ABSTRACT
The synagogue – the communal building that operated in the late Second Temple period – developed after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 c.e. into an autonomous central religious and communal center for the Jews in Roman-Byzantine Palestine and the Diaspora. Several basic principles guiding the plan of the synagogue as a place of ritual and prayer were applied independently at each locale, as were the subject matters and qualities of the respective artistic and architectural decorations.
