Aben Danan Synagogue
The Aben Danan Synagogue ( Hebrew בית הכנסת אבן דאנן, Sinagoga Ibn Danan in Spanish , Arabic معبد ابن دنان) is a Jewish church from the 17th century in the northern Moroccan city of Fez . The synagogue was built by Mimun Ben Sidan, a trader from the city of Aït Ishaq . It is an official historical cultural monument.
The Orthodox synagogue, formerly just one of several within the city walls, is located in the Mellah , the Jewish quarter of Fez. Their simply designed entrance door was no different from the neighboring houses. A short flight of stairs leads to the rectangular hall of the synagogue. The masonry is now coated with plaster and the wooden ceiling is painted. The room is lit by small windows in the top of the walls. Pictures taken in 1954 show the ceiling with numerous memory lamps; they are gone today. The walls are covered with blue patterned Moroccan tiles. The large Torah shrine is a cabinet that spans the entire wall and is made of carved wood. The wall above is decorated with intricately carved plaster work. Opposite the Torah shrine is a raised niche , which is separated from the main prayer room by a wooden screen that is intricately carved with a series of arches. It was intended as a seating area for special parishioners. The Bima is accessible from this room and is built as a small platform that protrudes from the raised area. It is wooden and surmounted by a wrought iron dome made of Islamic-style arches and floral decorations that culminate in a crown. The synagogue also has an underground immersion bath .
One of the first restoration work on the Aben Danan Synagogue took place in the 1870s. The Jewish community of Fes campaigned for the preservation of the synagogue and successfully proposed the building for the 1996 World Monuments Watch of the World Monuments Foundation in New York . At this point the plaster was peeling off, the roofs were about to collapse, and the water beams were rotting. The window panes were also broken or missing. The foundation restored the synagogue from 1998 in cooperation with the Moroccan Ministry of Culture and the Judeo-Moroccan Cultural Heritage Foundation, as well as with financial help from American Express . After the restoration, the synagogue reopened on February 25, 1999.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Zack, Joel, The Synagogues of Morocco; An Architectural and Preservation Survey , Jewish Heritage Council and World Monuments Fund, New York, August, 1993, pp. 29-32 ff.
- ^ World Monuments Fund - Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Danan Synagogue
- ^ Jewish Heritage Report, Vol. I, No. 2 / Summer 1997, Restoration Grant to Fez Synagogue , AmEx Awards $ 30,000 For Fez Synagogue Restoration
Coordinates: 34 ° 3 ′ 9.7 " N , 4 ° 59 ′ 30.1" W.