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The iPhone’s Synagogue Locator

Where is the closest Temple Beth El?

by
Marc Tracy
July 27, 2009

We received word of a new iPhone application that seems absolutely essential for a Jew-on-the-go: it uses your location, which the iPhone captures via GPS, to tell you where the closest synagogues are to you, “from a database of almost 5,000 shuls.” The program, which is produced by Lost Tribe Apps, also lists the synagogues by denomination and size, and even contains many rabbis’ names and contact information. Next up, presumably, is an app that tells you which synagogue to leave your current congregation, the one with the rabbi who gets on your nerves and where they don’t even have but barely any Hebrew in their services, for.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.