Dictionary

shul en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /ʃʊl/
• (Southern-England) audio
• /ʃuːl/

Etymology

Borrowed from Yiddish שול (shul, “school, synagogue”), from Old High German scuola (“school”), from Latin schola, from Ancient Greek σχολή (skholḗ). Doublet of schola and school.

Meanings

1. (Judaism) An Ashkenazi synagogue.
   • This is a regular shul outfit: the denizens of St John’s Wood United Synagogue are well used to their most colourful member looking like he’s going to a Purim party every week of the year. […] The other reason he has upped his synagogue attendance is more positive. “My life has been about introducing everyone to everyone and going to shul can be like one big party. 2023 July 27, Nicole Lampert, quoting Philip Sallon, “Meet the colourful shul regular who admits: ‘I’m quite an extreme person’”, in The Jewish Chronicle:
   • Unfortunately, she has used the attack as a launch pad for a bizarre and undercooked exercise in rhetorical bothsidesism, in which she argues that American Jews should be just as worried about college students who overzealously criticize Israel as they are about the aspiring Einsatzgruppen who shoot up shuls. 2019 September 6, Jordan Weissman, “How Not to Fight Anti-Semitism”, in Slate, archived from the original on 17 Jul 2020:
   • That Asher's mind would have also been on Elohim, at this moment receiving prayers in Asher's shul, goes without saying. 2006, Howard Jacobson, Kalooki Nights, Vintage, published 2007, page 146:

Forms

Deriveds

shul-goer · shulgoer