Synagogues of Europe or the promise of the future.

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By Mr. Haïm Korsia

Chief rabbi of France, Member of the Institute.  

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What if the "mantle of synagogues" had shaped the Europe of hope and humanism as surely as that of the churches had ordered France? Every time a synagogue is built somewhere, it means that freedom and respect for otherness is advancing in this society.

It is therefore a very good initiative to devote a work to the buildings which attest to the presence of Judaism in so many cities and countries because these witnesses of a history must above all remain guarantors of the future. Each building is the guarantee of the future of its country.

But each story is a promise: of faith, of joy, of solemnity, of prayers and of hopes, of piety and of human warmth. They are also expressions of gratitude to the local Jewish communities who have always shown great loyalty to the countries and cities that hosted them.

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The identities of all these synagogues are magnified by bright and beautiful photos of David Abitbol. To discover these synagogues is thus to walk in different traditions and customs, in the colors and munificence of the south, in the sobriety and rigor of the north, in premises so similar to the places of worship of each place that the 'we hear the verse of Isaiah differently

"And my house will be a house of prayer for all peoples".