Park East Synagogue

History and architecture

Unlike most congregations which were formed by groups of Jews of Similar national origin, Zichron Ephraim founded because of the personal convictions of Rabbi Bernard Drachman (1861-1945), and his father-in-law, Jonas Weil (1837-1917). Drachman was convinced of the importance of adapting Orthodox practice to American lifestyles without making the sacrifices of tradition that he saw as characteristic of Reform practice. He saw himself as a crusader for the protection of "the content of the Jewish heritage from the well-nigh overwhelming forces of disintegration with which it was surrounded.

American born, Drachman was educated at Columbia College, but received his theological training in Germany at the moderate Orthodox Juctisch- Theologisches Seminar at Breslau and at the University of Heidelberg. Upon his return to the United States he was appointed Rabbi at Congregation Oheb Sholom in Newark, New Jersey, a position he held for a year. Early in 1887 he was elected Rabbi of Beth Israel Bikkur Cholem, a congregation with a newly-opened synagogue at Lexington Avenue and 72nd Street.

The congregation, founded originally by Polish Jews in 1847 on the Lower East Side, was Orthodox, but soon some of its members began to agitate for changes, most particularly the seating of men and women together in the synagogue. Drachman was adamantly opposed to this change and stood firmly against it. When the congregation voted to adopt the change he painfully resigned his position rather than compromise his convictions. TMIa dramatic gesture caused quite a stir throughout the Jewish community.

Drachman was supported in his action by Jonas Weil, whose daughter he had married earlier that year. Weil had immigrated to New York from his native Baden in 1860 and amassed a fortune in the real estate business in partnership with his brother-in-law Bernard Mayer. He was already prominent as a philanthropist to Jewish causes, and was later to found the Lebanon Hospital in the Bronx. Drachman had met the Weil family at Congregation Adeth Israel on East 57th Street where they both worshipped, and found Weil sympathetic to his concern for protecting Orthodox tradition.

They were both founding members of the Orthodox-sponsored Jewish Theological Seminary in 1886. Drachman was for many years a member of its faculty and a spokesman for the principles of an American Orthodoxy, distinguished from its European counterpart principally by its use of English in the service and its emphasis on religious instruction for the young. In both of these respects, Congregation Zichron Epraim was to be a pioneer in American Judaism.