Are the women and men separated in synagogues?

Answer 1

Men and women sit separately in Orthodox synagogues so that they don't distract each other while praying.

Answer 2

Reform Judaism made a number of changes to traditional Jewish doctrine in places where Reform Jews believed that Jewish doctrine conflicted with modern science and morality. One of these changes was a reversal of the religious Jewish policy that men and women should sit apart from one another. They felt that the traditional laws on this issue were misogynistic and therefore chose to not follow them. Orthodox Jews disagree and hold that men and women are separated to prevent both men and women from seeing members of the opposite sex and thinking "less-than-pure thoughts" while they should be thinking about God.

Answer 3

Depends on how religious the synagogue is. There are two main divisions in Judaism, Sefardic Jews (middle eastern Jews) and Ashkenazi Jews (European Jews). Ashkenazim break into 3 more divisions, Reformed (least religious), Conservative (follows the laws of The Bible, yet has many exceptions; Example: they can drive on the day of Sabbath, as long as it is for religious purposes such as driving to synagogue), and Orthodox Jews (they strongly follow the words of the bible and have few to no exceptions).

Of these sections, usually only Orthodox and Sefardic synagogues separate men and women.

Answer 4

No, not usually. Some conservative one's are but even that's rare.

Answer 5

So that the men will think about the prayers and not about the women.

Answer 6

So they can concentrate on the prayers instead of concentrating on the opposite sex.