In this city so crowded with religious symbols, where houses of worship vie with one another to render the religious past visible, no synagogue bears more symbolic weight than the one called the Hurva, in the heart of the Jewish Quarter.

Just days ahead of its March 15 rededication ceremony, finishing touches still were being applied to the synagogue, once Jerusalem's grandest, which had remained in ruins for six decades. The rebuilt Hurva, made of the white stone that is Jerusalem's vernacular material, had already assumed its former prominence in the city's crowded skyline. Only interior details remained to be done.

Early this month, as the Israeli architect Nahum Meltzer looked on, a whorled woodwork crown covered in gold leaf was hoisted to its perch atop a two-story holy ark. The ark, which stands beneath the building's gleaming 82-feet-high dome, is a nearly exact replica of the original that stood on the spot more than 150 years earlier, encapsulating the basic principle that guided Mr. Meltzer's reconstruction: not innovation, but historical accuracy.

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Filed under: * Christian Life / Church Life • Liturgy, Music, Worship • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • Middle East • Israel • * Religion News & Commentary • Other Faiths • Judaism

1. evan miller wrote: Thank goodness Mr Safdi and Mr. Kahn were over ruled and something beautiful and timeless was built, rather than some ghastly modernist eyesore of the sort our most celebrated modern archeticts give us (Guggenheim museum Spain, buildings to be raised on the site of the World Trade Center’s towers, Walt Disney Theater in LA, etc.).  No, Mr. Safdi, you and your ilk are not capable of “doing something great.” March 12, 1:44 pm | [comment link]

2. A Senior Priest wrote: I’ve passed by the site many, many times over the past few years and the finished product is just right for the location. March 12, 3:10 pm | [comment link]

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