What's The Biggest Synagogue In The World?

Wikipedia would have it as the Belz Great Synagogue in Jerusalem, but for a short time on the Erev Shabbat of 18 August just passed, that certainly wasn’t the case. I know – I was there. 

And where was that? Ruth and I were on board the Royal Caribbean liner “Serenade of the Seas”, celebrating our silver wedding. These days, the Serenade ranks as a relatively modest vessel. Its 90,000 tonnes, twelve decks and space for 2,500 passengers comes well down the list of largest cruise vessels afloat. But for that Shabbat, it (or at least, as small part of it), did become the biggest shul in the world. 

We’d cruised before, and I remember the last time we were aboard I’d seen a line in the day’s cruise calendar saying that there would that evening be a self-led Erev Shabbat service. Wherever it was, I never found it. Perhaps it was in too remote a part of the boat, or there weren’t enough Jews on board to make a minyan. 

But I thought I’d try again this year when I saw the same line in this year’s cruise calendar. And after all, the entertainments team had been boasting of how many different nationalities they had on board. “And 63 Israelis…”, they had said, after going through the list of Yanks, Brits and other assorted Euros afloat. So it had to be worth a try. “I’ll see you in ten minutes” Ruth, ever sceptical, said to me as I set off. 

I found the venue easily enough, a separate area just off from one of the main dining rooms. And there were other people – about twenty. The ship had provided all of the necessaries. Two electric candles (definitely no naked flames at sea), some siddurs (definitely not ULPS), a cholla (definitely large enough to feed the whole ship) and two bottles of kosher wine (definitely not on their regular wine list). 

I thought, “well, we’ll do a few hamotzis and that will be it” – but no, we more or less did the whole service, supplemented at each break by our going around the room, saying who we were and where we were from. And as it happened, almost all of us were either from the States - or Southgate! Yes, there were indeed three families who had never met before, who lived within a 15-30 minute drive of each other and who had other mutual acquaintances. We all spent time comparing notes on schools, shuls and Rabbis. And two of the 63 Israelis - a couple from a kibbutz up near Kinneret - added to our diversity. 

And the funny thing was, I’d never seen any of the people anywhere on the ship before that moment. Perhaps that’s not surprising when there are 2,500 of you. But on the Saturday following, we kept on bumping in to each other at every turn! 

And the other funny thing is that amidst all of those nationalities (and presumably faiths) on board, I never saw publicity for any other similar gathering. No Jumu’ah, no Vedas, no Communion. Why was that? Is it just the Jews who choose to cruise? Or are we more keen than others to connect with fellow believers from around the world? Perhaps that’s something to do with there being fewer of us – we’re that much more keen to make those links. 

And so for that Erev Shabbat, the Serenade certainly was the biggest shul in the world – for me at least. It certainly made for a different and fun Shabbat and if we’re ever afloat again, I’ll look out for a repeat event. 

Julian Sampson