Maghain Aboth Synagogue Comments on article: InfopediaTalk
Maghain Aboth Synagogue, which translates to "Shield of our
Fathers", was completed in 1878. Situated at Waterloo Street, it
is the oldest synagogue in Singapore and Southeast Asia. On 27
February 1998, the synagogue was gazetted as a national
monument. In 1841, the colonial government leased a plot of land
to the Jewish community at a nominal rent, for the construction
of a synagogue. This was to be the community’s first synagogue.
The land, estimated to measure 503m2, was located at where
Synagogue Street is today, in the early Jewish quarters near
Raffles Place. The lease was enshrined in the Jewish Synagogue
Ordinance and commenced on 1 September 1841. The three men that
negotiated the lease, Joseph Dewk Cohen, Nassim Joseph Ezra and
Ezra Ezra Ezekiel, were named in the Ordinance as the
synagogue’s trustees. A two-storey shophouse was built to
accommodate the synagogue, which began with a congregation of
about 40 and served the local Jewish popula