You can almost smell the ancient Torah scrolls as Yom Kippur at the Great Synagogue of Aleppo is brought back to life by the modern miracle of virtual reality.
The historic Syrian building, built sometime in the 5th century CE and destroyed in 2016, has been re-created in a stunning exhibition at Jerusalem’s Israel Museum, which has attracted 45,000 visitors.
Copy of The Aleppo Codex , 10th century CE., Ben Zvi Institute (1)
A copy of the Aleppo Codex
A talk with Aleppo’s Chief Rabbi of the 1930s is recreated, as well as crystal-clear Hebrew inscriptions, old wooden benches, Torah scrolls, and light shining through the windows.
The tour is largely based on 40 photographs taken in 1947, commissioned by Jewish Syrian woman Sarah Shammah, whose voice is re-created to narrate the story of the synagogue.
Shammah, who emigrated from Aleppo to Jerusalem in 1932, went back to her home city to the Great Synagogue before it was too late.
Place VR project at the Israel Museum Jerusalem.
The Aleppo Synagogue
In what would become an almost prophetic mission, Shammah commissioned an Armenian man to photograph it just days before it was set on fire in anti-Jewish riots following publication of the UN partition plan for Palestine.
Realising the importance and possible leverage of the pictures, the photographer demanded them back but Shammah managed to escape through Lebanon and back to Israel with the photographs intact.
“I don’t know what extraordinary intuition it was that drove me to go to Aleppo and photograph the synagogue only a few days before it was set on fire by the Muslims,” she wrote in her notebook.
"In my youth, and to this day, the synagogue was precious and sacred for me as for most of the Jews of Syria and elsewhere. Each time I visited it, my cares vanished and I felt uplifted.
“For me, that synagogue was always a place of consolation. I was so sorry to see it burnt. I threw myself on its ruins in inconsolable grief.”
As the virtual-reality tour progresses, the settings change to Shammah’s apartments in Aleppo and later Jerusalem. She and the photographer stop and talk to the Chief Rabbi, who reminisces about a Shabbat shared in Aleppo with Shammah’s father.
The pictures that made the exhibition possible, showing both the interior and exterior of the synagogue, proved to be of great historical significance, according to Dr Rachel Sarfati, chief curator of Jewish Art and Life at the Israel Museum.
Place VR at the Israel Museum Jerusalem(2)
The ancient shul
“The Great Synagogue was the heart and most important place for the Jewish community in Aleppo. I think this is the most important documentation we have of a synagogue since the invention of photography,” Dr Sarfati told the JC.
The synagogue, built between the 5th and 7th century CE, was badly damaged in 1400 by the Mongols and again in anti-Jewish riots in 1947. Both times it was rebuilt by the Jewish community, but was finally razed during the Syrian civil war in 2016.
The Great Synagogue’s crown jewel was the Aleppo Codex, written in the 10th century CE in Tiberias, and considered to be the definitive version of the Hebrew Bible. Once in the possession of Maimonides, its remains can be seen in the Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book wing.
“Very few people were allowed to look at the manuscript in the 600 years it was preserved in Aleppo,” said Dr Adolfo Roitman the curator. “For the Jewish community in Aleppo, having this book in their possession was like having God on earth.”
It was miraculously saved during the 1947 fire and kept hidden until 1957 when the Rabbis of Aleppo gave it to a Syrian Jew to smuggle to Israel through Turkey.
On arrival in Israel, it became clear that only 294 of the estimated 490 pages had survived. It is not known if they were lost on the journey or if they went missing prior to leaving Syria.
In 1981, however, a page from the Codex (a passage from the Book of Chronicles) was discovered in New York, which has a large community of Jews from Aleppo.
‘Back to Aleppo: A Virtual-Reality Tour of the Great Synagogue’ is produced by High Road Stories & Micha’s Films and is at the Israel Museum, Jerusalem, until 31 December 2023.
