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Synagogue du Rab at Tlemcen, Algeria
Located on the site of the house of prayer built by Rabbi Ephraim Aln Kaoua in 1398, the Synagogue du Rab was one of seven synagogues in Tlemcen.1 The synagogue takes its name from Rabbi Aln Kaoua, who established Tlemcen’s Jewish community and was renowned as a miracle-worker. According to legend, Aln Kaoua cured the Sultan’s daughter’s illness; when the Sultan offered him a reward, Aln Kaoua asked to be allowed to bring Jewish refugees from Spain to Tlemcen and to build a house of prayer.2
Description
Rabbi Aln Kaoua Born in Toldeo, Ephraim Aln Kaoua fled Spanish persecution and arrived in Marrakesh, in present-day Morocco, in 1391.3 According to legend, he appeared at Tlemcen riding a lion, an enormous serpent acting as the lion’s halter. Impressed by the sight of a man riding a lion, Sultan Abu Tashfin allowed Aln Kaoua to enter the city, where Jews had hitherto been forbidden from residing.4 Aln Kaoua miraculously cured the Sultan’s daughter’s illness, and as a reward the Sultan allowed him to bring more than five hundred families from the Balearic Islands to the city, establishing Tlemcen’s Jewish community. (However, some 21st century scholars claim that there was an existing Jewish population in Tlemcen, and that the rabbi simply made it more illustrious).5 The rabbi of Tlemcen in the 1880s wrote that miracles still occurred at Aln Kaoua’s tomb, more than four hundred years after his death.
The Synagogue A visitor to Tlemcen in the early 20th century noted that the Synagogue du Rab deserved special attention by visitors and described it as “a long, rectangular hall divided lengthwise into three bays by two rows of stone pillars”.6 The synagogue, which was renovated for the last time in 1928, was considered to be the heart of the Jewish quarter of Tlemcen.7
![Synagogue du Rab, Exterior [2] (Tlemcen, Algeria, n.d.)](https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/oqK9K3dVS4GkiKQ7ihjR/convert?w=100&h=100&fit=crop)
![Synagogue du Rab, Interior [2] (Tlemcen, Algeria, n.d.)](https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/EiLf3lNUTJuEr2coEo48/convert?w=100&h=100&fit=crop)
![Synagogue du Rab, Interior [1] (Tlemcen, Algeria, n.d.)](https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/FzPabcBSC6slcCfgHDUv/convert?w=100&h=100&fit=crop)
![Synagogue du Rab, Exterior [1] (Tlemcen, Algeria, n.d.)](https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/nSsB4R6hTPadD1VU7TVb/convert?w=100&h=100&fit=crop)
Sources
Plans des Villes: Algerie Tunisie. "Tlemcen." Accessed June 16, 2014. http://www.profburp.com/plan37/image12.htm
[1] Slyomovics, Susan. “Geographies of Jewish Tlemcen,” The Journal of North African Studies 5 (2000): 81-96. Accessed June 20, 2014. doi: 10.1080/13629380008718413
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Slyomovics, Susan. “The Pilgrimage of Rabbi Ephraim Al-Naqawa, Tlemcen, Algeria,” Jewish Folklore and Ethnology Review 12 (1990): 84-87. Accessed June 20, 2014. http://books.google.com/books?id=vGnYAAAAMAAJ
[5] Slyomovics. "Geographies of Jewish Tlemcen."
[6] Confino, A. “Tlemcen,” in Jews and Muslims: Images of Sephardi and Eastern Jewries in Modern Times, ed. Aron Rodrigue. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2003. Accessed June 20, 2014. http://books.google.com/books?id=3NatkG7sGCkC
[7] Slyomovics. "The Pilgrimage of Rabbi Ephraim Al-Naqawa, Tlemcen, Algeria."