Looking at Buildings

basementGlossary Term [1], a typical building would include cloakrooms, vestry, offices and a kitchen. Sometimes a minister's and/or caretaker's house was integrated into the design or built next door. Often, for budgetary reasons, ancillary spaces, such as communal halls, were built later than the main synagogue rather than forming part of an original integrated design.

Large synagogues often have a Succah. This is a temporary "booth" used on the festival of Succot ("Tabernacles"). The Succah may take the form of an outhouse, consisting of a few posts or poles, or a hut with a removable roof, or even a room inside the synagogue complex with a skylight that can be opened to the heavens.

In the late 20th century the concept of a Jewish community centre with multi-functional spaces became popular. Prayer halls with moveable chairs, partitions and even Arks, can be found today, a fashion imported from the United States of America.