The history of the shul

The synagogue’s early years are known to us mainly from the recollections and written notes of Shmuel Zilberfarb, one of the community’s veterans, who grew up right beside it. This is how the story was preserved - from the mid-1950s, as a neighborhood boy saw it.

The first synagogue was a wooden barrack behind Somekh’s print shop, in the heart of the Machane Yehuda neighborhood, then called "the German quarter": Germans had lived here before World War II, and fled to Germany when it broke out. Jewish families settled in their place - most of them Holocaust survivors who reached Israel after the war. For years a full Ashkenazi minyan gathered here, and the shul was open mainly on Shabbat and the holidays.

The house was carried by its gabbaim. In the tzrif days these were Michl Boberman the wagon driver and Moshe Goldblat, whose family kept the bagel bakery; after them - Tzvi Lederman, whose son blew the shofar, Batya Zilberfarb, Shmuel’s mother, and Yona Filin the treasurer.

In 1963 or 1964 the barrack burned down - Michl Boberman saved the Torah scrolls at the last moment. With the help of deputy mayor Marmelstein the community received a classroom in the old Netzach school on HaAri HaKadosh Street - the first of the synagogues that would settle there.

And then, at Batya’s request, Marmelstein transferred to the community the plot of the old kindergarten - in exchange for the plot where the burned synagogue had stood, and where a new kindergarten was built. On that spot the synagogue stands to this day. The gabbaim of those days were Israel Strozer, Batya and Moshe Ackerman.

In their time came the great renovation - with Shmuel Horowitz and Yechezkel Rosenblum, Michl’s son-in-law: the ezrat nashim floor was built, the washrooms and kitchenette added. Most of the money was again raised with the help of Marmelstein, the deputy mayor from the Mafdal party. Years later he asked after the shul and told Shmuel: "I knew you were not Mafdal voters, but Jews need a synagogue."

In the 1970s Rav Moshe Zaichik - who back in Russia had studied together with the Chazon Ish - and Moshe Ackerman arrived from Russia, by way of Kfar Chabad. They knew how to pray, knew their Yiddishkeit, and greatly strengthened the shul: Rav Zaichik gave shiurim and was the house’s authority, though he never called himself a rabbi; and Ackerman ran the shul for many years - and merited a good old age.

In time Shayke Avidan - the neighbor from Nachman MiBreslav Street whom Batya would call to complete the Shabbat minyan - became the gizbar, together with Yoav and Asher, who have run the shul for many years.

And for decades Rav Yisrael Sharabi taught a Gemara shiur every Monday - Berachot, Sanhedrin and more - sending a replacement even when he fell ill. For the holidays cantors would be brought in; once Shmuel’s father asked Rav Shlomo Miller to lead the prayers. Moshe Kimelman read the Torah for many years.

And above all - the spirit of the place: no one was ever turned away here, and there were no quarrels. Everyone who came through the gate was received with love and respect. "Everyone lived in brotherhood and unity."

Based on an interview and the written notes of Shmuel Zilberfarb, August 2026; dates and names as memory preserved them.