{"id":34742,"date":"2019-04-19T08:54:30","date_gmt":"2019-04-19T08:54:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/turismo.comuneacqui.it\/la-sinagoga-ebraica\/"},"modified":"2023-02-21T11:42:01","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T10:42:01","slug":"la-sinagoga-ebraica","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/turismo.comuneacqui.it\/la-sinagoga-ebraica\/?lang=en","title":{"rendered":"THE BETH HA-KENESETH SYNAGOGUE"},"content":{"rendered":"
THE BETH HA-KENESETH SYNAGOGUE: a place of worship<\/strong><\/p>\n Inaugurated on Friday 14th<\/sup> December 1888, the monumental synagogue designed by the engineer Leale in a classical Pompeian style, was vandalized causing irreversible damage t<\/span>he night before its official recognition as a national monument in July 1971; only the perimeter remains intact. From the time of construction the building is bound under the protection of the Superintendence. Some furnishings were transferred to the Temple in Alessandria: 18 desks with storage for books; two special shaped seats located on either side of the Holy Ark; two paintings with names of the donors; tre Lichraoth Tor\u00e0. As every synagogue, also the one in Acqui was the gravitational centre of Jewish community life: for annual occasions, for the study of the Tor\u00e0, in the school (scola) or pio Levi institute, attended by pupils age 4 to 12-13 years old; as an enclosed agora, it was an elected place for board meetings and heads of households, even after the Acquese community was incorporated as a \"section\" dependent on the one in Alessandria, on the basis of the decree of 30th<\/sup> October 1930.<\/p>\n The synagogue was located on the first floor of the building in via Saracco, close to Piazza Bollente, where from 1731 to 1848 was the Jewish Ghetto. It was made up of different spaces with specific destinations for use: the home of the Rabbi (the last one for over 50 years was Adolfo Salvatore Ancona, who lived in Acqui in his last years with his granddaughter Clotilde and his daughter-in-law Lina Salomoni; he died in Milan in 1952), the school (scola), the library of sacred and profane books, the janitor's room, a small guest house, a prayer room. It had a rectangular and \"modern\" plan compared to the other Piedmontese synagogues all with a central plan, divided into two parts: one for the officiants and one for the public. The Tevah was reserved for the Rabbi and the officiants. The sacred cabinet, or Ar\u00f2n HaKodesh, containing the Torah scrolls was set in the wall, covered with the mantle (meil), over which was the crown (ataroth) adorned with the plate (tas); the Rabbi's chair and that of the Haz\u00e0n, the lamp perpetually lit (Ner Tamid) suspended from the ceiling in front of the Ar\u00f2n, the Lichrahot Tor\u00e0 or throne on which the scroll was open for the reading of the para-shah on Saturdays. The Tevah was separated from the space for the public (two-thirds of the room was covered by two parallel rows of benches) by a low marble colonnade, completed at the sides by two impressive fluted columns, extended to the ceiling and bounded by the trabeation containing the two Tables of the Law, and the epigraph \"KNOW BEFORE WHOM YOU STAND\". The internal wall perimeter featured epigraphs with texts of the Torah and the psalmists chosen by the Rabbi Lazzaro Ottolenghi for the inauguration of the Temple. That of the epigraphs was one of three \"decorative\" elements of the elegant and austere temple of Acqui, which was chosen as high symbolism of the Law: the Word, in this case, or rather the north star, the action of the believer. The second \"decorative\" element of strong symbolic value was the column, described in Exodus as the theophany presence \"of fire or smoke\" as a protection of the chosen people, and symbol of the orthopraxis notion: \"be columns of the temple\". The columns of the temple were also reinforcements of the balustrade of the upper gallery (at the top, near the attic, in the wall opposite the Tevah; the women\u2019s lower gallery extended in the shape of a U over three walls) and as pilasters of windows (also blind) overlooking the internal perimeter above the women\u2019s galleries. The third \u201cdecorative\u201d and symbolic element was light, radiated by gas and oil lamps and by the enormous skylight placed under-roof above the Tevah, and represented the Light of knowledge, that by means of the Law guided people.<\/p>\n The synagogue, as a temple of prayer, was frequented for recurring \" feasts \" during the Jewish year (recalling the history of the errant people) and on occasion of births, bars (bat) mitzv\u00e0 and weddings. Funerals were celebrated in the cemetery, with a transition in the mourning chamber for eventual lustra and recital of the Kaddish: the material, impure element in decomposition,\u00a0 could not be compared to what is apically pure (the Torah, word of D-o) was in the synagogue.<\/p>\n HOLY DAYS AND FESTIVALS<\/b><\/p>\n RECURRENCES <\/b><\/p>\n Shabbat -<\/b>\u00a0the seventh day dedicated to D-o as a commemoration of creation and most sacred institution.<\/p>\n Pesach <\/b>(Passover) - commemorates the end of Egyptian slavery (Pesach means passage) and the conquest of the promised land.<\/p>\n Shavuoth -<\/b>\u00a0feast of the offering of the first harvest to the temple, 50 days after Pesah.<\/p>\n