Synagogue Quotations

I was raised in an observant Jewish household, so for me, Hebrew prayers - the sounds, the sunlight streaming in from the stained-glass windows of a synagogue - bring my father back to me as surely as if he were sitting next to me, my head pressed against his shoulder.

I know crowds of people who go to church and the synagogue who aren't religious.

My father was a rabbi and had a little synagogue in Canada, so I'm from Canada. I left there at 16.

Throughout its history, the members of Shearith Israel have observed Thanksgiving by reciting in synagogue the same psalms of praise and gratitude sung by Jews all over the world on festive days like Hanukkah.

I was always the weirdo who wanted to have an egalitarian service in synagogue and felt I was always going against the grain.

The most important part of the process of mourning is regularly reciting kaddish in a synagogue. Kaddish is a doxology, which Jewish tradition has mandated children to recite daily in a synagogue during the year of mourning for a deceased parent and then on the anniversary of his or her death thereafter.

I had always known that I was Jewish - we celebrated the holidays, we went to a synagogue - but I had never known that I was supposed to feel ashamed about it.

My parents were practicing Jews. My mother grew up in an orthodox synagogue, and after my grandfather died, she went to a conservative synagogue and a little later ended up in a reform synagogue. My father was in reform synagogues from the beginning.

I grew up with the belief that to dress for synagogue it was more appropriate to wear skirts.

The place for religion is in church, synagogue and in the home and in one's heart, ... Certainly, we think it's contradictory to the American tradition to put it on the campaign trail, to say, 'Vote for me because I'm a believer.'

In my neighborhood, everyone had an opinion on the local cantor. You didn't go to a synagogue to listen to the rabbi's sermon. You went to listen to the cantor. It was like a concert.

Built in 1763, it is the oldest surviving synagogue in North America,

Built in 1763, it is the oldest surviving synagogue in North America. Still in use, the building combines an intimate elegance with Classical grandeur in the best tradition of Georgian architecture. It is also a National Landmark, the highest designation given to an American building.

Passover takes place in the home rather than the synagogue and centers around an epic meal - the seder - so you remember Passover as storytelling, you remember it in food, and you remember it in the family.

When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes. I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with secular democracy.

What we saw here was a breaking of all the boundaries that we worked so hard to maintain over the past few days. We will deal with the full severity of the law with these people who desecrated the synagogue and went berserk and injured officers.

We had 10,337 people in the seats last Sunday, ... No church, no mosque, no synagogue in Michigan came close to that. Anybody like me is going to have detractors ... because I get things done.

They say 50 to 52 percent of the adult population is not affiliated with a synagogue, but, at the same time, 75 to 80 percent of children receive a Jewish education. The challenge to synagogues and the community is how to engage these families when they are participating; give them something other than their kid's Bar/Bat Mitzvah; so they will continue participating in synagogue activities after the Bar/Bat Mitzvah is over.

There's nothing that would restrict a city from allocating funds to a church or synagogue that faces a grave danger or risk. We have always said we have felt this was redundant and unnecessary.

This does not necessarily reflect synagogue membership. This is what they consider themselves.

The most significant and poignant part of the event is it's our chance every year for the entire synagogue community, federation community and general community to come together for one magnificent day at one magnificent event.

It's truly unpleasant to see a synagogue burned down, but this destruction was foretold. None of the Cabinet ministers had the illusion that the Palestinian Authority would want, and especially would be able, to save the synagogues from the mob.

I'm Reconstructionist; I don't serve the Sabbath, but I go to synagogue.

in the synagogue of my heart... I myself jail and the jailed, I go wounded, bite-marked

If it respected religion, Israel would have transferred these synagogues back to its territory.