape whose ribs all converge on a single point; in the synagogue the ribs converge on the Torah ark. The north facade is bare concrete with bas-reliefs of Jewish symbols, including a menorah and a Star of David, devised by painter Yechezkel Kimchi using a technique he developed.
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