House of Ten Commandments (, ), also called Bahrain Synagogue, is a synagogue located on Sasa'ah Avenue, in

commercial district Commercial area, commercial district or commercial zone in a city is an area, district, or neighborhoods primarily composed of commercial buildings, such as a strip mall, office parks, downtown, central business district, financial district, " ...

Manama Manama ( ', Bahrani Arabic, Bahrani pronunciation: ) is the capital and List of cities in Bahrain, largest city of Bahrain, with an approximate population of 297,502 as of 2012. Long an important trading center in the Persian Gulf, Manama is ...

Bahrain Bahrain, officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, is an island country in West Asia. Situated on the Persian Gulf, it comprises a small archipelago of 50 natural islands and an additional 33 artificial islands, centered on Bahrain Island, which mak ...

. House of the Ten Commandments is the oldest continuously operating synagogue in the

Gulf Cooperation Council The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (), also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC; ), is a Regional integration, regional, intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental, political, and economic union comprising Ba ...

History

House of Ten Commandments in 2009 The synagogue was built in the 1930s by Iranian Jewish merchant Shimon Cohen and financed by an American jeweller whose name is recorded only as Rosenthal and who came to Bahrain to buy pearls. After the

1947 UN Partition Plan The United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal by the United Nations to partition Mandatory Palestine at the end of the British Mandate. Drafted by the U.N. Special Committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) on 3 September 1947, the Pl ...

which envisaged partitioning

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

, the synagogue was ransacked by foreign workers who worked in Bahrain. The riots caused many Bahraini Jews to emigrate. The synagogue was ransacked and burned and the country's Torah scroll was stolen. The Torah scroll was returned in damaged condition a number of years later. The remaining Jewish community in Bahrain wanted to convert the building for another use or give it to charity, but the government of Bahrain insisted in remains as a synagogue. The government has also offered the Jewish community a piece of land to rebuild the synagogue. Ebrahim Daoud Nonoo, the Jewish community's unofficial leader and a member of Bahrain's

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

, undertook to renovate the synagogue. The synagogue was renovated in 1997, 2006, and in 2021. In 2021, the synagogue was renovated at a cost of 60,000 Bahraini dinars ($159,000) and was opened to the public for the first time in 74 years since 1947.

Overview

A sign outside the building reads “Bahrain Synagogue” in English, and “House of Ten Commandments” in Arabic and Hebrew. The synagogue has a wooden door and has arch-shaped wooden windows approximating the synagogue's design when it was built in the 1930s. The Ark cover is blue velvet and dedicated, in Hebrew, to the community’s late rabbi Shimon Cohen. The bima cover has a velvet cover dedicated in Hebrew to the normalization agreement between Bahrain and Israel, and the ark holds an Ashkenazi Torah, given to the King

Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa Hamad bin Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa (born 28 January 1950) is King of Bahrain since 1999. He is a member of the ruling Al Khalifa dynasty. Early life and education Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa was born on 28 January 1950 in Riffa, Bahrain. ...

Jared Kushner Jared Corey Kushner (born January 10, 1981) is an American businessman and investor. He is a son-in-law of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, through his marriage to Ivanka Trump and served as a senior advisor in his father-in- ...

, that has the following inscription: “In honor of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa for his vision, courage and leadership in bringing peace, respect and religious tolerance to the Middle East. June 25, 2019, Jared Kushner.” There are services in the synagogue every

Shabbat Shabbat (, , or ; , , ) or the Sabbath (), also called Shabbos (, ) by Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazim, is Judaism's day of rest on the seventh day of the seven-day week, week—i.e., Friday prayer, Friday–Saturday. On this day, religious Jews ...

morning, though there is not always a

minyan In Judaism, a ''minyan'' ( ''mīnyān'' , Literal translation, lit. (noun) ''count, number''; pl. ''mīnyānīm'' ) is the quorum of ten Jewish adults required for certain Mitzvah, religious obligations. In more traditional streams of Judaism ...

. It depends on who is visiting and whether there are tourists.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Bahrain's crown prince, Shaloum discuss the situations of Bahraini Jews
ArabicNews.com Edot HaMizrach Jews and Judaism in Bahrain Synagogues in the Middle East Religious buildings and structures in Bahrain Buildings and structures in Manama Orthodox synagogues in the Middle East Tourist attractions in Manama Orthodox Judaism in the Arab world

History

Overview

See also

References

External links