The House of Prayer

This chapter addresses the permission to establish a synagogue, a house where Jews could worship and gather for prayer whenever they wished. Permission to establish a synagogue amounted at once to much less, and much more, than building a particular place of prayer. Less in the sense that, in general, the choice of synagogue fell on a modest rented house whose exterior was not to be altered, so as not to attract attention, or one or more rooms made available to the community in the house of a rich and influential Jewish family. More because these rooms, outwardly so unpretentious, did not serve simply for religious ceremonies and prayers, but often became the fulcrum of Jewish life, where Italian Jews gathered to take decisions affecting the whole community. The chapter then describes the synagogues of the Umbrian Jewish communities. It also considers how the Jewish banker and merchant separates religious time and professional time.