After WWII

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An Italian community existed in Jerusalem long before the synagogue was tranferred from Conegliano. Its members felt the need of praying according to the ancient Italian rite, known also as "Minhag Bnei Roma". They were motivated not only by the obvious desire to pray in the way that was familiar to them, but also by the will of preserving the ancient Italian rite that could well have been lost together with the Italian Jewish communities during the Shoah.
Initially they used to gather in a school classroom in Jerusalem’s Haneviim St; then they moved to the Ma’ale school in the Schmidt Compound.

After the Second World War steps were taken by the Italian Jews to transfer the Conegliano synagogue and its contents to Jerusalem. Contacts were made both with the Jewish Community of Venice, which in 1948 agreed to donate the synagogue, and with Conegliano local authorities. The municipality of Conegliano hesitated for a long time before finally giving its consent to the transfer, probably due to fear of being accused of antisemitism. After having ascertained that there were no Jews still living in Conegliano, the municipality agreed and a huge "rescue operation" was mounted. The synagogue interior was dismantled, packed and sent to Israel. When it arrived in Jerusalem in 1951, the most natural place to reestablish it seemed to be the Schmidt Compound, where the Italian Community already gathered to pray.

The synagogue interior was completely re-assembled at its present location with the women’s section temporarily located at the rear of the hall, but only in 1989 did it become possible to restore the original layout of the synagogue to the manner in which it was constructed in Italy three hundred years ago. Thus the women’s gallery was raised to its position above the hall and the men’s section was extended to the back of the room. The gallery was partitioned by latticework screens (four originals and others reconstructed) which swing open to allow the women a view of the men’s section below.

While most of the contents of the synagogue come from Italian synagogues of the 18th and 19th centuries, not all of them originated in Conegliano. Several chandeliers and benches are from Ferrara, Reggio Emilia (dating from the 18th century) and Firenze. A few items were donated to the community since its establishment in Jerusalem fifty years ago.

Currently, services are held at the Italian synagogue on Shabbat and Festivals by members of the Italian community. The different customs of the Italian rite were rearranged by the spiritual leaders of the community in order to create a unified liturgy for modern day Israel.

Before WWII





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