Kehila Kadosha Janina Synagogue

History and architecture

The Kehila Kadosha Janina Synagogue was constructed in 1926-27 for a small group of Romaniote Jews who had emigrated from the town of Ioannina in northwestern Greece. They had begun moving to the United States in 1905 and established a small community on New York’s Lower East Side, alongside numerous other recent Jewish immigrants. Adhering to neither the Ashkenazy nor the Sephardic traditions, this group came with their own religious and social customs developed in Greece over the course of many centuries.

In New York, they established their own synagogue, first meeting in rented quarters, until they were able to construct their own building. The Kehila Kadosha Janina synagogue, designed by architect Sydney Daub, is a two-story, brick-faced structure embellished with symbolic ornament, such as Tablets of the Law, Stars of David and a cusped arch, suggestive of the middle-eastern origin of the congregation. As the only surviving Romaniote synagogue in the Western hemisphere, Kehila Kadosha Janina continues to have an active congregation, despite its small numbers, with few members living nearby.