shul

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Pronunciations

shul (SHOOL) listen
shul (SHUUL) listen

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Definitions

Example Sentences

  • Featured on the website of a Reform Temple: "Shul Shopping? Come check us out"

  • "A Baylor University researcher has found that attending shul regularly and having a meaningful Jewish religious belief are strongly associated with greater physical and psychological well-being." (source)

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Languages of Origin

  • Yiddish

Etymology

  • שיל, שול shul, shil (synagogue, school)

      • Who Uses This

      • Jews: Jews of diverse religious backgrounds and organizational involvements

      Regions

      • North America
      • Great Britain
      • South Africa
      • Australia / New Zealand

      Dictionaries

      • The New Joys of Yiddish, by Leo Rosten and Lawrence Bush (New York, 2003[1968]).
      • Yiddish and English: A Century of Yiddish in America, by Sol Steinmetz (Tuscaloosa, 1986).
      • The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).
      • Dictionary of Jewish Usage: A Popular Guide to the Use of Jewish Terms, by Sol Steinmetz (Lanham, MD, 2005).
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      Alternative Spellings

      schul, shule, schule

Notes

  • Orthodox Jews are most likely to use this word, but in recent decades Conservative and, increasingly, Reform and other Jews have begun to use it too. Originally used mostly by Ashkenazim, it is now used by Sephardi and Mizrachi Jews too. Pronunciation varies: for some it rhymes with "full" and for others "fool."

    See also synagogue, esnoga, and temple.

    Not to be confused with shule.

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