SYNAGOGUE IN SHIP.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 64, 13 February 1936, Page 11

SYNAGOGUE IN SHIP.

INNOVATION IN THE QUEEN MARY. Tile Queen Mary, Britain’s great liner, which will make her maiden voyage in May, is to be the first ship in file world to have a synagogue. Other ships have rooms which are sometimes temporarily converted into synagogues, but in the Queen Mary the synagogue will be permanent, and the space will be used for no other purpose except Jewish religious worship. The synagogue 'will hold about 50 worshippers. It will be some 20 feet square, and although in miniature, will be complete in every detail Inscriptions in Hebrew will be inlaid in wooden letters round the top of tlie panelling. Special wood lias been brought from the Dominions for this purpose. The ceiling will be in cerulean blue picked out in gold. The fittings will include a carved reading desk, and the Holy Ark in miniature, which will be made from oak, macassar, and ebony. The Queen Mary’s engineers have arranged for the Jewish Nair-Tomid, or perpetual Light of Remembrance, to be lit electrically on a special circuit so that it will never go out. The fitting holding. tlie light is to be in hand-wrought bronze. The temple is being arranged so that high festivals, as well as ordinary Sabbath services, can be celebrated. The design has been passed by tlie Jewish Council of Beth-din, as well as by the Cuuard-White Star authorities.