Meserich Synagogue | |
---|---|
Religion | |
Affiliation | Orthodox Judaism |
Ecclesiastical or organizational status | Synagogue |
Status | Active |
Location | |
Location | 415 East 6th Street, East Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York |
Country | United States |
Location in Lower Manhattan | |
Geographic coordinates | 40°43′34″N73°59′7″W / 40.72611°N 73.98528°W |
Architecture | |
Architect(s) | Herman Horenburger (1910) |
Type | Residence; later as a synagogue |
Style | Neo-classical |
Date established | 1888 (as a congregation) |
Completed |
|
Construction cost | $15,000 (1910) |
Specifications | |
Direction of façade | South |
Materials | Stone |
[1] |
Meserich Synagogue, Meserich Shul or Meseritz Shul, also known as Edes Israel Anshei Mesrich, Edath Lei'Isroel Ansche Meseritz or Adas Yisroel Anshe Mezeritz ("Community of Israel, People of Mezertiz"), is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue located at 415 East 6th Street, in the East Village of Manhattan, New York City, New York, in the United States.
The congregation was established in 1888, comprising immigrants from Międzyrzec Podlaski, a city in Biała Podlaska County, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland, known as a center of Jewish learning. [1] The synagogue building was designed by Herman Horenburger in the Neo-Classical style, was completed in 1910, and is located between Avenue A and First Avenue. [1]
Pesach (Paul) Ackerman served as Rabbi from 1969 until his death on June 14, 2013. [2]
Międzyrzec was home to a large Jewish community from the 16th century. At the end of the 1930s in the reborn Polish Republic approximately 12,000 inhabitants, or 75% of its population, were Jewish.[ citation needed ]
The congregation, founded in 1888, originally worshiped in a building on Clinton Street. The building which now houses the synagogue was originally built in 1841 as a 2 1/2-story house for J. B. Murray. Herman Horenburger designed the conversion into a synagogue in 1910. It is similar in style to Congregation Kolbuszower Teitelbaum Cheva Banai at 622 East 5th Street, which was also built in 1910; both have sunburst pediments. [3]
The synagogue is unusual in being a very small, urban congregation on a narrow lot that has an extremely beautiful Neo-Classical facade, and is the last operating "tenement synagogue" in the East Village. [4] Andrew Berman of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation called it "an intact historic gem." [5] [6]
Architectural historian and New York University professor Gerald R. Wolfe describes the synagogue's "most attractive interior... The unusually narrow building has balconies which extend almost to the middle of the sanctuary, and through the intervening space, broad rays of light from two overhead skylights seem to focus on the Ark and on a large stained glass panel above it. The soft-yellow-colored panes of the two-story-high window are crowned by an enormous Mogen David [Star of David] of red glass which seems to dominate the entire room." [7]
Andrew Dolkart, a Columbia University professor of historic preservation, believes that the building should be preserved, because cities should preserve "architecture that not only reflects the lives and history of the rich, but also the incredibly history of common people in New York." [2]
After experiencing dwindling attendance and facing financial difficulties due to the ongoing maintenance of the synagogue building, [8] the congregation began negotiations with Joshua Kushner, part of the family that owns the New York Observer newspaper. Kushner planned to tear down the present synagogue and build a six-story residential building, housing the synagogue in a modern space on the lowest two floors. [9] According to historic preservationist Samuel D. Gruber, there was a feasible, yet more costly, alternative which would preserve the synagogue building and construct apartments above it. [10] A coalition of neighborhood groups including the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the East Village Community Coalition, and Jewish groups have rallied to save the building [4] and have asked the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to landmark the building. [11]
The Kushners later withdrew from the development deal. [12] In October 2012, the Landmarks Preservation Commission created the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District, which included in its boundaries the Meserich Synagogue. [1] In 2013, the congregation entered into a $1.2 million 99-year lease with East River Partners to build apartments on the upper stories of its building. [13] The synagogue temporarily relocated during the development and reopened in March 2017 [14] with a ceiling put at balcony level above the restored sanctuary to separate it from the luxury apartments that were built. The building façade was restored. [15]
The Eldridge Street Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue located at 12 Eldridge Street in Chinatown, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in New York City, New York, in the United States. Built in 1887, the National Historic Landmark is one of the first synagogues erected in the United States by Eastern European Jews.
The First Roumanian-American Congregation, also known as Congregation Shaarey Shomayim, or the Roumanishe Shul, was an Orthodox Jewish congregation that, for over 100 years, occupied a historic building at 89–93 Rivington Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York.
The Bialystoker Synagogue is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue located at 7–11 Bialystoker Place, also known as Willett Street, between Grand and Broome Streets in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Lower Manhattan, in New York City, New York, in the United States. The building was constructed in 1826 as the Willett Street Methodist Episcopal Church; the synagogue purchased the building in 1905.
Congregation Shaare Zedek is a Conservative synagogue located on West 93rd Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York, in the United States.
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.
George Frederick Pelham was an American architect and the son of George Brown Pelham, who was also an architect.
Breed Street Shul, also known as Congregation Talmud Torah of Los Angeles or Breed Street Synagogue, is a former Orthodox Jewish synagogue in the Boyle Heights section of Los Angeles, California, in the United States. It was the largest Orthodox synagogue west of Chicago from 1915 to 1951, and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The Angel Orensanz Center is an art and performance space at 172 Norfolk Street, between Stanton Street and East Houston Street, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was originally built as a synagogue, running through a succession of congregations and continues to be used as one occasionally as The Shul of New York.
Anshe Sholom B'nai Israel is a Modern Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue located at 540 West Melrose Street, in the Lakeview neighborhood on the north side of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States.
Synagogues may be considered "oldest" based on different criteria, and can be oldest in the sense of oldest surviving building, or oldest in the sense of oldest congregation. Some old synagogue buildings have been in continuous use as synagogues, while others have been converted to other purposes, and others, such as the Touro Synagogue, were shuttered for many decades. Some early established congregations have been in continuous existence, while other early congregations have ceased to exist.
The German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Mark is an historic former church and current synagogue building located at 323 East 6th Street between First and Second Avenues in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan, in New York City, New York, in the United States.
The East Village/Lower East Side Historic District in Lower Manhattan, New York City was created by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission on October 9, 2012. It encompasses 330 buildings, mostly in the East Village neighborhood, primarily along Second Avenue between East 2nd and 6th Streets, and along the side streets. Some of the buildings are located in a second area between First Avenue and Avenue A along East 6th and 7th Streets. The district is based on the one which had been proposed by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, with only minor changes, and is the result of a two-year effort to protect the area.
Alexander Saeltzer was a German-American architect active in New York City in the 1850s and 1860s. His work includes the Anshe Chesed Synagogue, Academy of Music, Theatre Francais, the Duncan, Sherman & Company building and the South Wing of the Romanesque revival structure at 425 Lafayette Street built between 1853 and 1881 as the Astor Library.
Historic Congregation B’nai Abraham is a synagogue located in the Society Hill section of Center City, Philadelphia. It is an active congregation with daily, Shabbat, and holy day services. B'nai Abraham is home to a Jewish Preschool, as well as Lubavitch of Center City.
Charles Street is a street in the West Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It runs east to west from Greenwich Avenue to West Street. The street was named after Charles Christopher Amos, who owned the parcel the street passed through. Amos is also the namesake of Christopher Street, two blocks to the south, and the former Amos Street, which is now West 10th Street. Charles Lane is a one-block alley located between Charles and Perry Streets and Washington and West Streets. From 1866 to 1936, the section of Charles Street between Bleecker Street and West 4th Street was called Van Ness Place after a farm, owned by the Van Ness family, which had occupied the square bounded by Bleecker, West 4th, Charles and Perry Streets until 1865.
The Shul of New York is a Jewish liberal non-denominational congregation and synagogue that is located within the Angel Orensanz Center, at 172 Norfolk Street, Lower East Side, Manhattan, New York City, New York, in the United States.