The Eldridge Street Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue at 12–16 Eldridge Street in the Chinatown and Lower East Side neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. Built in 1887 for Congregation Kahal Adath Jeshurun, the synagogue is one of the first erected in the U.S. by Eastern European Jews. The congregation, officially known as Kahal Adath Jeshurun with Anshe Lubz, still owns the synagogue and hosts weekly services there in the 21st century. The Museum at Eldridge Street, founded in 1986 as the Eldridge Street Project, also occupies the synagogue under a long-term lease. The building is a National Historic Landmark and a New York City designated landmark.
The congregation was established in 1852 as Beth Hamedrash and had congregants from across Eastern Europe. It relocated several times and was renamed Kahal Adath Jeshurun after merging with Holkhe Yosher Vizaner in 1886. Kahal Adath Jeshurun acquired a site for a new synagogue on Eldridge Street in 1886, and the building was dedicated on September 4, 1887. The congregation's membership peaked between 1890 and 1915, with up to 800 members, and the congregation merged with Anshe Lubz in 1909. Membership dwindled significantly after the 1920s, as congregants relocated and the Immigration Act of 1924 restricted new immigration. The main sanctuary was closed completely in 1954, and the remaining congregants met in the basement. Preservationists began trying to save the building in the 1970s and stabilized it in the early 1980s. The Eldridge Street Project raised money for a reconstruction of the synagogue, which was completed in 2007.
The synagogue was designed by Peter and Francis William Herter in the Moorish Revival style, with Gothic Revival and Romanesque Revival elements spread throughout the building. The Eldridge Street facade includes a rose window, two stair towers, and arched openings. There is another rose window in the rear and finials on the rooftops. The main and largest space is the sanctuary, which includes two levels of seating, a Torah ark, and a central bimah. The lower level was originally a study hall, which has been converted to galleries. The modern-day museum is focused on history and culture, and a small number of worshippers of continue to hold services there. Over the years, the synagogue has received architectural commentary and has influenced the designs of other local synagogues.
Early history Many immigrants who came to New York City in the late 19th and early 20th centuries settled on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. This influx included hundreds of thousands of Yiddish-speaking Eastern European Jews. The Eldridge Street Synagogue is one of the first synagogues erected in the United States by Eastern European Jews. Prior to its construction, many Jews in the neighborhood rented other spaces and used them as makeshift synagogues. Even the neighborhood's largest Jewish congregations were housed in converted Christian churches.
The Eldridge Street Synagogue was built for Congregation Kahal Adath Jeshurun, an Orthodox Jewish congregation. The name literally means "Community of the People of Israel" in Hebrew, but it is often officially translated in English as "People's Congregation of the Just". The use of the name Adath Jeshurun was meant to signify that the congregation signified "true Israel".
Foundation of congregation
Kahal Adath Jeshurun was established in 1852 as Beth Hamedrash ("House of Study" in Hebrew), and consisted of Jews from various parts of Eastern Europe. The founding rabbi, Abraham Joseph Ash, was the first Orthodox rabbi from Eastern Europe to serve in the United States. After moving around several times, the congregation purchased a Welsh chapel on Allen Street in 1856. Following a petty dispute over the Allen Street synagogue, 23 members of Beth Hamedrash split in 1859 to form Beth Hamedrash Hagodol, adding the word "Hagodol" ("The Great") to the original name.
The remaining 46 members remained on Allen Street for over two decades. In contrast to Beth Hamedrash Hagrodol, which was loyal to its rabbi, the congregation of the original Beth Hamedrash mainly was led by its lay president. Beth Hamedrash's first president was the banker Sender Jarmulowsky, who was appointed in 1872 and served for two years. The Manhattan Railway Company's Second Avenue Elevated opened above Allen Street in the late 1870s, causing pollution and casting shadows. The congregation successfully sued for damages, although it would not receive any compensation until 1899. By the 1880s, many other Jewish congregations had much larger buildings, while Beth Hamedrash was still using its converted chapel at 78 Allen Street.
Documents indicate that Congregation Machsike Torah Sinier paid $19,000 for Beth Hamedrash's Allen Street building in May 1886. The congregation also merged with Holkhe Yosher Vizaner (whose name is Hebrew for "Those Who Walk in Righteousness") by 1886. Holkhe Yosher Vizaner had largely been composed of people from Wiżajny (Vizan), while the merged congregation included Jews from a wider geographic area. The merged congregation began calling itself Kahal Adath Jeshurun, in part to cater to the congregants' more diverse geographic backgrounds. Kahal Adath Jeshurun was opposed to the principles espoused by Reform Judaism.; It wanted to build a grand synagogue to differentiate itself from large Reform synagogues such as Temple Emanu-El and Central Synagogue. The planned synagogue would also draw attention to the congregation from within New York City's Orthodox community. At the time, thousands of Jewish emigrants from Eastern Europe came to the city annually, and the congregation had concerns that they would be lured away by Reform synagogues or secular organizations. The Jewish-history scholar Jeffrey S. Gurock wrote that Kahal Adath Jeshurun was the best example of "the proto-Americanized synagogue", establishing standards for Orthodox congregations in the city.
New synagogue building
Development
The congregants acquired three land lots at 12–16 Eldridge Street in 1886.; Kahal Adath Jeshurun first bought numbers 14 and 16 from Holkhe Yosher for $23,000, before buying the lot at 12 Eldridge Street for $12,850. Kahal Adath Jeshurun hired Peter and Francis Herter, two Catholic brothers from Germany, as the synagogue's architects. The brothers had never previously designed a synagogue and, at the time, had designed only five structures in the city. That June, the Herter brothers drew up plans for a synagogue at 12–16 Eldridge Street, between Canal and Division streets. Their initial plans called for a 900-seat Moorish-style structure to be constructed for $35,000. The official plans were officially filed that July, and modified plans were filed that September. There is very little extant documentation regarding the Herter brothers' design process, and the original drawings have been lost.
Work on the building began the final week of September 1886. The congregation took out a $50,000 mortgage loan from the East River Savings Bank. Early plans for the building called for twin towers made of stone, but this was eliminated, likely due to monetary constraints. The synagogue also included stars of David and stained glass windows on its facade. The synagogue cost $91,907.61, a high expense for the time. For comparison, Beth Hamedrash Hagodol's building had cost that congregation $55,000 in 1885.
Completion Kahal Adath Jeshurun's Eldridge Street Synagogue was dedicated on September 4, 1887. The congregation sent out thousands of invitations for the opening, and the crowds reportedly overflowed onto the street. The opening ceremony was widely reported in both secular and religious media, but the congregation's own archives do not describe the dedication in detail. Contemporary publications praised the synagogue's design. Several Jewish publications wrote that Kahal Adath Jeshurun itself was a paragon for other Eastern European Orthodox congregations, while a commentator for The American Israelite criticized the congregation's rowdy behavior. In subsequent weeks, the Jewish Messenger described the temple as often being overcrowded to the point where the police had to be called.
The synagogue contrasted with the densely packed tenements around it, where most congregants lived (though some wealthier members lived in brownstone row houses not far away). Its construction coincided with the development of several Jewish businesses nearby, including a religious-goods store next door. One of the congregation's members, Gittel Natelson, operated a mikvah (ritual bath) directly behind the synagogue at 5 Allen Street, which was not directly associated with or physically connected to the synagogue. Natelson had operated a mikvah next to Beth Hamedrash's previous building, and her husband Isaac, the congregation's sexton, owned the site of the new mikvah.
Congregational use 1880s to mid-1910s: Congregational heyday
According to the historian Annie Polland, the congregation peaked between 1890 and 1915. The congregation officially changed its name to Kahal Adath Jeshurun in 1890, having used that name informally for six years. Starting in 1894, the synagogue allowed homeless persons to take shelter during Passover. The same year, the interior of the sanctuary was repainted with trompe-l'œil patterns, and the woodwork was modified to appear like marble. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America was established at the synagogue in 1896, and thereafter it held meetings there biannually. By the beginning of the 20th century, the congregation regularly added seats during the High Holidays to accommodate additional worshippers. The synagogue was electrified in 1907.
Jews in New York City, including three of the congregation's first four presidents, were increasingly living elsewhere in the city during the 1900s and 1910s, since they could more easily access the synagogue using public transit. The congregation's leadership first considered constructing a second branch uptown in 1903 and 1907 to accommodate members who could not travel downtown on Shabbat (the Jewish day of rest). Some worshippers formed an offshoot synagogue uptown in 1909, and Congregation Anshe Lubz was merged into Kahal Adath Jeshurun that year. Kahal Adath Jeshurun took in Anshe Lubz's 125-member congregation, and it inherited two burial plots and $3,500 from the latter congregation. The new members opposed an uptown synagogue, prompting a legal dispute that lasted two years; the New York Supreme Court ultimately ruled against the uptown synagogue's supporters. The congregation became Kahal Adath Jeshurun with Anshe Lubz in 1913 when a new set of rules was adopted.
Leadership The highest-ranking clergy member at Kahal Adath Jeshurun was the cantor rather than a rabbi. Kahal Adath Jeshurun had no regular rabbi for about a year after the synagogue building opened. The congregation was part of the Association of American Orthodox Hebrew Congregations (AAOHC), which was looking for a chief rabbi who would serve all of these congregations. Jacob Joseph was hired as the chief rabbi in 1888, but the various members of the AAOHC were unable to agree on key values even after he was hired. Joseph spoke at the Eldridge Street synagogue exactly once in 15 years, and Kahal Adath Jeshurun's worshippers often disregarded his decrees. Worshippers also disagreed among themselves on what their priorities should be. The congregation hired at least 21 temporary rabbis from 1890 to 1914; they did not hold leadership positions, but they led study groups and taught lessons. Between 1905 and 1910, the congregation employed two separate maggidim, or preachers, whose role mainly consisted of preaching and discussing the Torah. Gurock writes that the congregation had no maggidim at all after 1910.