JTA — Behind the imposing stone walls of Eastern State Penitentiary — the Philadelphia prison that once held Al Capone — sits a small, unlikely sanctuary: a synagogue built by inmates, for inmates, nearly a century ago. Now, a new exhibition is telling its story.

Eastern State Penitentiary, in Philadelphia’s Fairmount neighborhood, was an active prison from its founding in 1829 until its closing in 1971. For many years after that, it was essentially in ruins before it was revived in the late 1990s as a museum and attraction.

While founded by Quakers and long Christian-oriented (it was the world’s first true “penitentiary,” a word derived from Christian notions of repentance and reflection), Eastern State hosted Jewish prisoners as early as the 1800s.

Dedicated in 1929, the Alfred W. Fleischer Memorial Synagogue was the first known Jewish worship space established in an American prison. It was named after the real estate tycoon and supporter of the institution who died the year before.

The Jewish community had supported the creation of a synagogue in part because of fears that Jewish inmates, who had previously prayed in the prison’s hospital, would be converted while inside. Jewish prisoners helped build the synagogue, with some support from Fleischer and others in the outside community. The inmates themselves led a renovation of the synagogue in the 1960s.

The synagogue was unearthed during excavations in 2004 and, following a philanthropic effort, restored in 2009.

In early July, Eastern State debuted a new permanent exhibition called “Freedom through Faith: Judaism at Eastern State and Beyond,” which examines the Jewish history of the institution and the synagogue, as well as the broader history of religious freedom for incarcerated Americans.

The exhibition, the product of more than a year of research, was developed by the consultant Beth Tinker. It’s part of a series of programs for the nation’s 250th anniversary, called “A Time For Liberty.”

The exhibition has an........

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