According to the Bible, when Abraham arrived to the land that God had given to him, he built an altar in Elon More and another altar in Beth-El (Genesis 12:7-8), but the Biblical text did not mention a specific religion.

The tabernacle, a mobile sanctuary
Only after the Exodus, when Moses faced God on Mount Sinai, he was given instructions to build a mobile sanctuary, the mishkan (home): “Then have they made a sanctuary for me, and I will dwell among them” (Exodus 25:8). These instructions are detailed in the chapters 25 and 26 of the Book of Exodus. They also gave birth to some specifics in the Temple in Jerusalem:

• The Holy of Holies, including the Ark of the Covenant and its two cherubs (kerouvim);
• In front of the Holy of Holies, behind a curtain, the table of showbread, the altar for incense and the seven-branched candelabrum (menorah);
• In the outer court, an altar for animal sacrifices and a brass washtub for the ritual ablutions of the priests’ hands and feet.

The Ark of the Covenant is a chest in acacia covered with gold and holding the Tables of the Alliance (mistranslated by “Tables of the Law”) received by Moses on Mount Sinai. This chest has gold rings for it to be moved and hanged to studs.
The menorah is the oldest symbol of Judaism. The candlestick of the Second Temple was carried to Rome as a trophy after the Temple was destroyed by Titus in 70 AD, and is visible on the Arch of Titus in Rome. It is also the source of many legends and speculations.

A tribe in the service of the Temple
Levi was one of Patriarch Jacob’s sons. His descendants, the Levites, did not inherit a territory during the conquest of the Promised Land. They were a priestly caste in the service of divine worship. Moses and his brother Aaron were part of the tribe of Levi. Aaron's descendants, a branch of the Levite tribe, were priests (Cohen, plural Cohanim).
Levi (or Levy) and Cohen (or Cahen, Kohn, Kahn, Kagan) family names indicate the ancestry of the family. Members of Cohen families were not priests any more after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD, but they still have some religious obligations and prohibitions.

How to name God?
Since the first chapter of Genesis, God has been called Elohim (plural of Eloah). The Semitic root “El” is also present in other names, for example Daniel, Michael, Gabriel, Ishmael and Israel, as well as in the Arabic word Allah.
During the episode of the Burning Bush, God told the following words to Moses: "I will be who I will be” (Exodus 3:14) to define himself. The tetragrammaton YHWH stated the timelessness of God, with the Hebrew root for the verb “to be”, a prefix of the future (Y) and a suffix of the past (H).
God's name could only be pronounced by the High Priest, who said it once a year, on Yom Kippur, when entering the Holy of Holies. In the liturgy and in the Torah, YHWH was pronounced Adonai (My Lords) or haShem (the Name). Vocalized YeHoWaH in the texts, this name became Jehovah - which did not match any Jewish pronunciation - and is probably the origin of the name the Eternal. The tetragrammaton YHWH is sometimes present in Christian iconography. An abbreviated form of YHWH is YaH, for example in the phrase Hallelou-YaH (Praise God) or in the names YirmeYah (Jeremiah) or MatitYaH (Mathieu).

From the tabernacle to the Temple
After the conquest of the Promised Land, the Ark of the Covenant remained in Shiloh, Samaria, during the Time of the Judges, before being captured by the Philistines. David carried it to Jerusalem after conquering the holy city. His son Solomon built the Temple from 964 to 957 BC with the help of Hiram, King of Tyre, Phoenicia.
According to the Jewish tradition, the Temple was built on Mount Moriah, the site of the Binding of Isaac during the sacrifice of Abraham (Genesis 22:1-19) and the site of the story of Jacob's Ladder (Genesis 28:11-19). The tabernacle was used as a model for the construction of the Temple: outside court (women court, men court), inner court for the Levites, Holy of Holies including the Ark of the Covenant. As the central place for the three annual pilgrimages - Pesach/Passover, Shavuot/Pentecost and Sukkot/Festival of Tabernacles - the Temple was the main place for Hebrew worship and one of the outsanding constructions built in ancient times. It was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC.

The Second Temple...
After Cyrus founded the Persian Empire, conquered Babylonia and sent Jews back in Judea, a second Temple was built in Jerusalem on the site of the first Temple, and was dedicated in 515 BC. Herod the Great oversaw gigantic works for its expansion and embellishment from 20 BC to 66 AD. The Second Temple was finished four years before being destroyed by Titus, the Roman emperor who fought against the Jewish revolt.

...and the synagogue
The exile of Jews in Babylon gave birth to the synagogue. The Greek word sunagōgē (assembly) is the translation of the Hebrew word Beit Knesset (house of assembly). The synagogue was the place of the public reading and commenting of the Torah. Its concept was not abandoned when Jews came back to Judea. On the contrary, many synagogues were built both in the Land of Israel and in the Diaspora. After the destruction of the Second Temple, ritual sacrifices were replaced with prayer, study and family. The synagogue became the centre of Jewish spiritual life, along with the family home.

What is a synagogue?
The synagogue often has a local style but some of its characteristics are universal. A prayer room with a Holy Cabinet (aron kodesh) storing the Torah scrolls and directed towards Jerusalem, a platform (bimah) intended for public reading, and an eternal light (ner tamid) assessing the divine presence. Men and women are separated, except in liberal and “conservative” synagogues.
The synagogue is also a place for community life. The guard (shomer) plays an important role in organising the social life around it; the synagogue often houses:

• A ritual bath (miqve) where men and women go separately several times in the year: before some festivals, at the end of menstruation, before marriage, etc.;
• The offices of the rabbi and various community administrators, for example the president (nasi) and the treasurer (gabbai);
• Study rooms for children and adults in the community;
• Sometimes an oven for unleavened bread (matzah) eaten at Passover;
• Sometimes host rooms for transient and needy people.

Religious services are not necessarily led by the rabbi. Any adult who has the given knowledge can become a public delegate (chaliaẖ tsibbour) and direct the service. A cantor (ẖazane) can be paid by the community.
The Jewish rituals include three daily prayers: cha’harit (matins), minẖa (sacrifice) and ma’ariv (vespers). But their highlight is the public reading of the Torah during the morning service on Monday, Thursday and especially Saturday (Shabbat), with specific cantillation rules.
The synagogue rituals are rather informal, the synagogue being a place of worship, life and encounter. However, the reading of the Torah is more solemn: it is an honor to be "called to the Torah" and read the corresponding pages for the weekly service.