Beth Hamedrash Hagodol"Beth Hamedrash Hagodol Designation Report" New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (February 28, 1967), p.22or Beth Hamidrash Hagadol, Beth Hamedrash Hagadol, Beth Midrash Hagadol () was an Orthodox Jewish congregation that for over 120 years was located in a historic building at 60–64 Norfolk Street between Grand and Broome Streets on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City. It was the first Eastern European congregation founded in New York City and the oldest Russian Jewish Orthodox congregation in the United States.
Founded in 1852 by Rabbi Abraham Joseph Ash as Beth Hamedrash, the congregation split in 1859, with the rabbi and most of the members renaming their congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagodol. The congregation's president and a small number of the members eventually formed the nucleus of Kahal Adath Jeshurun, also known as the Eldridge Street Synagogue. Rabbi Jacob Joseph, the first and only Chief Rabbi of New York City, led the congregation from 1888 to 1902. Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, one of the few European Jewish legal decisors to survive the Holocaust, led the congregation from 1952 to 2003.
The congregation's building, a Gothic Revival structure built in 1850 as the Norfolk Street Baptist Church and purchased in 1885, was one of the largest synagogues on the Lower East Side. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.NRHP Weekly List: 11/29/99-12/03/99. In the late 20th century the congregation dwindled and was unable to maintain the building, which had been damaged by storms. Despite their obtaining funding and grants, the structure was critically endangered.Taylor (2008). ()
The synagogue was closed in 2007. The congregation, reduced to around 20 regularly attending members, was sharing facilities with a congregation on Henry Street. The Lower East Side Conservancy was trying to raise an estimated $4.5 million for repairs of the building, with the intent of converting it to an educational center. In December the leadership of the synagogue under Rabbi Mendel Greenbaum filed a “hardship application” with the Landmarks Preservation Commission seeking permission to demolish the building to make way for a new residential development. This application was withdrawn in March 2013, but the group Friends of the Lower East Side described Beth Hamedrash Hagodol's status as "demolition by neglect". The abandoned synagogue was "largely destroyed" by a "suspicious" three-alarm fire on May 14, 2017.Hobbs, Allegra (May 15, 2017) "'Suspicious' Footage Shows 3 Fleeing Area Near Synagogue That Burned: NYPD" DNAinfo
Early history Beth Hamedrash Hagodol was founded by Eastern European Jews in 1852 as Beth Hamedrash (literally "House of Study", but used colloquially in Yiddish as the term for a synagogue).Kaufman (1999), p. 174.Sussman.Caplan (2008), p. 171. The founding rabbi, Abraham Joseph Ash, was born in Siemiatycze (then in Congress Poland) in 1813See Sherman (1996), p. 21, and Caplan (2008), p. 172. or 1821.The New York Times, May 10, 1887, p. 5. He immigrated to New York City in 1851Marcus (1989), p. 341. or 1852.Sherman (1996), p. 22. The first Eastern European Orthodox rabbi to serve in the United States, Ash "rejected the reformist tendencies of the German Jewish congregations" there.Kaufman (1999), p. 175. He soon organized a minyan (prayer quorum) of like-minded Polish Jews, and by 1852 began conducting services. Though the membership consisted mostly of Polish Jews, it also included "Lithuanians, two Germans, and an Englishman."Marcus (1989), p. 337. For the first six years of the congregation's existence, Ash was not paid for his work as rabbi and instead earned a living as a peddler.
The congregation moved frequently in its early years: in 1852 it was located at 83 Bayard Street, then at Elm and Canal, and from 1853 to 1856 in a hall at Pearl between Chatham and Centre Streets.Eldridge Street Synagogue NRHP Registration Form, p. 15, footnote 16. In 1856, with the assistance of the philanthropist Sampson SimsonMarcus (1989), pp. 337–338. and wealthy Sephardi Jews who sympathized with the traditionalism of the congregation's members, the congregation purchased a Welsh chapel on Allen Street. The synagogue, which had "a good Hebrew library", was a place both of prayer and study,Maffi (1994), p. 122. included a rabbinic family court, and, according to historian and long-time member Judah David Eisenstein, "rapidly became the most important center for Orthodox Jewish guidance in the country."
Synagogue dues were collected by the shamash (the equivalent of a sexton or beadle), who augmented his salary by working as a glazier and running a small food concession stand in the vestibule. There mourners who came to recite kaddish could purchase a piece of sponge cake and small glass of brandy for ten cents (today $0).Marcus (1989), p. 338.
Beth Hamedrash was the prototypical American synagogue for early immigrant Eastern European Jews, who began entering the United States in large numbers only in the 1870s. They found the synagogues of the German Jewish immigrants who preceded them to be unfamiliar, both religiously and culturally. Russian Jews in particular had been more excluded from Russian society than were German Jews from German society, for both linguistic and social reasons. Unlike German Jews, the Jews who founded Beth Hamedrash viewed both religion and the synagogue as central to their lives. They attempted to re-create in Beth Hamedrash the kind of synagogue they had belonged to in Europe.Olitzky & Raphael (1996), p. 8.Gurock (1998), p. 47.
Schism In 1859, disagreement broke out between Ash and the synagogue's parnas (president) Joshua RothsteinOlitzky & Raphael (1996), p. 251. over who had been responsible for procuring the Allen Street location,Eldridge Street Synagogue NRHP Registration Form, p. 16. and escalated into a conflict "over the question of official authority and 'honor'".Karp (2003), p. 14. Members took sides in the dispute, which led to synagogue disturbances, a contested election, and eventually to Ash's taking Rothstein to a United States court to try to oust him as president of the congregation. After the court rejected Ash's arguments, a large majority of members left with Ash to form Beth Hamedrash Hagodol ("Great House of Study"), adding the word "Hagodol" ("Great") to the original name.
The followers of Rothstein stayed at the Allen Street location and retained the name "Beth Hamedrash" until the mid-1880s. With membership and financial resources both severely reduced, they were forced to merge with Congregation Holche Josher Wizaner; the combined congregation adopted the name "Kahal Adath Jeshurun", and built the Eldridge Street Synagogue.Eldridge Street Synagogue NRHP Registration Form, p. 17, and footnote 22.
According to Eisenstein, Beth Hamedrash Hagodol provided an atmosphere that was "socially religious", in which Jews "combine[d] piety with pleasure; they call[ed] their shule a shtibl or prayer-club room; they desire[d] to be on familiar terms with the Almighty and abhor[red] decorum; they want[ed] everyone present to join and chant the prayers; above all they scorn[ed] a regularly ordained cantor." In contrast to the informality of the services, members scrupulously observed the Jewish dietary laws, and every member personally oversaw the baking of his matzos for use on Passover.Gurock (1998), p. 48.
The congregation initially moved to the top floor of a building at the corner of Grand and Forsyth Streets, and in 1865 moved again, to a former courthouse on Clinton Street. In 1872, the congregation built a synagogue at Ludlow and Hester Streets. There the congregation's younger members gained greater control and introduced some minor innovations; for example, changing the title of parnas to president, and in 1877 hiring a professional cantor—Judah Oberman—for $500 (today $) per year, to bring greater formality and decorum to the servicesGurock (1998), p. 49. as well as to attract new members.Sherman (1996), p. 4. While somewhat "Americanized", in general the congregation remained quite traditional. Men and women sat separately, the full service in the traditional prayer book was followed, and the congregation still trained men for rabbinic ordination. Additionally, Talmud and Mishna study groups, founded in the 1870s, were held both mornings and evenings.
Ash had only served as Beth Hamedrash Hagodol's rabbi intermittently during this time;Levine (2008). during the American Civil War he had briefly been a successful manufacturer of hoop skirts, before losing his money, and returning to the rabbinate. Congregants had a number of issues with him, including his outside business ventures and an alleged inclination towards Hasidism. The more learned members of the congregation contested his scholarship. Ash resigned as rabbi in 1877,Caplan (2008), p. 172. and in 1879, directors of Beth Hamedrash Hagodol proposed that a Chief Rabbi be hired for New York.Sherman (1996), p. 5. A number of New York City synagogues formed the "United Hebrew Orthodox Congregations",Caplan (2008), p. 173. and agreed to select the Malbim (Meïr Leibush ben Jehiel Michel Weiser) for the role.Gurock (1998), p. 51. The appointment was announced in Philadelphia's Jewish Record,Gurock (1998), p. 76, footnote 51. but the Malbim never filled the position. Beth Hamedrash Hagodol re-hired Ash to fill the vacant role of congregational rabbi at a salary of $25 per month (or $300—today $—per year). The following year the congregation hired a new cantor, Simhe Samuelson, for $1,000 (today $) a year, over three times Ash's salary.
Norfolk Street building The congregation's building at 60-64 Norfolk Street, between Grand Street and Broome Street on the Lower East Side, had originally been the Norfolk Street Baptist Church. Founded in 1841 when the Stanton Street Baptist Church congregation split, the members had first worshiped in an existing church building at Norfolk and Broome. In 1848 they officially incorporated and began construction of a new building, which was dedicated in January 1850.Beth Hamedrash Hagodol Synagogue NRHP Registration Form, June 20, 1999, Section 8, p. 1.
Largely unchanged, the structure was designed in the Gothic Revival style by an unknown architect, with masonry-bearing walls with timber framing at the roof and floors, and brownstone foundation walls and exterior door and window trim. The front facade (west, on Norfolk Street) is "stuccoed and scored to simulate smooth-faced ashlar", though the other elevations are faced in brick. Window tracery was all in wood. Much of the original work remains on the side elevations.Beth Hamedrash Hagodol Synagogue NRHP Registration Form, June 20, 1999, Section 7, pp. 1–2. Characteristically Gothic exterior features include "vertical proportions, pointed arched window openings with drip moldings, three bay facade with towers". Gothic interior features include "ribbed vaulting" and a "tall and lofty rectangular nave and apse." Originally the window over the main door was a circular rose window, and the two front towers had crenellations in tracery, instead of the present plain tops. The square windows below are original, but the former quatrefoil wooden tracery is gone in many cases. The bandcourse of quatrefoil originally extended across the center section of the facade.
Even as the building was under construction, the ethnic makeup of the church's neighborhood was rapidly changing; native-born Baptists were displaced by Irish and German immigrants. As members moved uptown, the congregation decided to follow and sold their building in 1860 to Alanson T. Biggs, a successful local merchant. The departing Baptist congregation founded the Fifth Avenue Baptist church, then founded the Park Avenue Church, and finally built the Riverside Church.Beth Hamedrash Hagodol Synagogue NRHP Registration Form, June 20, 1999, Section 8, p. 2.