Ashdod Travelers guide

'Selichot' Tour 159 This is the location of the new Karaite synagogue, which was inaugurated in the city in 2010, and designed by architect Seri Ben- Ami. Thanks to its location, at the corner of Bnai Brith Boulevard and Ben-Ami Boulevard, its whiteness stands out. Above the entrance there is a seven-branched Menorah, long windows are set in its white walls, through which a pleasant light filters in, and the surrounding garden is beautiful and well-kept. Back in the tenth century CE, Rabbi Aharon Ben-Asher, the man the synagogue is named after, was active in Tiberias. Ben-Asher, who was related to Anan Ben-David the founder of the Karait stream, is the one who developed the method of vowelizing the Bible that is considered the most accurate and qualified. According to this method, which is accepted by both Karaite and rabbinic traditions, Ben-Asher proofed and vowelized the Aleppo Codex, the famous bible manuscript of which an original copy is currently housed at the Israel Museum. Anan Ben-David himself lived and worked in the eighth century CE, and some researchers claim that close to forty percent of the Jewish nation were Karaite during the following two hundred years. More About: The Karaite Community The Karaite community are called that because they believe in the bible as written. The prayer is conducted in a kind of dialogue between the cantor and the congregation, and is mostly based on the Book of Psalms and ancient liturgical poems and music. Most of the members of the community immigrated to Israel from Egypt and the end of the 1950s. Many of them settled in Ashdod, which has the largest concentration of Karaites in Israel today, over two thousand families. The old synagogue in Quarter Alef (1) in the city served the community for many years until the new synagogue was built. The members of the community are careful to preserve their unique tradition, and in the synagogue there is even a choir of young members of the community, who renew forgotten songs. At the entrance to the prayer hall, you must take off your shoes according to the verse ...“Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground...” (Exodus 3:5). For reasons of purity, entry to the prayer hall is forbidden for menstruating women, and entry if forbidden for both genders after visiting the cemetery.