Former Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Ungarn

History and architecture

This small, classical revival style synagogue building is a fine and rare surviving example of the numerous small synagogues that were constructed during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. During this period, hundreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants came to the United States to escape persecution and to achieve a better life, creating in New York the second largest Jewish community in the world.

The newcomers developed vital community and religious organizations for support, especially synagogues, and they were often organized by people who came from the same place. Many small congregations met in rented rooms or used existing church buildings; only the more established and wealthy groups could build their own buildings. This synagogue was constructed by a Hungarian congregation, the Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Anshe Ungarn, or the Great House of Study of the People of Hungary.

Formed in 1883, they had outgrown several previous sites before constructing this building. It was designed by the New York architectural firm of Gross & Kleinberger in 1908 and is a two-story dressed stone structure designed in the then popular classical revival style. The architects used the common synagogue arrangement of three symmetrical bays across the front, but created a highly refined, sophisticated design using applied engaged pilasters and a denticulated pediment and cornices. Over the years, the community on the Lower East Side changed, with many people moving away from the neighborhood, and most of the small synagogues were converted to other uses or demolished.

This congregation held on to this building until 1975 and it was converted to residential use in 1985. It is an elegant reminder of the vibrant Jewish community that once filled the streets of New York’s Lower East Side.