Bevis Marks Synagogue

The Belvis Marks Synagogue is located in London, England. It is the oldest synagogue still in use in Britian. The Bevis Marks Synagogue was completed in 1701 by a community of Jews. The roof of the synagogue incorporated a beam from a royal ship presented by Queen Anne herself. The roof was destroyed by fire in 1738, and repaired in 1749, but the remainder of the synagogue remains just as it was 200 years ago. The Bevis Marks Synagogue was for more than a century the religious center of the Anglo-Jewish world, and served as a clearing-house for congregational and individual troubles all the world over; such as the appeal of the Jamaican Jews for a reduction in taxation (1736); the internecine quarrel among the Barbados Jews (1753); and the aiding of seven-year-old Moses de Paz, who escaped from Gibraltar in 1777 to avoid an enforced conversion. In 1992 and 1993 the Bevis Marks Synagogue suffered great damage from terrorist bomb attacks on the City of London. Nearly £200,000 was raised by donation and has since been spent in repairing and renovating the structure to return it to its former glory. The Synagogue is really cared about in Britian and is in regular use.