Description of the Synagogue in Alexandria

It was stated: R. Judah said: Anybody who did not see the double stoa of Alexandria did not ever see the glory of Israel. It was like a large basilica with a stoa inside a stoa. Sometimes there were there twice as many in it as left Egypt. Seventy golden chairs were there, inlaid with precious stones and pearls, corresponding to the seventy elders,¹ each of them costing 250,000 gold dinars. A wooden platform was at the center, and the congregation’s beadle stood on it. If one of the congregation came to read in the Torah, the official waved cloths, and they answered after him, “Amen.” For every benediction that he said, the official waved cloths, and they answered after him, “Amen.” Nevertheless, they were not sitting mixed, but those of each single profession were sitting separately, so that a stranger could associate with those of his profession, and from there he could find support. And who destroyed it? Trajan the evil one.