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C. Young Israel Synagogue of Manhattan
- Fordham University Press
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c. young israel synagogue of manhattan (Former site: Machzikei Talmud Torah School [Supporters of Talmud Torah], Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society [HIAS] & The Algemeiner Journal) (Demolished and Potentially Awaiting Reconstruction) 225–231 East Broadway (between Clinton and Montgomery Streets) this is the only recent case ofvoluntarydemolition of a synagogue on the LowerEast Side with the intention of constructing a new residential building on the same site, which was supposed to house a new synagogue as well. The historyoftheformerbuildingisstronglylinkedwiththeJewish history of the Lower East Side. Initially, this section of East Broadway consisted of a row of grand mid-1830s Greek Revival residential row houses, which, over time, hosted three major Jewish organizations and an important Jewish journal. In 1883, with the arrival of waves of immigrant Jews, MachzikeiTalmudTorahSchool,organizedbyIsrael(Isidor) Rosenthal,acquiredthefour-storybrickbuildingat225East Broadway. The school was enlarged in 1891 with the purchase of the adjacent building at 227 East Broadway. This Talmud Torah instructed over 1,100 boys with yearly expenses of about $12,000 with German-Jewish donors such as Jacob H. Schiff who were very interested in reorienting Eastern European Jewish immigrant boys away from the old-fashioned cheder (Jewish day school), which the Reform Jewish community viewed as being too rooted in tradition. The “modern” curriculum comprised elementary Hebrew, the reading of the prayers, the translation of the Pentateuch (five books of Moses) into Yiddish and English, and the principles of the Jewish faith and practice. The time of study occupied only two hours perday, after 111 18317-Wolfe_Synagogues 9/24/12 12:05 PM Page 111 public-schoolhours,asallpupilswererequiredtoattendthe city schools forseculareducation. On January 22, 1905, the society opened a branch at 67 East 7th Street, to which Jacob H. Schiff donated $25,000. Schiff, a famous financier, was also strongly associated as a founderand donorof the Hebrew Free School Association andtheEducationalAllianceSettlementHouse.Inaddition, SchiffwasamajorsupporterofthenearbyHenryStreetSettlement , founded by Lillian Wald. In 1909, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) moved into the former Talmud Torah. This newly founded organization was created through the mergerof three preexisting groups: the VolinerZhitomirAid Society (founded circa 1894), which originally helped only those emigrants for the Ukrainian towns of Volin (Volyn) and Zhitomir; the JewishEmigrantProtectiveSociety(founded1881);andthe Hebrew Sheltering House Society (founded 1884). HIAS, as it is commonly called, is the nation’s oldest international migration and refugee settlement agency, and has rescued orresettled more than 4.5 million people since 1881. OfthecountlessrescuesperformedbyHIASwhileatthis address, one remains particularly poignant. On April 19, 1912, twenty immigrants who were rescued from the Titanic were brought from the ship Carpathia to HIAS. Five of the survivors were Jewish, while the rest were Christians and Muslims. Only those individuals traveling at great distances beyond New York were brought to HIAS, which helped restore the survivors to good health and then assisted them to theirdestinations. HIAS remained at its East Broadway address until 1921, when the organization moved to the former Astor Library —now The Public Theater, on Lafayette Street near Astor Place, a building coincidentally designed by Alexander Saeltzer, who designed the first Ansche Chesed on Norfolk Street (now Angel Orensanz Foundation). Today, HIAS is located on Seventh Avenue at 28th Street in the Manhattan neighborhood of Chelsea. In 1922, Young Israel moved into the space vacated by HIAS and subsequently acquired the adjacent addresses as the organization’s needs expanded. The synagogue became one of the fastest-growing congregations on the LowerEast Side with large family membership, daily and holiday prayer services, special young children’s services, classes in religious studies, noted lecturers, and even annual Jewish music concerts. The Young Israel movement was founded in 1912 by second-generation Americanized English-speaking Jews to encourage Orthodox traditions and practices among neighborhood youth. The “YI Movement”—as it is often called, laterbecame active on college campuses, in literary groups, and within other academic organizations. Considering themselves Americans, the men shaved their beards, attended mixed social dances, dressed in modern style, and listened to sermons in English, but nevertheless they were deeply committed to Orthodoxy. Among Young Israel’s majorgoalsexpoundedbyfoundersRabbiIsaacFriedlander and Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan, were to combat the wave of assimilation by Jews into a secular society and counteract theinfluenceofReformJudaism,fightcrimeamongmiddleclass Jews, and defeat the rise of “godless” socialism. The YIMovementwasalsodedicatedtoprovidingapositive,yet modernsynagogueexperiencetonewlyarrivedimmigrants. Young Israel of Manhattan was the first of many Young Israel congregations to follow. 112 the “lost” or endangered synagogues 18317-Wolfe_Synagogues 9/24/12 12:05 PM Page 112 [54.145.12.28] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 11:45 GMT) Young Israel had its genesis...