Origins
At turn of the 20th century,many of Syria's Jewish community had emigrated, fleeing persecution arising from blood libels and to escape the economic downturn which arrived with the decline of the Ottoman Empire. While many settled in England, the United States or Latin America, some families moved to the Holy Land. Most community members were laborers, shopkeepers or merchants.
After some time, the synagogue was officially established in 1901 by a community of Jews from Aleppo, Syria. It is named after two cousins who financed the building: Ovadiah Josiah Ades and Yosef Isaac Ades. Yosef Ades was a wealthy man with connections in the Ottoman administration and a member of the City Council of Jerusalem. The new synagogue was designed as a neighborhood institution, and at the time, was considered one of the most beautiful synagogues in Jerusalem. Although solidly constructed, the synagogue suffered damage in World War I and Israel's War of Independence. Today the synagogue is attended not only by Aleppian Jews, but by many different types of Sephardic Jews (e.g. Kurdish); nevertheless, the liturgy of the congregation remains Aleppian in its purest form.
Read more about this topic: Ades Synagogue
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