Eldridge Street Synagogue

History and architecture

The Synagogue of Khal Adath Jeshurun with Anshe Lubz, more familiarly known as the Eldridge Street Synagogue, was the first and finest synagogue erected on the Lower East Side by the Orthodox East European Ashkenazic Jews. Now an impressive monument to the American Immigrant experience, it was built in 1886-87 by the architectural firm of Herter brothers and stands today as an enduring symbol of the Lower East Side as it thrived during the last decades of the 19th century. The imposing pressed brick and terra-cotta facade features elements of Moorish, Gothic, and Romanesque design, a combination which later would be used frequently by the Herter Brothers in their numerous designs for tenements in the Lower East Side.

Although the early history of the congregation remains obscure, it is known that Khal Adath Jeshurun was the result of the union of two Ashkenazic congregations; Beth Hamedrash and Holche Josher Wizaner .

Established in 1852, Beth Hamedrash had quickly become the most important center of Orthodox Jewish guidance in America. Under the tutelage of Russian-educated Rabbi Joseph Ash, the congregation trained Jewish scholars who were then in much demand throughout the country. In 1856 the growing congregation bought an old Welsh chapel at 78 Allen Street where they remained until the synagogue was built on Eldridge Street.

Typical of the mergers and divisions which characterized ;the Jewish community in the mid-nineteenth century, Beth Hamedrash was reduced in number and prominence by the secession of two splinter groups, the most crucial departure being led by Rabbi Ash in 1859. Ash established a rival congregation named Beth Hamedrash Kagodol which, in 1885, purchased a Baptist church at 60 Norfolk Street and transformed it into what is now the oldest Orthodox Ashkenazic house of worship in New York City. The partnership of the remaining members of Beth Hamedrash and Holche Josher Wizaner, which ultimately became Khal Adath Jeshurun, could have been formed as early as 1884, although it did not exist as a legal entity until 1890, three years after their synagogue was built. A small congregation of Polish Jews, Anshe Lubz, joined with Khal Adath Jeshurun shortly after the/dedication of the new synagogue.

There were many benefits to be reaped from such a union. A mass immigration during the last half of the 19th century transplanted one third of all East European Jewry to the United States in a generation and a half. In 1847 there were 13,000 Jews in New York City, by 1890 there were more than 200,000, Because of social and language differences, conflicts over cemeteries, and minor ritual, changes, numerous congregations were formed by small groups of immigrants and usually met in rented rooms or halls. With the influx of East European Ashkenazic Jews into the Lower East Side, the middle-class population of German Jews and the remainder of the Sephardita who had arrived in America in the early decades of the 19th century, began to move uptown to the "nicer neighborhoods."

The German Jews considered themselves far more cosmopolitan and more successfully integrated into New York society than the newly arrived immigrants. They had also begun to accept a less traditional„ reformed style of Judaism, The consolidation of Beth Hamedrash and Holche Josher Wizaner into Khal Adath Jeshurun resulted in a larger, stronger congregation which was conceptually united in its opposition to Reformed, or Americanized Judaism.

A further consideration for their merger may have been the congregation's position in its own Orthodox community of the Lower East Side. There was much competition among the sixty extant synagogues in 1880 to be awarded the prized title of "Jewish Community of New York. Furthermore, there was a strong movement in favor of designating a Chief Rabbi for the entire Orthodox community, with each congregation naturally desiring to have its own rabbi so honored.