Portuguese Synagogue of Amsterdam
Seventeenth-century Sephardic synagogue still lit by a thousand candles, with no electric lighting and its original sand floor.
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About this audio guide
This guide to the Portuguese Synagogue of Amsterdam traces the 1656 excommunication of Baruch Spinoza, then a twenty-three-year-old son of a merchant in this Sephardic congregation, whose opinions the community condemned before he had published a word or become known as a philosopher. It follows the synagogue built nineteen years later, still lit by a thousand candles with no electricity ever wired in, through the Inquisition and Nazi occupation. Listen for how the congregation has treated the ban ever since.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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