The Dome Synagogue

The story

The cross-communal synagogue Heikhal Aharon, known by the name the Dome synagogue, stands in Neighborhood Heh and received its nickname from its form. It is officially named after Rabbi Aharon Rabinstein, who served in it for many years as rabbi. It serves as a central synagogue for the national-religious public in the city, and inside it operates the Netivei-Am study house, named after the work of Rabbi Amram Aburbeh. It was built as part of a whole neighborhood that was tried out here: David Tanne, head of the government housing division, visited the “Interbau” exhibition in Berlin in 1957, which presented new ideas and experiments in housing, and when he returned he assembled a team of architects headed by Avraham Yaski — then thirty-one years old — and entrusted to it the planning of a new neighborhood in Beersheba, which would serve as an alternative to the generic public housing construction of the city. The synagogue stands in front of the carpet houses, in the middle of a square. After it was enlarged, the building is completely different from its original form.

• Brutalism
• Communities
• People
• Beersheba