Ancient/Tourist Shul is Restored

By COLlive reporter

An ancient synagogue in a prime location in Tiveria, one of Judaism’s Four Holy Cities, was recently inaugurated last week after going through extensive restoration work.

The Historic Synagogue, founded in 1836 by Boyan chassidim, has been operated by Chabad in recent years and used as an outreach center for the many tourists visiting the Tiberias promenade and Lake Kinneret.

The 1-story shul consists of a single large room. It has been one of the few buildings that survived an awry government effort in 1948 that demolished most of close to 700 historic homes and buildings. It was halted after a visit by Israel’s first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion.

Its recent renovation which installed a new exterior, windows, electricity and furniture, was also sparked by a visit.

Dr. Morris Antebi, an anesthesiologist and president of Ohel Yaacob Synagogue in Deal, NJ, was visiting Tiveria and couldn’t ignore that sorry state of the Historic Synagogue, overlooked by the Leonardo Hotel and other tourist attractions in what was the Chatzar Hayehudim area.

“I wished that someone would restore its glory,” he told participants of the reopening ceremony, attended by Mayor Zohar Oved, Head Shliach Rabbi Yosef Kramer and Rabbi Schneur Turkov, the Shliach who runs the shul.

“I am very glad today to see the synagogue in all of its splendor and magnificence,” he said, but noted that “giving the money was the easy past. Connecting the electricity and worrying for all the reconstruction work was the hard part.”

Antebi and his wife Norma dedicated the shul in memory of his parents Ezra and Grez, OBM.

Another donor that was instrumental to the shul’s past and present are Beldirici family. For a while the shul was named Beis Gavriel, after Gavriel Hacohen Beldirici OBM.

Often frequented by tourists, Rabbi Turkov said that renovation will allow the shul to continue being a center for davening, learning and outreach for locals and visitors.

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