Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun | |
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![]() The façade of Kehilath Jeshurun synagogue, in 2008, before the 2011 fire | |
Religion | |
Affiliation | Modern Orthodox Judaism |
Ecclesiastical or organizational status | Synagogue |
Leadership |
|
Status | Active |
Location | |
Location | 126 East 85th Street, Upper East Side, New York, New York 10028 |
Country | United States |
Location in Manhattan | |
Geographic coordinates | 40°46′45″N73°57′24″W / 40.77917°N 73.95667°W |
Architecture | |
Type | Synagogue |
Style | Neo-classical |
Date established | 1872 (as a congregation) |
Completed | 1872 |
Specifications | |
Interior area | 18,000 square feet (1,700 m2) (Sanctuary only) |
Materials | Limestone |
Elevation | 80 ft (24 m) |
Website | |
ckj |
Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun (abbreviated as KJ or CKJ) is a Modern Orthodox Jewish synagogue at 126 East 85th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. The synagogue was founded in 1872. [1] The synagogue is closely affiliated with the Ramaz School. The lower school is co-located in an adjacent building and is across the street from the middle school.
The synagogue was founded in 1872 [2] and was originally known as Anshe Jeshurun. [3] The congregation built a neoclassical, Romanesque synagogue building in 1902. [2]
Rabbi Moses Zevulun Margolies served as the synagogue's Rabbi from 1906 until his death in 1936. [4] He was hired around the same time as Mordecai Kaplan, and they served to counterbalance each other, Margolies's Yiddish and tradition against Kaplan's English sermonizing and other changes. [2]
The Ramaz school name derives from Margolies' initials. He was the grandfather-in-law of the school's founder, Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein, who succeeded Margolies as the synagogue's Senior Rabbi.
Lookstein had served as the congregation's assistant Rabbi after receiving his semicha in 1926 from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University and had assumed many congregational leader roles in the years before his grandfather's death, when Margolies had a prolonged illness. Lookstein assumed the title of Senior Rabbi after his grandfather died in 1936. [5]
Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, son of Joseph Lookstein, was installed as an assistant rabbi on June 14, 1958, serving under his father, and became Senior Rabbi after his father died in 1979. [6] The younger Lookstein was a member of the first class of six students at Ramaz when the school was established in 1937.
Rabbi Elie Weinstock is another leader of the congregation.
In December 2008, it was reported that the congregation lost $3.5 million in the Bernard Madoff scandal. [7]
Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz was appointed senior rabbi from January 1, 2016, and Rabbi Haskel Lookstein assumed the role of Rabbi Emeritus, Rabbi Elie Weinstock was granted the title of "Rabbi", and Rabbi Roy Feldman remained as Assistant Rabbi. [8]
A fire in July 2011, whilst the synagogue was undergoing minor renovations, resulted in significant damage to the building's interior and the congregation temporarily relocated to the 92nd Street Y. [9] [10] Nearly half of the sanctuary’s forty stained glass windows were destroyed by the fire and had to be recreated using historical and forensic analysis. [11] The subsequent reconstruction enabled the restoration of the synagogue and construction of a new two-story, 8,000-square-foot (740 m2) education and fitness wing for the school, above the synagogue. The two new floors cut across the school and the synagogue horizontally, facilitating improved connectivity between the school and the synagogue. Other improvements included a central entry and single security point for both institutions, an expanded lobby, an enlarged cafeteria and commercial kitchen, a new chapel and scholar’s library, and an expanded rooftop play terrace. The $21 million redevelopment won a Building Design+Construction 2016 Gold Award Winner in the Reconstruction category. [12] The transformation of the Lower School's gymnasium into a chapel won a 2018 award from the American Institute of Architects. [13]
The synagogue had maintained an extensive archives, which was donated to Yeshiva University shortly before the fire. [14] Nearly 1,500 synagogue bulletins, from 1925 through 1992, have been digitized and are freely available at Yeshiva University's Digital Collections portal.
The Congregation is known for members who are prominent businessmen and philanthropists, including Harry Fischel, George Rohr, film producer Steven Haft, author Lisa Birnbach, the New York real estate Kushner family (patriarch Joseph Kushner and his sons Murray Kushner and Charles Kushner) and Ivanka Trump, who converted to Judaism before she married Jared Kushner. [8]
As reggae singer Matisyahu was becoming more a religious Jew, he began to attend services at the synagogue in 2004. [15]
Harry Fischel was an American businessman and philanthropist based in New York City at the turn of the 20th century.
The Synagogue Council of America was an American Jewish organization of synagogue and rabbinical associations, founded in 1926. The Council was the umbrella body bridging the three primary religious movements within Judaism in the United States. It included:
The Ramaz School is an American coeducational Jewish Modern Orthodox day school which offers a dual curriculum of general studies taught in English and Judaic studies taught in Hebrew. The school is located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It has an early childhood center (nursery-kindergarten), a lower school, a middle school, and an upper school.
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The Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States and Canada (UOR), often called by its Hebrew name, Agudath Harabonim or (in Ashkenazi Hebrew) Agudas Harabonim ("union of rabbis"), was established in 1901 in the United States and is the oldest organization of Orthodox rabbis in the United States. It had been for many years the principal group for such rabbis, though in recent years it has lost much of its former membership and influence.
Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary is the rabbinical seminary of Yeshiva University (YU). It is located along Amsterdam Avenue in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.
Khal Adath Jeshurun, officially K'hal Adath Jeshurun, abbreviated as KAJ, is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue located at 85-93 Bennett Avenue in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States.
Rabbi Mark Dratch served as the Executive Vice President of the Rabbinical Council of America from 1993-2024. He is the founder of JSafe. In 2010 he was named as one of Newsweek's Top 50 Rabbis in America. He was number 13 on Newsweek's list in 2013. He was married to Sara Lamm, the daughter of Rabbi Norman Lamm, the long-time president and Chancellor of Yeshiva University. In December, 2017 he married Rachel Levitt Klein. In July, 2023 he made Aliya.
Herbert S. Goldstein was a prominent American rabbi and Jewish leader. He was the only person to have been elected president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, the Rabbinical Council of America, and the Synagogue Council of America. Globally, he fought for the survival and transplantation of European Jewry as an activist in the Vaad Hatzalah and the Agudath Israel.
Beth Hamedrash Hagodol is 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 in the Lower East Side neighborhood 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.
B'nai Emet Synagogue is a former Conservative Jewish congregation and synagogue located on Ottawa Avenue, in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, in the United States.
B'nai Jeshurun is a non-denominational Jewish synagogue located at 257 West 88th Street and 270 West 89th Street, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, in New York City, New York, United States.
Haskel Lookstein is an American Modern Orthodox rabbi. He is Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where he served most his entire rabbinic career (1958–2015) He was also principal of the Ramaz School from 1966 through 2015.
Joseph Hyman Lookstein was a Russian-born American rabbi who served as spiritual leader of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and was a leader in Orthodox Judaism, including his service as president of the Rabbinical Council of America and of the cross-denominational Synagogue Council of America and New York Board of Rabbis. He was President of Bar-Ilan University from 1957 to 1967.
Moses Sebulun Margolies was a Russian-born American Orthodox who served as senior rabbi of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on the Upper East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. In its obituary, The New York Times described Margolies as the "dean of orthodox rabbis in North America," a "Zionist leader and Jewish educator."
Gilah Kletenik is an academic and Open Orthodox rabbi.
Dale Polakoff is an American Modern Orthodox Rabbi, teacher and spiritual leader. He has served as the senior rabbi of the Great Neck Synagogue for over 30 years and formerly served as President of the Rabbinical Council of America.
Adam Mintz is an American Orthodox rabbi, Talmud teacher, professor, and advocate for Orthodox conversions to Judaism and head of the conversion court, Rodfei Zedek. Mintz is the Founding Rabbi of Kehilat Rayim Ahuvim in New York City and a member of the Talmud faculty at Yeshivat Maharat.