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Golan Gem

The ancient synagogue of Deir Aziz

Of the approximately one hundred ancient synagogues from, say, 150 B.C.E. to 850 C.E. found in the ancient Land of Israel, an astounding 25 percent are located in the central Golan. How do we explain this? As it happens, one of the earliest synagogues is also in the Golan: the famous synagogue in Gamla, a Jewish town destroyed in 67 C.E. by the Romans at the beginning of the First Jewish Revolt. Gamla was never rebuilt.a Two other pre-Revolt synagogues known for a long time have been found in the series of palace/fortresses Herod the Great built on his […]

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Footnotes

1.

See Danny Syon, “Gamla: Portrait of a Rebellion,” BAR 18:01.

2.

See Hershel Shanks, “Masada—The Final Reports,” BAR 23:01 and Ehud Netzer, “Searching for Herod’s Tomb,” BAR 09:03.

3.

See Hershel Shanks, “Is It or Isn’t It—A Synagogue?” BAR 27:06.

4.

See “The Theodotus Inscription,” sidebar to “Hershel Shanks, Israel Antiquities Authority Declines Dirty Money,” BAR 29:04.

5.

See Rami Arav, Richard A. Freund and John F. Shroder, Jr., “Bethsaida Rediscovered,” BAR 26:01.

Endnotes

1.

See Lee I. Levine, “The First-Century Synagogue” in Douglas R. Edwards, ed., Religion and Society in Roman Palestine (New York: Routledge, 2004), pp. 84–89.

2.

Eric M. Meyers, “S.V. Nabratein,” New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land.

3.

For those who want more exact figures: 18 sites (40 percent) existed during all periods; 11 sites (24 percent) existed in the middle or late Roman period and existed throughout the Byzantine period; and 16 sites (36 percent) existed in some phase of the Roman period but not in the Byzantine period.