An archaeological excavation in the Yehudiya Forest Nature Reserve in Israel’s Golan Heights has uncovered the remains of a synagogue that once served a thriving Jewish community more than 1,500 years ago.
The discovery, reported by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the University of Haifa on Sunday, sheds new light on ancient Jewish settlement in the region, which the Jewish state recaptured from Syria during the Six-Day War in June 1967.
The dig, led by Haifa University’s Zinman Institute of Archaeology in cooperation with the Department of Land of Israel Studies at Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, found decorated basalt fragments, lintels and column sections confirming the existence of the house of worship.
Mechael Osband, who led the dig on behalf of the Zinman Institute, told Hebrew media that although over 150 architectural fragments from the Byzantine period had previously been documented in the Golan Heights, the synagogue’s exact location remained unknown.
“The breakthrough came when we noticed an unusual concentration of column sections and decorated stones along a path in an abandoned [Syrian] village,” Osband said, adding that “once we started to dig, we uncovered dozens of architectural elements and, to our surprise, the southern wall of the building with three openings facing Jerusalem.”
The uncovered structure, which is approximately 43 feet wide and at least 56 feet long, was built in the basilica style that characterized ancient synagogues, with rows of columns and built-in benches.
According to Dror Ben-Yosef, an archaeologist with the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, the discovery is a “powerful testament to Jewish settlement in the Golan more than 1,500 years ago, during a period when Jewish life flourished in the region.”
The archeologist noted that about 25 other ancient synagogues have been found across the Golan Heights, serving not only as houses of prayer but also as centers of learning and community life.
The excavation, which is also supported by the Hecht Foundation and the Yehudiya Forest Nature Reserve staff, will continue in hopes of eventually restoring and making the site accessible to visitors.
In December, a synagogue was inaugurated in Kibbutz Merom Golan—the first house of worship in the traditionally secular northern village.
“The establishment of the synagogue in Merom Golan came following a request from Doron Bogodovsky, a member of the kibbutz, who heard from members of a nearby kibbutz, Sde Nehemia, about a synagogue we had built there,” stated Rabbi Shlomo Raanan, chairman of the Ayelet HaShachar organization, which is behind the establishment of many synagogues in kibbutzim and remote communities throughout Israel.
The building’s inauguration, which came after residents were displaced for over a year due to the war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, was held with the participation of kibbutz members, residents and politicians from the region and security forces during the eight-day holiday of Chanukah.
