The Presidents HaNassi Synagogue in Rehavia, Jerusalem
Posted By richards on December 31, 2014
This is a synagogue whose status has grown over time. Founded in 1932 as a small, single-story building to serve the residents of the then distinctly German-Jewish new neighborhood of Rehavia, it included Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, the second president of Israel, among its worshippers. Indeed, Ben-Zvi marked his election to the presidency in 1952 by reading the weekly portion from the Prophets on the Sabbath immediately afterwards.
The entrance to HaNassi Synagogue. Photo: Jacob Solomon
One High Holiday service an American tourist turned up to find no available seats, whereupon the beadle indicated the one unoccupied place just by the president. On being called up to the Torah, the visitor expressed his gratitude in with a pledge of $250,000, which was ultimately used to complete the current magnificent building. When you visit, look for the plaque of the anonymous donor.
The original, distinguished congregation of leading Knesset figures, business people, and professionals of the first couple of generations of the State of Israel has long been shrinking with the aging of its founders, and the skyrocketing housing prices that pushed their children out of the district. But the seeds of the present, English-speaking-dominated membership were in place when the present three-storied structure opened its doors in 1972, and they formed the major part of the congregation by the 1990s.
Indeed, many were members of the Young Israel movement back in the States, which led to the Presidents Synagogue adding Young Israel to its nomenclature in 1997.
Your impression of a Sabbath morning visit to Presidents Synagogue will depend on which service you attend; downstairs (8:45) or upstairs (8:30).
The main upstairs sanctuary. Photo: Jacob Solomon
Whatever you choose, get there as soon as possible seats run out. With a younger crowd, downstairs runs faster with fewer frills, but includes a short delivery - in Hebrew - from Rabbi Berel Wein. Overall however it is a standard Israeli service.
By contrast, the sanctuary upstairs tends to attract a more mature, larger English speaking crowd, some of whom know Rabbi Wein from his previous rabbinical positions in Miami and the tri-state area. The service and repertoire are the more formal modes reminiscent of the high church style of American and Anglo-Jewry.
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