Central Synagogue (formerly Congregation Ahawath Chesed Shaar Hashomayim; colloquially Central) is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue at 652 Lexington Avenue, at the corner with 55th Street, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, US. The current congregation was formed in 1898 through the merger of two 19th-century synagogues: Shaar Hashomayim and Ahawath Chesed. The synagogue building was constructed from 1870 to 1872 for Ahawath Chesed. , Angela Buchdahl has been Central's senior rabbi.
Shaar Hashomayim was founded in 1839 by German Jews, while Ahawath Chesed was founded in 1846 by Bohemian Jews. Both congregations originally occupied several sites on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Central was constructed as the fifth building of Ahawath Chesed, whose members had moved northward during the late 19th century. Though the congregations originally held services in German, they had become largely Anglophone by the time of their merger. Ahawath Chesed Shaar Hashomayim became known as Central by 1918 and briefly merged with the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in the 1920s. The building has been renovated several times over the years, including in the 1880s and 1940s; it was extensively rebuilt from 1998 to 2001 following a fire.
Designed by Henry Fernbach in the Moorish Revival style, the building is a New York City designated landmark and a National Historic Landmark. The facade is made of brownstone with light-stone trim and includes stained glass windows and a geometric rose window; it is topped by octagonal towers. A vestibule leads to the synagogue's sanctuary—a two-level space, arranged similarly to a Gothic church—and there are various rooms in the basement. Central Synagogue has hosted various activities and programs over the years, and it contains a collection of Jewish artifacts. A community house, across 55th Street, hosts the synagogue's religious school and numerous groups.
Early history
Central Synagogue's congregation was formerly known as Congregation Ahawath Chesed Shaar Hashomayim. It is descended from two 19th-century synagogues, Shaar Hashomayim and Ahawath Chesed, which merged in 1898. When the congregations were founded on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, that area was home to many German Jews and known as Little Germany. Most of these German Jews came to the U.S. starting in the mid-19th century. They had tried to join existing Ashkenazi congregations but were shunned by older members, leading them to form their own, breakaway congregations. Central Synagogue's Lexington Avenue structure was originally built as Ahawath Chesed's fifth building.
Shaar Hashomayim Shaar Hashomayim was founded in 1839 by German Jews. Its name, also spelled Shaarey Hashomayim or Shaar Hashamayim, meant Gates of Heaven in Hebrew. The first congregants were two groups of men who had left the Ansche Chesed congregation; they met at 122 Attorney Street. Originally, there was no rabbi; instead, services were led by some of the more knowledgeable congregants. In 1845, Shaar Hashomayim agreed to develop a Jewish cemetery in conjunction with two other German Jewish congregations, Ansche Chesed and Rodeph Sholom. It subsequently bought up land at Salem Fields Cemetery.
Shaar Hashomayim's first rabbi, Max Lilienthal, joined the congregation in 1845. The congregation resisted some of his reforms, and Lilienthal left in 1847. After Lilienthal left, the congregation was led by a hazzan, a cantor who was not ordained as a rabbi. Shaar Hashomayim became involved in advocacy for Jewish causes in the 1850s. For example, it helped form the Association for the Free Distribution of Matsot for the Poor after the Panic of 1857, delivering matzot to thousands of Jews, and it was a founding member of Board of Delegates of American Israelites in 1859.
Raphael Lasker became Shaar Hashomayim's senior rabbi in 1862, a capacity in which he served for nine years. Shaar Hashomayim subsequently moved to 15th Street on the East Side, where it stayed until 1898. By the 1890s, the congregation had begun using a prayer book in English and Hebrew, and it was considering moving to the Upper East Side. Solomon Sonneschein, who joined Shaar Hashomayim in 1895, was its last senior rabbi before the congregation merged with Ahawath Chesed in 1898.
Ahawath Chesed In 1846, German-speaking Bohemian Jews formed a minyan, or quorum of Jewish adults, which was the predecessor to the Ahawath Chesed congregation. Initially, they hosted social gatherings at the residence of one Leopold Schwarzkopf; the gathering was called a , German for "Bohemian club". Eighteen of these men decided to form a more structured gathering, and they began meeting at a hotel at 69 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Following the arrival of more Bohemian Jews to the U.S., several Bohemian Jews in New York City decided to formally establish a congregation in 1848. They had raised $58.32 and one-half cent by November, which they used to buy a Torah scroll.
Establishment and early years
Ahawath Chesed (sometimes spelled Ahavath Chesed) was officially formed on December 31, 1848; its name meant Love of Mercy in Hebrew. Ahawath Chesed rented space at 88 Ridge Street in August 1849, paying $100 annually for the upper stories of two structures. At the time, the congregation charged a $1.50 annual membership fee. Initially, Ahawath Chesed was an Orthodox congregation with German-language services, and it had a Jewish cemetery in Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. The congregation also bought up land at Linden Hill Cemetery during its first 25 years. The Ridge Street synagogue was expanded in February 1850. Further growth of the congregation prompted Ahawath Chesed to acquire a house at 217 Columbia Street in 1854 and relocate its synagogue there. Ahawath Chesed held informal prayer sessions and used Ashkenazic prayer books, though it was less involved in communal advocacy than Shaar Hashomayim.
By the 1860s, many congregants were talking with each other or leaving in the middle of prayer sessions, prompting the synagogue's board to enact more stringent rules. In addition, the prayer books were entirely in Hebrew, which many congregants could not understand. In 1864, Ahawath Chesed moved to the Eleventh Presbyterian Church, located at the intersection of Avenue C and Fourth Street in the East Village. The Avenue C synagogue cost $24,050 and was designed by Henry Fernbach. At the time, the congregation had 115 members, whose names were inscribed on the pews. In 1865, the congregation voted to hire a more progressive rabbi in the Reform tradition, running advertisements in Jewish magazines in Europe and the U.S. The congregation also decided to buy its first organ and hired the Bohemian cantor Samuel Weltsch to be their hazzan that year. Adolph Huebsch, also of Bohemia, was hired as the congregation's rabbi in 1866, and he began holding Reform rituals.
The congregation adopted a new prayer book under Huebsch's leadership. He also established a congregational school, which had 127 students by late 1867. Ahawath Chesed continued to grow along with the Jewish population in Little Germany, with 142 members in the late 1860s. The congregation attracted a wider range of Eastern European Jews who worked in a variety of professions, including beer, clothing, dry goods, and real estate—though not those in banking or mercantile trades, who instead joined Congregation Emanu-El of New York. The Lower East Side was also becoming more crowded, prompting wealthier Jews to move uptown.
Development of Lexington Avenue synagogue Ahawath Chesed's trustees had first considered buying an existing religious building or erecting a new building in June 1867, but they were unable to find any suitable structure south of 42nd Street. The trustees did identify several sites in Midtown Manhattan, including one near 45th Street and Madison Avenue, just before real-estate prices in the area decreased greatly. In 1869, Ahawath Chesed's congregation voted to establish a committee for the acquisition of a new building. The committee reported in April 1870 that it had acquired land further uptown, and it voted to sell its old site shortly thereafter. The site, at the southwest corner of 55th Street and Lexington Avenue, covered and cost $63,250. At the time, many of the congregation's members lived near Midtown. The site was also relatively close to the then-recently completed Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue, and the congregation wanted the synagogue's design to compete with that of Temple Emanu-El.
Sixty-two people loaned a combined $68,100 for the synagogue's construction. Ahawath Chesed obtained additional money by selling pews, the cost of which ranged from $150 to more than $1,200. Ahawath Chesed's trustees and its allied organizations also loaned some money, and the congregation earned $40,000 or $55,000 by selling its Avenue C property. The congregation hired Henry Fernbach, the architect of its Avenue C synagogue, to design a structure on the lot. The design was controversial; some congregants felt the decorations were excessive. The building was also being developed at a time when the congregation was starting to lose money, prompting concerns that congregants would leave Ahawath Chesed.
Huebsch and Isaac Wise, the rabbi of B'nai Jeshurun in Cincinnati, jointly laid the synagogue's cornerstone on December 14, 1870. The congregation continued to accept more members as the synagogue was built; its religious school expanded from 146 to 276 students between 1871 and 1872 alone. Huebsch consecrated the new synagogue on April 19, 1872. Following the building's dedication, Huebsch described the structure as "not only a house of worship, but an American-Jewish house of worship". A Jewish Times article, describing the consecration, characterized it as evidence of a growing acceptance of Jews in the U.S. The building had cost $250,000, $264,000, or $272,575 to construct. The synagogue's completion coincided with the development of rowhouses within East Midtown, which had been undeveloped as recently as five years previously.
Late 19th century
After moving to the new synagogue building, Ahawath Chesed began using a two-volume prayer book adapted to reflect more modern views. The new prayer book, known as the Seder Tefillah, remained in use for half a century, even after the congregation began using other prayer books. The opening of the new building coincided with the Panic of 1873 and its subsequent financial crisis. Nonetheless, the congregation was involved with charitable initiatives such as the Hebrew Charity Fair and Mount Sinai Hospital, and Huebsch continued to expand Ahawath Chesed's school during his tenure. He established a social group for the congregation's young men, which counted sixty members by 1879. The synagogue hosted music and lectures one weekday a month, eliminating the need for a Sunday service. Ahawath Chesed additionally joined the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC), a group of Reform synagogues, in 1878. Huebsch led the congregation until he died in 1884, by which Ahawath Chesed had grown into a largely middle-class congregation.