Oldest synagogues in the world

The designation oldest synagogue in the world requires careful definition. Many very old synagogues have been discovered in archaeological digs. Some synagogues have been destroyed and rebuilt several times on the same site, so, while the site or congregation may be ancient, the building may be modern. Still other very old synagogue buildings exist, but have been used for many centuries as churches, mosques, or for other purposes. And some very old synagogues have been in continuous use as synagogues for many centuries.

Two of the claimants to be the oldest structures still standing which were built as synagogues are the Erfurt Synagogue in Erfurt, Germany, which was built c. 1100 (see below), and Santa María la Blanca, built in Toledo, Spain in 1190. However neither has been used as a synagogue for centuries. The oldest still active synagogue in the world is the Old New Synagogue of Prague, Czech Republic, built in 1270s. The Ben Ezra Synagogue of Cairo has the honor of being the longest serving synagogue in the world, having continuously served as one from 1025 AD until the mid 20th century. Owing to the migration of nearly all of Egypt's Jews to Israel, today the monument functions as a museum.

The oldest of India's synagogue buildings can be found in the state of Kerala, where synagogue construction began during the medieval period. Whereas Kerala’s first Jewish houses of prayer said to be from the eleventh through the 13th centuries perished long ago as a consequence of natural disasters, enemy attacks, or the abandonment of buildings when congregations shifted, as did the earliest confirmed synagogue in Kochandagi authenticated to 1344 by a surviving building inscription now found in the courtyard of the Paradesi synagogue in Kochi's Jew Town, those originating from the 16th and 17th centuries subsist. These extant synagogues, though altered over time, include not only the oldest found on the Indian subcontinent but in the British Commonwealth.

The consensus among historians based on a compilation of limited recorded history and a mélange of oral narratives is that first synagogues in Kerala were not built until the medieval period. Various Kerala Jews and the scholars who have studied the community believe that the earliest synagogues in the region date to the early 11th century. According to a narrative, a Kerala Jew by the name of Joseph Rabban who accepted on behalf of his community copper plates granting the local Jews a set of privileges by the Hindu leader Bhaskara Ravi Varman was also given wood by his Highness for the erection of a synagogue around 1000. While no physical evidence of this and any other similar period building survives, study of the literature, Jewish folksongs, and narratives supports the notion that synagogues likely stood in Malabar Coast towns, places now within the modern-day State of Kerala, from this epoch. A portion of these medieval-period buildings perished when the Kerala Jews had to leave them behind under the threat of persecution by the Moors and the Portuguese or as a result of natural disasters. The balance was rebuilt as a consequence of naturally occurring or intentionally set fires, modernization efforts, or assorted other variables.

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