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Jewish architecture comprises the architecture of Jewish religious buildings and other buildings that either incorporate Jewish elements in their design or are used by Jewish communities. Oriental style—Belz Great Synagogue (2000), Jerusalem.
Archaeology has provided information about "Israelite" architectural practices from the 10 th to 6 th centuries B.C.E., and to "Jewish" styles of building and decoration from the late Hellenistic period (1 st century B.C.E.) and later.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Israel built rows of concrete tenements to accommodate the masses of new immigrants living in the temporary tents and tin shacks of the maabarot, some of these were known as "rakevet" or train in Hebrew due to their relative monotony and length.
Domestic architecture, ancient Israel refers to the typical structures that housed most Israelite families in the Iron Age (c. 1200–587 BCE). Although some house forms that existed in the pre-Israelite periods continued into the Iron Age, mainly in enclaves of non-Israelites, one house form came to dominate in settlements identified as Israelite.
The study of Jewish architecture has been of particular interest to Israeli scholars, but also to Americans and Europeans, and the Hebrew University’s Center for Jewish Art has sent teams across the world to document historical synagogues—most no longer used.
Jewish Religious Architecture explores ways that Jews have expressed their tradition in brick and mortar and wood, in stone and word and spirit. This volume stretches from the biblical Tabernacle to Roman Jerusalem, synagogues spanning two millenia and on to contemporary Judaism.
We shall first describe the most significant remains of Jewish art and architecture from late antiquity, and then present some of the major issues that have emerged in the wake of these discoveries, not the least of which will be an attempt to answer the questions raised above.
