Casablanca, Morocco

I took these photographs in Casablanca, Morocco in 2007. This was an enclosed area which included a school area and a synagogue.

The first photograph has the name of the parsha being read that week and the time that candle lighting for Shabbat was.

Below is the entrance to the synagogue. Very unassuming...

...but very pretty on the inside. This is looking from the front of the synagogue toward the back.

Looking toward the front where the Ark is. Here's the back of the bima, where the baal Tefillah (the leader of the congregation) stands and Torah reading occurs.

The Aron -- the Ark where the Torah is stored.

We use the same siddur everywhere around the world. You can see the Shema on the left side of the photo, "Hear O'Israel".

Some beautiful kids playing in the yard.

And we can't live without a bakery across the street! :)

Looking for Photographs of Synagogues/Temples Around the World

One of the things I find fascinating about the Jewish People is the fact that we are all doing the same or similar things in our religious lives. Our central place of worship is the synagogue, or temple. We include certain ceremonial objects in our observance of ritual - like the wine cup when we say Kiddush on Friday nights, and menorahs/chanukiahs on Chanukah. You can go anywhere in the world and find Jews doing the same Jewish things you would find back at home.

We currently find ourselves during the three weeks of mourning which lead to the 9th day of Av - Tisha b'Av - our Jewish national day of mourning for all the horrific and terrible things that have happened to the Jewish People. Tisha b'Av, in particular, is the day that both Holy Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed.

Over this summer I would like to start to include photographs of synagogues and other places of Jewish worship on this website. I want to do this in the name of achdut - unity. We learn that one of the reasons that the Holy Temple (the Beit HaMikdash) was destroyed was because of baseless hatred toward one another. With these photographs, I'd like to focus on what we have in common - rather than on what divides us.

So keep this in mind as you travel around - or even if you stay home - and take some photos of your local temples and synagogues and please share them with us. You can email me at: shira.muller*at*yahoo.com.

Thank you and safe travels!