Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on December 10, 2014

Interior view from the Ladies' Gallery, with a late-afternoon study circle in progress. Photo: Jacob Solomon

Meanwhile, the Ramban Synagogue in the Old City began to revive and continued to flourish after 1967. So today Jerusalem has two Ramban Synagogues, by sheer default.

A Sabbath morning visitor to the Ramban Synagogue in Katamon will find a medium-sized and comfortable sanctuary with a very full congregation, whose veterans create an air of stability and authenticity within a predominantly youngish, well-Jewish-educated crowd.

A distinctly upbeat atmosphere resonates though the proceedings, which are under the spiritual guidance of Rabbi Dr. Benjamin Lau.

Gold menorah-fronted parchment scroll declaring Rabbi Benny Lau as the spiritual leader of the congregation. Photo: Jacob Solomon

The services and Torah readings are conducted by experts, and experts are in considerable supply at the Ramban falling into the categories of the best, the very best, and the very, very best which it comes to cantillational accuracy and fidelity to the definitive tunes of the day.

Rather surprisingly, the rich congregational singing included a substantial item hardly known outside Anglo-Jewry. I subsequently found that people with those roots were (and are) among the makers and shakers of the synagogue.

Though mainstream Ashkenazi in rite, custom, and clientele, the synagogue has tidbits that give the Ramban Synagogue in Katamon individuality. The prayer for the welfare of the State of Israel is not the standard version, but a composition by one of the congregations early leaders. A candidate for the official version in the early years of statehood, it didnt get to the top of the selection process.

And there is no hiatus during the services final chorus. The glass doors slide open to laden tables in the adjoining courtyard, the reader proceeds seamlessly from Adon Olam to kiddush at the reading desk, and after a thunderous Amen, all flow to the eatables and drinkables without delay.

And finally yes do come to the Ramban on Shabbat morning if you are single, eligible, and prospecting!

Original post:

Why Jerusalem has two 'Ramban synagogues'

Category: Ashkenazi
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