ICJudaism: A Teacher’s Guide to Judaism

      Hosted by ICTeachers                                                                Formerly: Mike’s Rough Guide to Judaism

Disclaimer:

The contents of these pages represent the author’s personal views, experience and understanding.
There are bound to be some things here that some Jews would disagree with.

 

Synagogue 3

Visiting a synagogue

Most synagogues will be welcoming to those of other faiths who wish to visit during services (although some, having significant worries about security in these times of rising anti-semitism, may not). It is always a good idea to contact the synagogue office first to arrange a visit, partly as a matter of courtesy and partly because there may be reasons on particular days why visits might not be appropriate. Making prior contact will often result in the offer of a community member to act as a your host or guide.

Those wishing to experience a synagogue service first hand would be well advised to read the excellent advice given in the section, Non-Jews Visiting a Synagogue on Tracey Rich’s excellent Judaism101 website (although this refers to the American situation it is essentially the same as here in the UK)).

Many synagogues are also happy to provide visiting facilities and possibly guided tours for study groups, such as school parties. Again this would need to be by prior arrangement.

Many synagogues these days have websites with information about themselves and how to contact them. Just Google “synagogue” and the name of your area.

A freely downloadable resource pack (see the Resources page of this website - opens in a new window) includes a children’s information / work sheet, ”Synagogue_visit” (with teachers’ notes).

 

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