Magen David Synagogue

Calcutta has always been a melting pot of various cultures & religions. The jews came to Calcutta some time around 1790. The first synagogue was built at the site where Maghen David stands now, in the year 1826. The Magen David Synagogue built in 1884 when Elias David Joseph Ezra was the Sheriff of Calcutta. The two side walls contains memorial plaques with the chequered marble floors, gleaming chandeliers, stained glass windows creating a stunning atmosphere. The alter of the Magen David Synagogue is crowned with a Apse studded with stars representing the heaven.


Synagogue from the greek assembly is the term that defines the place of worship of the Jewish religion; the word itself is a translation of the Hebrew term Beit Knesset, just meeting house. In Yiddish the word is on, which corresponds to the custom of Jewish report of the synagogue as downs, from which, for example, the Piazza delle Cinque Scole in the old ghetto of Rome.

It is believed that the synagogue had begun as an institution during the Babylonian exile 597 BC and 537 BC, after the destruction of the first Temple, and brought to Israel by the Jews returned from exile; in Babylon , according to Jewish tradition, a great assembly of 120 scribes, prophets and wise Jews formalized and fixed a fee for the language of the prayers in Hebrew, since before there was a catalog of prayers or a method of prayer shared by all the people.

Rabbi Jochanan Ben Zakkai had the idea to create places of prayer for the Jews wherever they may be. This contributed to the maintenance and preservation of the Jewish religion after the destruction of the Second Temple, thanks to the contribution of schools and rabbis, who produced writings such as the Talmud and the Mishnah as a result of these works have given rise to the yeshiva.

Remains archaeological evidence that those buildings already existed in the time period following the Herodian Masada, Herodium, so at the time of the Second Temple. Among the III century and the fourth century there are numerous synagogues often with rich ornamentation, frescoes, and mosaics in Judea , in Galilee and in the cities of the diaspora.