Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

Will There Be a Synagogue Emoji?

Have you ever been texting and thought: “If only there was an emoji that appropriately captured the essence of a Jewish house of worship?” Well, the emoji gods have heard your prayers.

According to Buzzfeed, 37 new emojis characters are currently being considered by the Unicode Consortium (which creates your favorite pizza slices and praying hands), including a synagogue and a menorah with nine branches. Mosque and dhyani buddha emojis are also up for debate, as are the much-anticipated burrito, taco and hot dog (kosher?).

The company has also announced that it will be releasing an option for five different kinds of skin tones for emoji faces.

There’s no official release date for these new characters, but as Buzzfeed points out, Unicode 8.0, set for release in 2015, could potentially include these updates.

Just think: Next year, the warm glow of the menorah could be coming from your iPhone.

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly. 

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at editorial@forward.com, subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.

Exit mobile version