Sacred Realm: The Emergence of the Synagogue in the Ancient World offers a comprehensive overview of the historical, archaeological, and literary development of the synagogue from the third century B.C.E. to ca. 700 C.E. by an international team of scholars. In describing more than two hundred ancient synagogues in the Greco-Roman world and their place in the history of Judaism and Western civilization, this book shows how the synagogue came to be the most important institution in Jewish life.

Beautiful illustrations and maps transport the reader into the remains of synagogues as far afield as North Africa, Italy, Asia Minor, Israel, and Syria. Sacred Realm complements an exhibition organized by the Yeshiva University Museum in New York. The exhibition brings together archaeological artifacts and manuscripts from museums in North America, Europe, and Israel, most of which have never before been displayed in the Unites States.

Lavishly illustrated with both color and black-and-white photographs of artifacts, sites, and models of ancient synagogues, this book is not only a detailed record of this historic exhibition, but a guide to the development of Judaism's most sacred institution.