Hassidei Karlin Synagogue, Synagogue in Tiberias, Israel
Hassidei Karlin Synagogue is a three-storey building in the Jewish Quarter of Tiberias: a basement, a residential floor, and a synagogue on the top floor. It was first built in 1786 by Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk; the present synagogue was rebuilt by Karlin Hasidim after 1867, with its ceiling completed in the early 1890s.
Built in 1786 by Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk as a three-storey house with the synagogue on the top floor, it was wrecked in the 1837 Galilee earthquake while the house beneath survived. It stood in ruins for about thirty years until Karlin Hasidim bought it in 1869 on the orders of Rabbi Aharon II of Karlin and began rebuilding in 1870, completing the ceiling in the early 1890s.
This synagogue serves as a gathering place for the Karlin Hasidic community, where followers continue prayer practices rooted in Eastern European Jewish traditions. Visitors can sense how the space brings together people who share this particular way of worshipping and studying religious texts.
The synagogue functions as an active place of prayer in Tiberias and remains in regular use by the community. Visitors should be aware that entry may be restricted during prayer times and that respectful behavior according to Jewish customs is expected.
Rabbi Aharon of Karlin sent the Hasidim a Torah scroll he had completed himself, along with a wooden ark and prayer stand, while they prayed in the old cellar room beneath the ruined synagogue. The building's ceiling was finished only in the early 1890s, paid for by Shmuel Zeev Scheib and blessed by Rabbi Yisrael of Stolin, the "Yenuka".
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