Strongholding the Synagogue to Stronghold the City: Urban-Religious Configurations in an Israeli Mixed-City

Ram, Moriel; Aharon-Gutman, Meirav

Abstract

This article explores the geopolitical significance of public religious institutions and the ways in which it has corresponded to changes in their urban environment. Based on a spatial analysis and ethnography of urban synagogues in the northern Israeli mixed city of Acre that were established and constructed by communities of Jewish immigrants from North African countries, we demonstrate how significant shifts in the city's demographic pattern and landscape have affected these institutions' ascribed functions and meanings. We theorise this dynamic as ‘strongholding’, or, more specifically, strongholding the synagogue as a means of strongholding the city. The formation of the synagogue as a stronghold is enacted through a dual configuration process by which the religious legitimacy, which the synagogue bestows on those who maintain it, is interwoven into a broader urban sociopolitical struggle to claim a presence in the city.

Citation

Ram, M., & Aharon-Gutman, M. (2017). Strongholding the Synagogue to Stronghold the City: Urban-Religious Configurations in an Israeli Mixed-City. Journal of Economic and Human Geography, 108(5), 641-655. https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12231

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 28, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Jan 11, 2017
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: May 15, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: May 15, 2019
• Print ISSN: 0040-747X
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-9663
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 108
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 641-655
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/tesg.12231
• Keywords: Religion, Israel‐Palestine, mixed cities, synagogues, urban‐religious configuration