Underground surprise: As part of an archaeological excavation currently underway in the Jewish Nature Reserve, an ancient synagogue was uncovered whose location was previously unknown.
As part of a joint excavation by the Nature and Parks Authority and the University of Haifa, dozens of decorated items, lintels, and basalt columns were found, confirming the existence of the ancient synagogue in Yehudiya, and adding a new and exciting chapter to the story of the Jewish settlement in the Golan.
""As part of a multi-year study to document architectural items from the villages in the Golan Heights, together with Prof. Haim Ben-David and Dr. Benny Arubas, we documented over 150 items in the Jewish Nature Reserve, most of which were in secondary use in the abandoned Syrian village. But the location of the synagogue was unknown until now," says Dr. Michael Ezband from the Zinman Institute of Archaeology at the University of Haifa, and a senior lecturer in the Department of Land of Israel Studies at Kinneret College.
""We identified an unusual concentration of items and column fragments lying on a path in the abandoned modern village, and we decided to conduct an inspection there. Already at the beginning of the excavation, dozens of architectural items were uncovered, and later, to our surprise, the southern wall of the building was also uncovered, with three openings facing Jerusalem.".
Although hundreds of architectural items from the Byzantine period have been documented in the past in the Jewish Reserve area, the location of the synagogue, experts explain, remains a mystery.
In previous archaeological surveys, over 150 items were collected and documented, including lintels, column links, and decorated basalt stones, most of which were incorporated into secondary use in the abandoned village within the reserve.
Now, following a focused excavation, the building itself has been revealed for the first time: two rows of stones from the southern wall of the ashlar building with three openings. Next to them, two lintels were discovered close to their original position opposite the openings, one of which is decorated.
In addition, many decorated items were discovered outside the southern wall and inside the building - some in rockfalls and earth fill and some in secondary use from later periods.
Past surveys conducted at the site have uncovered numerous items of monumental and public construction, including lampstand decoration. The Golan Heights area where the synagogue is located was once a Jewish area during the Roman and Byzantine periods – the first century BC to the 7th-8th centuries AD.
The outline of the building, approximately 13 meters wide and at least 17 meters long, indicates that it was built in the basilica style – a rectangular structure in which two rows of columns and benches are built along the walls – an architectural form characteristic of ancient synagogues in Israel.
According to Dr. Azband, the mere discovery of the southern wall, which is over 13 meters long and has openings facing Jerusalem, combined with items found and known from other synagogues that were previously uncovered - such as benches (in secondary use), parts of what is probably the Ark of the Covenant, and more, constitutes clear evidence of the building's purpose as a synagogue.
The Nature and Parks Authority notes that the excavation is being carried out in collaboration with the University of Haifa, with the assistance of the Hecht Foundation, the Department of Land of Israel Studies at the Kinneret Academic College, and assistance from the reserve director, Nael Davos, and the staff at the Jewish Reserve.
Dr. Dror Ben-Yosef, archaeologist from the Israel Nature and Parks Authority: "The discovery of the ancient synagogue in Yehudia testifies more than anything to Jewish settlement in the Golan as early as 1,500 years ago, when the Jewish community flourished in the Golan. In addition to this synagogue, about 25 other ancient synagogues were discovered in the Golan, attesting to the firm hold of Judaism on the Golan.".
|These synagogues were used, in addition to prayer, as centers of learning and the teaching of Jewish law. The sages visited these buildings and spread Jewish knowledge to all members of the community, from child to old age. We intend to complete the excavation of the magnificent synagogue in Yehudiya in the future and make it accessible to all visitors to the reserve.
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