On The Evolvement Of American Synagogue

Synagogue was Jews'main religious activity place after the destruction of their Temple, which has played a very important role in maintaining the Jews'religious faith and nationality. American synagogues had been established and developed since 1654 when Jews immigrated into America. This paper mainly examines and analyzes the evolvement of American synagogue in 20th century as well as the reasons for that.The whole paper is divided into four parts.Part one simply introduces something about the synagogue (including definition, internal structure, custom and its rising ), summarizes the academic research situation home and abroad, at the same time, it explains some basic conception involved into this paper.Part two generalizes the three periods of American synagogue development, which are Sephardic, Ashkenazi and American ritual period. In the religious ritual, the Sephardic synagogue abided the Babylon traditional way, but the Ashkenazi synagogue abided the Palestinian tradition. American Jews have reformed the traditional way drastically, as a result, American ritual is shaped that characterizes with the compound seats and female rabbis.Part three analyzes the evolvement of American synagogue in 20th century. In this century, the compound choirs and instrumental music playing had come into the synagogue followed by the decline of religious function and the reinforcement of social activities, especially the women's position in the synagogue has improved significantly. American Jews, especially the youth, they have great passion to pursue the personal success, hardly participate the worship of the synagogue, and have a cool attitude toward the synagogue.Part four examines the reason internal and outside for the evolvement of the synagogue. The liberty of America and the opened outside environment provided the wide space for the development of Jews, as a result, American Jewish community has become the biggest and most successful one since the beginning of the history. At the same time, the tide of the gradual intensifying Americanization and the secularization have stroked the traditional ideal of Jews, consequently, the ritual and social function of the synagogue have changed significantly.