USA: Hanukah Celebration at New York's Kehila Kedosha Janina, December 18th

New York, NY. Kehila Kedosha Janina, interior. Photo: Vincent Giordano

New York, NY. Kehila Kedosha Janina. Bar Mitzvah. Photo: Vincent Giordano

USA: Hanukah Celebration at New York's Kehila Kedosha Janina, December 18th

One of my favorite Jewish spaces in New york is the tiny Kehila Kedosha Janina (KKJ) on Broome Street on the Lower East Side. This is the home to the region's Greek (Romaniote) Jewish community - an enormously hospitable extended family. The synagogue and its small museum continues services and is open to the public on Sundays. Next week is a great time to visit - to celebrate Hannukah with traditional Greek-Jewish Hannukah treats (boumwelos) and to honor John and Christine Woodward of Woodward Gallery at 133 Eldridge Street.

The congregation wants to fill the sanctuary (not too hard given its small size) with joy!

Where: Kehila Kedosha Janina, 280 Broome Street (between Allen and Eldridge)When December 18

New York, NY. Kehila Kedosha Janina. Torah scroll. Photo: Vincent Giordano

Here's some history from museum curator and community historian Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos:

In the early 20th century, as Jews from the Balkans began to arrive on the Lower East Side, Shearith Israel (the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue uptown on West 70th and Central Park West) established institutions to help the new immigrants. Foremost among these were the settlement house and synagogue originally created at 86 Orchard Street. Soon the small dwelling was insufficient to house the growing population of Balkan Jewry and it was necessary to find larger quarters.

In 1914, the synagogue, now named Berith Shalom, was moved to 133 Eldridge, where the facilities were now larger and could include a Talmud Torah. As the neighborhood changed and the Balkan Jews moved to the outer boroughs and the suburbs, Berith Shalom was closed and the building at 133 Eldridge went through many incarnations. In May of 2007, John and Kristine Woodward moved their gallery to 133 Eldridge Street and, in the process of restoration, uncovered a piece of decorated plaster wall from the old synagogue. John lovingly restored and mounted the section and presented it to Kehila Kedosha Janina as a gift. It now hangs in our synagogue/museum.

Photographer Vincent Giordano, Who Documented Romaniote Life, Dies at Age 58

Vincent Giordano in 2005. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber

Vincent Giordano (1952-2010)

by Samuel D. Gruber

Photographer and filmmaker Vincent Giordano died on December 11, 2010. Vincent was an accomplished photographer with an artist’s eye, and a mastery of craft (especially visible in his beautifully handmade palladium prints) and the sensibility of a trained ethnographer. He was a man of warmth, humor, and modesty, but also of talent, ambition and tenacity. These were all qualities he maintained, even when in great pain, until his very last hour.

In recent years Vincent brought these talents together in an intensive investigation of the small community of Romaniote Jews in New York, centered on the synagogue of Kehila Kedosha Janina synagogue on New York’s Lower East Side. Since 2002, soon after he began work in his documentary project Before the Flame Goes Out, he has been a friend and unexpected colleague. What began by my writing a simple cover letter for a grant became a continuing collaboration, with the International Survey of Jewish Monuments serving as a sponsor for Vincent’s work.

Over a period of about six years Vincent created a remarkable series of photos of the building, and many of the people who still call it their religious and cultural home and related community events. What began as a documentation of the synagogue building and its liturgical and historical artifacts evolved into a deeper and more meaningful investigation including photos, film and audio. Vincent found that it was not enough to look at a building without knowing the things inside or to know the objects without understanding their history and use. He believed that knowledge can only come through knowing the people who made these things, and who continue to use and cherish them today. Similarly, he felt he could not see full picture of this Romaniote community without its other half: the community of Ioannina, or what survives of it in post-Holocaust Greece. So the project which at first was quite modest kept growing. And in this process I was always impressed with Vincent’s adaptability, organization skills, diplomacy, patience, tenacity and overriding belief in the integrity and meaning of the task.

Vincent forged excellent ties with the Romaniote community. His photos, which often involved long set up times and exposures, drew many of the synagogue community into his work so that many aspects of Before the Flame Goes Out were collaborative efforts with the community itself. His patience was often rewarded by the stories told by those watching, many of who subsequently became portrait subjects, and he often donated prints of his work to these new friends and the community. Photography developed into oral history that became an important part of the work. Vincent also reached out to historians and other specialists (such as myself) to expand and refine his knowledge of his subject, so that photography and oral history now link with more traditional lines of historical inquiry.

For his work on Before the Flames Goes Out Vincent received grants from the Memorial Foundation of Jewish Culture and he was a Fullbright Scholar in Greece in 2007. His talent was recognized by many generous donors who supported Before the Flame Goes Out. These included The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, The Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation, The Lucius and Eva Eastman Fund, The Cahnman Foundation, The Rothschild Foundation, and The David and Goldie Blanksteen Fund.

Vincent received his B.A. from SUNY, Oswego where he majored in history and anthropology, tw0 disciplines he remained dedicated to in his subsequent career. He went on to study photography at C.W. Post College (Glendale, NY), the International Center of Photography, and with Arthur Leipzig. In the 1980s he worked for R/ Greenberg Associates as Head of the Animation Camera and Stills Department, during which time he won seven Clio awards for television advertising campaigns. And the GT Group in New York as head of the still photography department.

For the past 25 years Vincent worked as photographer, filmmaker and technical consultant for scores of book, film and other photo-related projects. In more recent years he took on projects for himself, and developed impressive portfolios of memorable and artistic work, most of which seemed to dwell with modes of memory. A skilled portraitist, he brought that careful steady observant eye to his photos of architecture and landscape. As a New York photographer two of the most meaningful to Vincent were Hidden New York (Rutgers University Press, 2006), for which he was a contributing photographer and remembrance, a book of portraits from September 11, 2001.

Vincent was so often behind the camera there are few photos of him. I include this one snapshot, when I caught him by surprise at Kehila Kedosha Janina back in 2005. The picture captures for me his mix of toughness and playfulness. He combined a no-nonsense attitude of getting the shot, with humor and constant enthusiasm for his subject.

Vincent will be missed by his many friends and colleagues, and especially by his loving wife Hilda and his step-children Elizabeth and Thomas, and grandchildren, Matthew, Analisa and Rachel. A memorial gathering takes place today in New york at the Museum of Biblical Art where Vincent’s work was exhibited in 2008. A celebration of his life and art will also be scheduled in 2011. I will shortly post a gallery of some of Vincent's photos. You can also see images on the website http://www.romaniotelegacy.org/

Here are four photos which show a mix of his work with 8 x 10 negatives, and two shots from Greece done "on the fly" with a 35mm camera. These are low-res digital copies. The originals are especially gorgeous.

USA: New York's Schiff Fountain Has Seen Better Days

New York, NY. Schiff fountain in its original position with Brunner's Seward Park Bath Pavilion on left - facing Essex Street. Photo courtesy of New York City Parks Photo Archive.

New York, NY. Section drawing of Schiff fountain, probably from the 1930s. Photo courtesy of NYC Dept of Parks/Recreation.

New York, NY. Schiff fountain in the 1980s, still essentially intact. Photo courtesy of New York City Parks Photo Archive.

New York, NY. Seward Park. Schiff Fountain in present condition. Photo: S. Gruber 2010.

USA: New York's Schiff Fountain at Seward Park Has Seen Better Days
by Samuel D. Gruber

Turn-of-the-20th-century financier and philanthropist Jacob Schiff and American Jewish architect Arnold W. Brunner had a long and productive relationship, especially when it came to designing useful buildings to aid the material and cultural condition of New York City Jews. Brunner designed many charitable and educational structures funded all or in part by Schiff, and many of these were on the Lower East Side. Brunner especially made a mark on the small area around Rutgers Square located between Seward Park and the The (former) Forward Building.

One of the earliest Brunner-Schiff collaborations was the five-story Educational Alliance, built in 1891 (Brunner and Tryon, architects), and still in use. In 1904 Brunner designed the Bath Pavilion for Seward Park, but this was replaced in the 1930s.

In 1894, Schiff and Brunner collaborated again when the philanthropist donated a fountain to the city to be installed at Rutgers Square. The city voted to accept the gift in November 1894. The Board of Aldermen voted to connect the fountain in August 1895. Though simple, the fountain supplied an unusual element of elegance in the neighborhood, at a public square better known as the meeting point for political demonstrations. A few years later, in 1909, the Seward Park branch of the Public Library (Babb, Cook & Welch, architects) was erected near-by, and this provided an appropriate palace-like background for the fountain. According to a report on the fountain provided to me from the New York City Department of Parks, Schiff "donated the fountain to the City, asking not for recognition of the deed, but only that it ‘be kept in proper condition so that the people of the Seventh Ward may have an opportunity to enjoy it.’

Given the history of the fountain, Schiff's concern with upkeep was legitimate. Within a short time the fountain was being regularly defiled, with its basins field with garbage. To counter this, according to the New York Times (Sept. 27, 1895). The Henry Street settlement organized neighborhood boys to watch over the fountain. The fountain was moved in 1936 to its present location on the western edge of Seward Park. Ironically, this was the same year that Brunner’s Pavilion in Seward Park was demolished.

New York, NY. Seward Park Pavilion, Arnold W. Brunner, architect. Built 1904-05, demolished ca. 1936. Architectural League of New York Annual Exhibition Catalogue,1903.

Since then the fountain has deteriorated. I was recently in the neighborhood and noted its broken condition and inquired to the City of New York/Parks & Recreation, Department of Art & Antiquities, which has (until now unsuccessfully) promoted the fountain's restoration. 

The fountain consists of large circular ground level basin in the center of which is a pedestal supporting a small raised basin. Originally it had two bronze basins surmounted by a finial, an attached drinking fountain with bronze appliques with grotesques at the spouts, and granite semi-circular seats set apart from the fountain itself. The stone seats have been relocated to opposite ends of the park and the lower basin is all that remains of the fountain itself.

The Parks Department has wanted to have the fountain restored for many years. According to a report on the fountain last updated in 2006, "Restoration would include the replacement of missing granite and bronze elements, the cleaning and repointing of the existing granite, and the repair or replacement of the plumbing to make the fountain operable." Unfortunately all efforts to date to fund the project - which would cost between $500,000 and $1.5 million, have been unsuccessful. Work would include:

• Structural Assessment
• Repair and Replacement of Missing Elements
• Graffiti Removal
• Bronze Repatina and Application of Protective Coating
• Plumbing Repair
• Possible Relocation of Benches to Original Position

New York, NY. Seward Park. Schiff Fountain inscription. Photo: S. Gruber 2010.

At first glance there is nothing inherently Jewish about the fountain except its history and the many Jewish communal projects of its sponsor and architect. But a close look reveals a worn inscription from Exodus 17:6 on the pedestal:

"... and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink."

[of course this isn't inherently Jewish, since Christians including Pope Sixtus V in Rome have used it on fountains, too)

USA: NYC Landmarks Commission Considers Lower East Side Buildings

USA: NYC Landmarks Commission Considers Lower East Side Buildings
by Samuel D. Gruber

The New York Landmarks Preservation Commission has been taking a closer look at several individual Lower East Side buildings to determine if they meet standards for designation as New York landmarks, giving them substantial protection from demolition, and even significant exterior alteration.

According the Lower East Side Tenement Museum blogger Kate Stober, properties under review include:

- 143 Allen Street House, at Rivington Street in Manhattan, a two-story intact Federal style residence constructed c. 1831,

- The Hebrew Actors’ Union, at 31 East 7th Street between Second and Third avenues, constructed in the late 19th century (public hearing was held last June),

- The former Germania Fire Insurance Company building, at 357 Bowery, south of Cooper Square, a Second Empire style, 3 ½ story building completed in 1870,

- 97 Bowery building, near Hester Street, a five-story Italianate commercial structure with a cast-iron façade constructed c. 1869,

- Ridley & Sons Department Store, 319-321 Grand Street between Orchard and Allen streets, one of a pair of five-story, cast-iron buildings constructed c. 1886.,

- Jarmulowsky Bank, 54 Canal St. at Orchard Street, a 12-story limestone and brick Beaux Arts style building built 1911-1912

For the Jewish history of the neighborhood, the Hebrew Actors' Union building and the Jarmulowsky Bank are the most significant. The Actors Union was a most center of Yiddish film and stage life in the early 20th century,

Jarmulowsky's Bank played a famous and infamous role in the financial lives and strife of Lower East Side immigrants. Together with the Forward Building, these two LES Jewish skyscrapers represented to diverse and sometimes contradictory aspirations of Jewish immigrants.

In July 2008 I wrote about the National Trust for Historic Preservation raising the alarm about destruction in the Lower East Side…all in the name of progress (read: lucrative real estate development).

I wrote at the time that: “Even today, however, there remains a substantial Jewish population in the area, and numerous synagogues. But the Lower East Side is also the home to increasingly trendy commercial establishments and high-rent apartments. Conversion and renovation are transforming social and often physical aspects of the neighborhood. There is increasing demolition of old buildings in order to build bigger newer ones, and this more than any single factor puts the area at risk. The Lower East Side has always been an area of transition. Preservationists cannot stop change, and most do not want to. But they hope to slow down development and to force greater review and consideration of new projects in the area, and more closely watch the impact of single building projects on the neighborhood as a whole.”

Tour: Synagogues & Sacred Sites in NYC's Lower East Side

Tour: Synagogues & Sacred Sites in NYC's Lower East Side

I frequently point out to the need to integrate Jewish heritage sites into broader heritage contexts, as there are relatively few places where Jewish sites can be sustained through Jewish visitorship and use alone. One growing movement is to provide walking tours based on themes in which Jewish sites are included because of history, art, music, location, etc.

These can be one-time events to better promote a building, or to strengthen ties with neighboring institutions and community organizations. They can be aimed to expose a non-Jewish audience to an interesting and important Jewish site, or they can be aimed to broaden the horizons, and offer greater programming options, to an already "captured" Jewish audience. This types of integrated programming also works in the development of permanent hertiage routes for hertiage tourism. Synagogues played many roles in Jewish communities and at communities at large. Thus, they can often take their place in tours devoted to historical themes other than strictly Jewish history - ethnic and immigration history, women's movement, labor history, etc. as well as tours devoted to art and architecture.

This Sunday the Museum at Eldridge Street on New York's Lower East Side offers an example of a varied tour of local sacred sites, putting Eldridge in a broader religious context, and focusing on the changing demographics of the Lower East Side as witnessed through synagogues, churches and (Buddhist) temples.

- SDG

Sacred Sites Walking Tour

Sunday, July 26 at 11am

Find sanctuary in the city on the Sacred Sites Walking Tour. On this tour—which begins at the 1887 Eldridge Street Synagogue—participants will stroll the streets of the Lower East Side visiting synagogues, churches and temples spanning 200 years of religious life in America. Discover many types of houses of worship, from early structures built by wealthy English landowners to historic houses of worship central to the Jewish, African American, Italian, Chinese and Hispanic immigrant experience.

$15 for Adults; $12 for Students & Seniors

RSVP to: hgriff(at)eldridgestreet.org

Museum at Eldridge Street
12 Eldridge Street
Between Canal & Division Streets

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The Museum at Eldridge Street presents the culture, history and traditions of the great wave of Jewish immigrants to the Lower East Side drawing parallels with the diverse cultural communities that have settled in America. The Museum at Eldridge Street is located within the Eldridge Street Synagogue, which opened its doors in 1887.

Publication: New Book About NYC's Eldridge Street Synagogue

photo: Samuel D. Gruber. For more photos click here.


Publication: New Book About NYC's Eldridge Street Synagogue
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) A new book by my friend Dr. Annie Polland, the VP of Education at the Museum at Eldridge Street will be presented Sunday, December 7th at a book launch at the Museum (the Eldridge Street Synagogue), from 2-4 pm.

The book is Landmark of the Spirit: The Eldridge Street Synagogue and it is published by Yale University Press. Annie is an historian. Her Columbia University dissertation in history is The Sacredness of the Family: New York's Immigrant Jews and Their Religion,1890-1930. The new book is about history and community and the synagogue's position on New York's Lower East Side. Still, I expect there will also be some talk of architecture and historic preservation.

Besides being a "flagship" synagogue for Ashkenazi immigrant Jews in New York when it opened in in 1887, the Eldridge Street Project - the 20 year effort to restore the crumbling edifice - helped inspire an entire generation of historic preservation activists and architects across America and abroad.

Annie's book sounds like a great resource and Hanukah gift, too!

USA: Mazalos: Kabbalistic Astrology in New York Synagogues

USA: Zodiac (Mazalos): Oct 19 Program on Kabbalistic Astrology in New York Synagogues by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) On Sunday, October 19th (Chol Hamoed Succot) at 11:30 am, The Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy and The New York Landmarks Conservancy will present Mazalos: Kabbalistic Astrology in New York Synagogues. This unique presentation, taking place at the Orenstein Center, (15-17 Willet Street), explores Mazalos, a sacred Jewish art form featuring zodiac symbols. A panel of experts including scholar Miriam Aranoff, conservator Beth Edelstein and urban historian Elyssa Sampson will discuss the history and preservation of Mazalos, followed by an optional tour of the zodiac paintings on the Lower East Side. While few examples of Mazalos remain, two prime examples can be found on the sites of the Bialystoker Synagogue and Congregation B’nei Jacob & Anshei Brzezan, (a.k.a. The Stanton Street Shul).


The Zodiac has been one the most persistent motifs in Jewish art, and its use and meaning remain fascinating to scholars, worshipers and increasingly a lay audience. Jewish interest in the movement and meaning of the constellations (Mazalos) no doubt grew out of the highly developed Near Eastern and Egyptian discipline of astronomical observation and calendar calculations. Certainly for Jews, the constellations also were a constant reminder of the heavenly realm, of which they were an obviously active part. Most scholars find that the Jewish use of the Zodiac - that is the collection of symbols representing both specific constellations and months and seasons of the year- is meant in one way or another (no overall agreement on specifics) to invoke awareness, contemplation and even worship of God's realm, and how it in inextricably linked - controlling or controlled by - the tides of time. Such issues that combine the unknowables of infinite space and unending time early found their way into the core of mystical writing in many religions, including Judaism. By the Middle Ages this developed into a "Jewish astrology," linked to esoteric Kabbala and more mundane magical pursuits. The representation of the zodiac, or at least of zodiacal symbols, appeared in the mosaics of many ancient synagogues and in medieval manuscripts. At the very least, it appeared on synagogue ceilings in 18th-century Greater Poland, and in the 19th and early 20th century could be found from Romania (where splendid examples still survive) to immigrant synagogues in America and Canada. The motifs also appeared as wall paintings and in stained glass designs in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

To my knowledge no full list of such representations has even been collated, and many examples have been destroyed. But others remain and are attracting the attention of art historians and students of Jewish worship, folk beliefs and mysticism.



Examples of zodiac wall designs from the Bnai Moses Joseph Zavichost Zosmer Shul at 317 East 8th Street in New York Photos by Samuel D. Gruber (June 2001).

Of course, without documentation, it is difficult for us to know what was in the minds of those who proposed and those who painted these decorations. Probably, like most synagogue ornaments, they spoke to a diverse audience on different levels. Symbols especially could be seen as decoration, or as emblems of stories or specific passages from scripture. Taken together, the zodiac symbols could be read literally as a calender, reminding the viewer of the liturgical calendar, and the passage of the seasons throughout the year. But for others, deeper meanings could be found based Talmud, Nachmanides, and mystical writings.

This October 19 program aims to trace the history of this endangered 2,000 year old synagogue art tradition, which finds its roots in the floor mosaics of second to sixth century Roman synagogues in ancient Palestine, and which made its way to the Lower East Side via immigrants from Galicia (the former Austrian region on the borders of modern-day Poland and Ukraine).

WHEN: October 19, 2008 11:30 AM
WHERE: Orenstein Center- 15-17 Willett/Bialystoker Place.
Refreshments will be served in the Orenstein Succah
FEE: $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $8 students. A $2.00 discount is available with pre-registration For further information, contact LESJ Conservancy: (212) 374-4100 X 1,2 or 3 or e-mail at lesconservancy@aol.com

The Lower East Side Conservancy is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to preserving, sharing and celebrating the Jewish Heritage of the Lower East Side. Private customized tours available by appointment.

Currently an intern in the Sacred Sites Program of the New York Landmarks Conservancy, Miriam Aranoff pursued Middle Eastern studies at Columbia University and wrote her Master’s thesis on Hammurabi’s Code from Ancient Mesopotamia. M Edelstein, Objects Conservator at The Metropolitan Museum of Fine Art., received her degree in Art Conservation from NYU’s Institute of Fine Arts. Urban historian, Lower East Side community activist and Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy tour leader Elyssa Sampson will discuss the significance of the mazalos and the way in which they made their way to the Lower East Side via Galicia.

Sam Gruber to lecture about Synagogue Architecture in America at the Museum at Eldridge Street (Eldridge Street Synagogue) on Sunday, October 5, 2008

Sam Gruber to lecture about Synagogue Architecture in America at the Museum at Eldridge Street (Eldridge Street Synagogue) on Sunday, October 5, 2008

I will be in New York City to speak about Synagogue Architecture in America at the Museum at Eldridge Street (Eldridge Street Synagogue) on Sunday, October 5, 2008. The lectures is part of the NEH-funded series “Academic Angles” created to help the Museum place the story of the Eldridge Street Synagogue and its 20-year restoration into a broader cultural, religious and architectural context. My topic will combine two subjects - synagogue art & architecture and historic preservation. My subtitle is The Choices We Make: The Historic Preservation of American Synagogues. within the confines of a 50-minute lecture, I will describe the major trends of American synagogue architecture from the 18th through the early 20th centuries, comparing those buildings which survive with the historical record of what has been lost. I'll address the issues of how the often selective (and even accidental) nature of historic preservation in America shapes the popular narrative of American Jewish History just as much as history itself determines our decisions about what to save, and how to save it.

Many of these ideas have been refined in the past year as part of a project funded in part by a research grant from the James Marston Fitch Charitable Foundation in memory of the late Richard Blinder. I am grateful to the foundation for its support.

Regardless of what I will say and how I say it, I encourage you to come if you have not seen the Eldridge Street Synagogue in its restored glory. The lecture will be in the sanctuary. I will also be showing many projected images. Come early to tour the building, which is open all day (Warning: during the lecture a screen will obscure a full view of the opulent Ark wall).

For a full schedule of events of the go the Museum website.

USA: Wrecking Ball Closer for NYC’s Congregation Meseritz Synagogue Documented by ISJM

USA: Wrecking Ball Closer for Century-Old Congregation Meseritz Synagogue in NYC, Documented by ISJM

Facade photos by Samuel D. Gruber / ISJM

(ISJM) The on-again and off-again plans to demolish the tiny and lovely Congregation Meseritz Synagogue (Adas Yisroel Ansche Meseritz) at 415 East 6th Street on New York’s Lower East Side seem to be moving ahead again. An article in The Villager this week details the small congregation’s plan to demolish the 1908 building in order to develop the narrow site for a 6-story residential building. It seems for the developer some members of the congregation, one hundred years of this charming little building are quite enough.

The developer is 23-year-old Joshua Kushner, whose family owns the New York Observer newspaper. Kushner will pay the congregation $725,000 to create ten apartments on the top four floors of an entirely new building, and will cede space for a new synagogue on the lowest levels. Critics of the plan have said that a similar (but more costly) arrangement could be done made which would save the shul’s Neo-classical façade, renovate the basement level beth-midrash (which is used daily for prayer) and restore the sanctuary, while allowing new apartments to built above, and slight set back form the façade. Because the building is not listed as a NYC Landmark, there will be few opportunities for project review. Some local residents who pray at the synagogue have claimed that membership has been denied to newcomers, allowing a small group of older members to determine the fate of the building. Though proponents argue that the building must be sacrificed to save the congregation, critics say without the old building the small congregration may done dwindle away.

Local preservationists hope that broader support from the New York Jewish community might be found to help the struggling congregation so they will not have to sacrifice their building. If there is ever to be such financial support, now is surely the time it is needed. This building should be saved.

As early as 1978 the small shul was singled out as a “gem” by Gerald R. Wolfe in his now-classic book The Synagogues of New York’s Lower East Side. Wolfe wrote “Another small shul with a most attractive interior is the little-used Adas Yisroel Ansche Meseritch synagogue (Community of Israel of the People of Meseritch) on East 6^th Street. The unusually narrow building has balconies which extend almost to the middle of the sanctuary, and through the intervening space, broad rays of light from two overhead skylights seem to focus on the Ark and on a large stained glass panel above it. The soft-yellow-colored panes of the two-story-high window are crowned by an enormous Mogen David [Star of David] of red glass which seems to dominate the entire room.”

Sanctuary photos by Vincent Giordano /ISJM 

 In the thirty years since, many Lower East Side Congregations, especially those in small synagogues like this, have closed their doors. Congregation Meseritz hung on, led by its rabbi, Pesach Ackerman. But these days with something of a Jewish cultural resurgence on the Lower East Side, a few synagogues are showing new life. The small Stanton Street Shul’s congregation is looking to the future and has embarked on a restoration program. Other congregations, like the small Romaniote Kahilla Kedosha Janina, have faced the likelihood of loosing their historic religious identity, and have organized to preserve it in the form of a museum and a restored sanctuary – even if that may not serve future generations of Greek Jews. On Clinton Street, the actively Orthodox Hasan Sofer synagogue has been entirely refurbished – with much of its historic fabric left intact. The Orthodox Bialystoker Synagogue, restored in the 1990s, is a dynamic center of Jewish life. And of course, the 20-year restoration of the Elbridge Street Synagogue – where a tiny minyan still meets – has been completed.

 Fearing demolition of Congregation Meseritz in 2006, ISJM commissioned photographer Vincent Giordano to photograph the interior. Rabbi Ackerman cooperated with this documentation project. 

According to New York researcher (and celebrated tour guide) Justin Ferante: 
 “Adas Yisroel Ansche Meseritz is named for the town of Meseritz, Prussia (now Poland) – a well-known center of Jewish learning in Eastern Europe. Meseritz was the home to Dov Ber of Meseritz, who was known as the “Meseritzer Maggid.” (A maggid is a wandering Jewish preacher.) Dov Ber was the primary disciple of Israel ben Eliezer (known as the Baal Shem Tov), the founder of Chassidic Judaism. This Orthodox Jewish congregation was established in 1888 as Eduth Ados L'Israel Anshei Meserich – “Witness to Israel – Meseritz” (Anglicized spellings and translations vary somewhat.) Built by a poor but aspiring Jewish congregation, the building is located on a narrow mid-block New York City lot – a style often known as a “tenement synagogue” or “tenement shul.” Even with these restrictions, the congregation created an impressive structure.

As a neoclassical “tenement synagogue” the Meseritz Synagogue is an extremely rare (but excellent) survivor of its type. Today, it is probably the only operative neoclassical “tenement synagogue” in the Lower East Side. Nearly all of the others have been demolished. The architect of record for the Meseritz Synagogue was Herman Horenburger. An architectural/spiritual “mate” of Congregation Meseritz was Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Anshe Ungarn at 242 East 7th Street (Between Avenues C and D), survives today as an apartment house, converted in 1986. Likewise, certain details of the recently demolished B’nai Rappaport Anshe Rembrava Synagogue at 207 East 7th Street resembled Congregation Meseritz. B’nai Rappaport Anshe Rembrava is where the new East 7th Street Baptist Church was recently constructed).

The historic interior of the Meseritz Synagogue is remarkably intact. Inside, the construction materials are typical of working-class buildings of the era: plaster walls, pressed tin ceilings, and polychrome “nickel” tile floors. Two skylights provide natural light, which is enhanced by several simple, but handsome stained glass windows. The original women’s gallery remains intact.

The sanctuary is dominated by the original two-story Ark, with High Victorian Gothic details mingled with neo-classical forms – plus a few Eastern European features such as miniature onion domes…Similar details are reflected in other sanctuary furnishings such as the pews.

There are a few other examples of Gothic style having been intentionally used in synagogue design. The most noted perhaps was the original Anshe Chesed at 172 Norfolk Street. The noted architect, Alexander Saeltzer, was strongly influenced by Germany’s Cologne Cathedral. Today, the former Anshe Chesed houses the Angel Orensanz Foundation – an artist’s studio, gallery, and performance space.

In the case of Congregation Meseritz, a major reason for Gothic accouterments in the main sanctuary probably lies in something more practical. Most of the local woodworkers were German Christians and using standard church furnishings was probably less expensive. Likewise, since so many of the earlier synagogues have the Lower East Side had formerly been Christian churches, the use of Gothic-styled furnishings in synagogues had become relatively acceptable.”

Beth Midrash photos by Vincent Giordano / ISJM

In the half-basement level is the Beth Midrash (study house), also used as a daily synagogue. It is in this space the prayers of the congregation are heard on a regular basis, and it is also where the Rabbi and members of the congregation are often likely to be found.

USA: National Trust for Historic Preservation Names New York's Lower East Side to 2008 list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

National Trust for Historic Preservation Names New York's Lower East Side to 2008 list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.

[n.b. This report was first posted by email on June 13, 2008]

(ISJM) The National Trust for Historic Preservation, America's foremost historic preservation organization, announced on May 20th its list of eleven most endangered sites in the United States. As in many recent years, the Trust has chosen not to emphasize specific buildings, but has sounded the alarm about the real or potential destruction of entire historic neighborhoods, cityscapes and landscapes. On this year's list is New York City's Lower East Side, the historic home to multiple waves of immigrant populations, including hundreds of thousands of East European Jews who settled in the area (mixing or displacing earlier immigrant groups) especially between the 1880s until the First World War. The area has remained, or has been re-invented, in the popular American Jewish imagination as the historic heartland of American (read: East European) Jews. After the destruction of so much of the Jewish culture of Europe in the Holocaust, the Lower East Side (or East Side as it was earlier known) took on greater significance for American Jews – many of whom were now embracing suburban life - as a potent reminder of "from where they came." The area is usually recalled with mixture of fact and myth (see Hasia Diner's excellent book "Lower East Side Memories").

Even today, however, there remains a substantial Jewish population in the area, and numerous synagogues. But the Lower East Side is also the home to increasingly trendy commercial establishments and high-rent apartments. Conversion and renovation are transforming social and often physical aspects of the neighborhood. There is increasing demolition of old buildings in order to build bigger newer ones, and this more than any single factor puts the area at risk. The Lower East Side has always been an area of transition. Preservationists cannot stop change, and most do not want to. But they hope to slow down development and to force greater review and consideration of new projects in the area, and more closely watch the impact of single building projects on the neighborhood as a whole. New York is not alone with this problem. Many European cities including Budapest, Paris and Rome all face increased development pressure on the former Jewish centers of their cities. New development and higher rents, as well as demolition and new construction, are changing the character of those formerly quiet places. See for example "Paris Jewish quarter fights tourism, commerce in battle for soul" http://www.eurojewcong.org/ejc/news.php?id_article=1356

To read more from the National Trust see:
http://www.preservationnation.org/travel-and-sites/sites/northeast-region/lower-east-side.html

To read Lower East Side Preservation Coalition Executive Director Katy
Daly's remarks see:
http://www.preservationnation.org/issues/11-most-endangered/resources/lower-east-side-katy-daly.html