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9. erste lutowisker chevra (First Lutowisker Congregation) 262 Delancey Street (at Columbia Street) in the shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge, Joshua Huberland designed this simple unassuming 1960s brick shul for the Erste Lutowisker Chevra because an urban renewal project had displaced its predecessor shul, organized in 1895. Overthe years, this congregation has demonstrated the tenacity and strength typical of so many small Orthodox chevros. In the tradition of naming the congregation after its place of origin, the chevra had its origin in Lutowiska, a village east of Kraków, Poland—now within the borders of the Ukraine. When some of New York City’s great urban renewal projects of the 1950s and 1960s cleared blocks of deterioratingtenements ,thehugemulti-familyprojectsofMasaryk Towers and Baruch Houses arose in theirstead—primarily for low-income tenants. Situated amid those displaced tenements, on Columbia Street, was the then-diminutive Lutowisker Chevra, which was obliged to move to its present site in 1965 when theirprevious shul was demolished. Itwasnotuntil1971however,thatapermanentrabbiwas engaged, but it was worth the six-year delay, as the much respectedandinspiringRabbiShlomoZalmanHorowitzwas installed as spiritual leader. The venerable rabbi passed awayin1995,andwasreplacedbyhisgrandson,RabbiYosef TuviaHorowitz,aHasidicTalmudicScholarfromBrooklyn’s Boro Park, to carry on the work of his late grandfather. AlthoughtheLutowiskerShulisthemostrecenttobeerected 79 18317-Wolfe_Synagogues 9/24/12 12:05 PM Page 79 on the LowerEast Side, it has suffered from both the lack of essential maintenance and structural deficiencies that, fora time, threatened the survival of the chevra. With the necessary building repairs completed at almost the last minute, the congregation now continues to conduct its regular Hasidic services, maintain a nursery school, a library, and a study group. 80 the archive synagogues Erste Lutowisker Chevra exterior Poster on building 18317-Wolfe_Synagogues 9/24/12 12:05 PM Page 80 ...

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