Story about a building: synagogue Elijah the prophet, at 14 Sinai Blvd. in Haifa, is not just the oldest of the synagogues in the estate. It embodies the story of the coming of age of the entire neighborhood — from the pioneering Romanian nucleus that founded the neighborhood to the urban maturity of the 1950s.
From the hut to the modernist cube
In the first decade of the establishment of Ahuza – which can rightly be called “The Romanian Decade” – A clear public core was formed for the first time along Sinai Boulevard.
This nucleus included two basic institutions: the synagogue Elijah the prophet And the neighborhood's first elementary school- "Memory of Joseph." Both expressed the worldview of the founders of the Ahuza neighborhood, members of the association "Friends" Miyashi: A Zionist-National community, traditional in character but modern in outlook.
In 1926, with the construction of the first houses in the neighborhood, one of the huts on the site was designated to serve as a synagogue. It was a modest building, pioneering in nature, that allowed the gathering of about 20 worshippers.
In 1935, as the population grew, the heirs of one of the neighborhood's pioneers, Zeev Gordzon, donated the land on which the first synagogue was built. The building included a mikveh and a prayer hall with seating for about 160 people, including a women's section.
Its proximity to Ahuza's first school created the public core of Ahuza's “Romanian Decade”—a community lifeline along Sinai Boulevard.
In the 50s, as the neighborhood expanded and the second generation took root, it was decided to significantly expand and rebuild the synagogue. The building was designed by the architect Isaiah Ilan — And this is the building that exists today.
In this way, the synagogue reflects three stages in the development of the estate: the pioneering stage, the stage of community consolidation, and the stage of urban maturity.
on the building
In the 50s, the design of the present building began by the architect Isaiah Ilan, replacing the 30s building. The building was inaugurated in 1964, after significant renovation and expansion carried out with the kind help of the Oislander family.
Today, the building includes a prayer hall for about 400 worshippers, including a women's section with about 150 seats. In the lower part of the lot, which slopes toward Disraeli Street, is a mikveh—an important element in the life of the community.
The appearance of the building is that of a simple, restrained cube above which floats a concrete roof detached from the surrounding walls - one of the hallmarks of Y. Ilan's architectural language. The perimeter shadow line creates a sense of levitation and lightens the seemingly heavy mass.
The building is finished with rough, light-colored, sprayed plaster—typical of public construction in Carmel in the 1950s. There is no decoration here, and there is no representative stone cladding—the presence is created through volume, proportion, and light.
The Ark is housed within a tall, narrow box-shaped block adjacent to the eastern wall. A row of small, square windows pierce the sides of the cube at the women’s sanctuary level, while horizontal window strips line the prayer hall in its lower part. This system of openings – together with the floating roof – is intended to enhance the experience of the space through natural light.
The building exudes restraint that reflects the language of 50s modernism in Carmel – public, functional, restrained. The uniqueness of the building lies in its restrained cubic mass and the roof detached from the walls, which creates a clear perimeter shadow line.
About the architect
Isaiah Ilan(1931-1999), born in Austria, immigrated to Israel with his family at the age of 4 (1935). He graduated with honors from the Technion, and later completed a master's degree. In 1962 he joined the Technion's academic staff, and in 1966 he was appointed senior lecturer. He lived in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.
Ilan designed a wide variety of public buildings: schools, cultural centers, synagogues, institutions of higher education, and projects for the Ministry of Defense.
Among his notable works: the synagogue building in Ein Hayam, the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine building in Haifa (together with Aryeh Freiberger), the Computer Science building at the Technion, and a long line of synagogues, including: the Tel Hanan synagogue in Kiryat Yam, the central synagogue in Romema, and of course the "Elijah the Prophet" synagogue in Ahuza.
The floating roof of a mansion
If the "Romanian Decade" created the public core of the mansion, the 1950s gave it a solid architectural form.
The roof, detached from the walls — a clear modernist gesture — contains a moment of transition: from a pioneering garden neighborhood to an established urban neighborhood.
The Elijah the Prophet Synagogue teaches that sometimes a precise shadow line, on a single floating roof, is enough to mark an entire period.
Thanks
My thanks to my friend Rami Chen, for his great help in compiling information about the synagogue building, thereby making a significant contribution to the completion of the article.
Dear readers,
The articles in this section are based on publicly available information published in sources such as Wikipedia and other websites and may include various historical inaccuracies stemming from the aforementioned sources.
To David Shalom
I read the interesting article.
I remembered the synagogue in the Ein Hayam neighborhood, which is also built in the same way and also has a floating roof. And then I saw that the same architect designed it too.
As a native of the neighborhood, he notes that the synagogue in Ein Hayam served the Ashkenazi community, and sometimes, because there was no minyan, they would go to the Shaar Hashemiyya synagogue, which is 50 meters away.
And lenders pray to complete the minyan.
Today, the building houses a yeshiva and a komplek of Rabbi Perry. Thus, the building is preserved and used for its intended purpose.
Thanks for all the interesting articles.
It's a shame that the synagogues in Haifa are poor and small, and even boring.
Some of them have been operating in basements and small rooms near kindergartens for decades.
Those that have a structure often suffer from neglect.
Why did the Jewish people return to their land if this is what their religious leaders look like?
And let us recall that the Haifa Municipality in the Diaspora refuses to help fund synagogues... in the only Jewish country in the world... yes?
Thank you for your response. Perhaps the phenomenon you point out characterizes Haifa. After all, the influence of religious circles in the country has increased greatly over the years.
The idea of the roof is that the rainwater drains into 4 columns, which are located in the center of the stage. Through them, the water pipes reach the purification mikvah, without pumping as required by Halacha.
If a mikveh is already in a kosher state (40 sa' of rainwater, ice), then water can be added to it through regular plumbing. From a halachic perspective, the water pipes, if they do indeed conduct rainwater from the roof of the building to the mikveh, could not be used halachically for its initial filling.
In any case, it's a nice idea for saving and utilizing water.
Beautiful building. Love the paintings. May we have a quieter week.
Thank you very much for your response, have a good night!