THE MUSEUM OF FAMILY HISTORY presents

The Synagogues of the Lower East Side

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BIALYSTOKER SYNAGOGUE
7-11 Willett Street/Bialystoker Place, New York, NY
organized 1865
www.bialystoker.org
The Bialystoker Synagogue was first located on Hester Street, then was moved to Orchard Street, eventually locating to its current address on Willett Street. The building, constructed in 1826, was originally a church. The building was purchased in 1905 by the congregation, mostly made up of Polish immigrants who had come from the Bialystok. This beautiful building was listed as a New York City landmark in 1966. Architecturally, it is noted for its Federal Style.
 
ELDRIDGE STREET SYNAGOGUE
12 Eldridge Street, New York, NY
established in 1887
www.eldridgestreet.org
The Eldridge Street Synagogue has recently been beautifully restored. When it first opened, it was described as an "imposing Moorish-style building, with its 70-foot-high vaulted ceiling, magnificent stained-glass rose windows, elaborate brass fixtures and hand-stenciled walls."
One can explore their long list of former congregants, dating from the 1850s to the 1950s.
 
KEHILA KEDOSHA JANINA SYNAGOGUE
280 Broome Street, New York, NY
built in 1926
www.kkjsm.org

The synagogue, built in 1926 by Romaniote Jews who had come to the United States from Janina, Greece, is the only Romaniote synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. It houses a museum of both Romaniote history and the history of the Greek Jews during the Holocaust. The synagogue was listed as a landmark by the city of New York in 2004, and is currently undergoing restoration.
 

BETH HAMEDRASH  HAGADOL
60-64 Norfolk Street, New York, NY
established in 1859
Beth Hamedrash Hagadol was formed in 1859. In 1885, the congregation took over the building which used to house a Baptist Church. This synagogue was the first synagogue to be designated a New York City landmark. It was the home of Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, a noted Holocaust scholar from Kovno.

 
CONGREGATION CHASAM SOPHER
8-10 Clinton Street, New York, NY
built in 1853
www.chasamsopher.org
Chasam Sopher is the oldest, continuously-operating synagogue in New York City, built in 1853 by the German-Jewish congregation Rodeph Sholem. In 1892, two Polish congregations merged to form the Chasam Sopher Synagogue. The synagogue has been undergoing renovations for a number of years and is quite beautiful.
 
CONGREGATION BNAI JACOB ANSCHEI BRZEZAN
(STANTON STREET SHUL)
180 Stanton Street, New York, NY
built in 1913
www.stantonstshul.com
Originally, this "tenement shul" housed a congregation that was founded in 1894 by immigrant Jews from the town of Brzezany, Poland. The building is an intact early 20th-century vernacular synagogue. The congregation first met on Rivington Street, also on the Lower East Side, but moved to their current building in 1913. In 1952 , the congregation merged with Bnai Joseph Dugel Macheneh Ephraim.

 
  Please visit the Lower East Side Synagogue List to see a listing of more than four hundred and fifty synagogues or societies that were once associated with the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The list contains the names of the societies, well as the addresses their members once met at; also included is the name and country associated with each synagogue or society, when applicable and known.
 
   
 

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