Aliyah is a Hebrew word. My mind pictures the Lector, at Mass. The Aliyah is an honorable position. It is the person who goes up (and that's what Aliyah means--go up) on the raised platform in the synagogue and read the blessings over the Torah. There's a ritual to it and traditionally it was only men who could by the Aliyah. Today non-orthodox synagogues have women Aliyah.
Altar, candles, a reader--familiar?
