Mizrah

Mizrah (also spelled Mizrach, Mizrakh) (Hebrew: מִזְרָח, romanized: mīzrāḥ) is the "east" and the direction that Jews in the Diaspora west of Israel face during prayer.

[1] In European and Mediterranean communities west of the Holy Land, mizrah also refers to the wall of the synagogue that faces east, where seats are reserved for the rabbi and other dignitaries.

the doors were on the eastern side and the opposite wall, in which a special niche had been made to place the scrolls during worship, faced Jerusalem.

For this purpose, people use artistic wall plaques inscribed with the word mizrah and scriptural passages like "From the rising (mi-mizrah) of the sun unto the going down thereof, the Lord's name is to be praised" (Psalm 113:3, Septuagint Ps.

There are also papercuts described as "mizrah-shiviti", because they served a dual purpose: as mizrah (decoration for the eastern wall, marking the direction of prayer), and as shiviti, meaning "I have set [before me]" (Psalm 16:8, LXX Ps.

[2] Like the Jews, Muslims used Jerusalem as their qiblah (Arabic: قِـبْـلَـة, direction of prayer), before it was permanently changed in the second Hijri year (624 CE) to Mecca.