Amid the bustling Lower East Side, a place today with a millennial scene, gleaming glass buildings, and expensive cafes, the old remains, and in fact, finds ways to renew itself. The 132-year-old Eldridge Street Synagogue sits unpretentious in its presence. The structure is strong and commanding in a gentle way, inviting a long look and appreciation of the entrance and light brown pressed brick façade that faces west, with delicate, round arches and intricate rose window. If buildings had language, what would they say? The Eldridge Street Synagogue – now the Museum at Eldridge Street – might well say, “Come, I am here, as I have been for so long.”
In any era, this synagogue would be a place to be prized for its spiritual presence, storied history, incredible beauty, precious art, and significant architectural style and elements. It is even more so in this period of affirming the importance and role of immigrants in America. That this place has lasted as a worship space for generations of Jewish congregants is nothing short of a miracle of resilience.
The synagogue is a national and city historic landmark. When the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated the Eldridge Street Synagogue as a landmark almost 40 years ago, in July, 1980, the commission declared that the synagogue was “an impressive monument to the American immigrant experience…. [that] stands today as an enduring symbol of the Lower East Side during the last decades of the 19th century.” Moreover, today, it houses a museum that tells the stories of Jewish immigrant life through exhibits, tours, and programs, and fosters collaboration between people of all faiths and ethnic backgrounds.
This weekend, the Eldridge Street Synagogue will be open to the public as part of a fantastic annual event, the Sacred Sites Open House, on Saturday, May 18, and Sunday, May 19. Many congregations in New York City and State open their worship spaces and religious sites so that visitors can view and experience the history, culture, art, and architecture of these religious sites. The New York Landmarks Conservancy is presenting the 9th annual Open House in which the conservancy aims to broaden support for ongoing historic preservation; share the art, architecture, and history of these sites; and build awareness of the programs and services that religious institutions offer to their communities. Guided and self-guided tours, plus some special programs, are available at the sites.
As much as any goal, the Landmarks Conservancy views the weekend as a time for those in New York who tour sacred places around the world to know about and appreciate the spiritual sites within their own backyards. How many walk on the streets around the Eldridge Street Synagogue without knowing its rich, important history and magnificent interior?
The Eldridge Street Synagogue – the Museum at Eldridge Street
Built in 1886-1887, the Synagogue of Khal Adath Jeshurun with Anshe Lubz – more familiarly known as the Eldridge Street Synagogue – was the first and the finest house of worship that Orthodox Eastern European Jews built in the United States, according to the LPC. Two German immigrant brothers who were Roman Catholic, Peter and Francis William Herter, designed the synagogue, and the intent was to strongly proclaim its presence and to distinguish it from the tenement housing rising rabidly around the temple. They chose a combination of Moorish, Gothic, and Romanesque design styles and elements. The Herters later adapted various extravagant elements such as horseshoe-shaped arches and terra cotta forms into their tenements.
The years between the late 1800s, when the congregation was a prominent one, and the current day were by no means smooth and ensuring of the congregation’s and synagogue’s survival and, ultimately, renewal. The Jewish population fanned out to other boroughs of New York City. The passage of the rigid immigrant quota laws on a national level in 1924 brought a halt to the immigration of Eastern European Jews as well as other groups. The congregation dwindled, and in the early 1930s, sealed off the synagogue sanctuary.
Still, some kept its spirit was kept alive. A small group continued to hold Sabbath services in the lower level. In the 1980s, a group who cared about this treasure of a synagogue formed the nonsectarian Eldridge Street Project to save the building and, ultimately in 1996, secure national landmark status. They created a museum that would highlight the building’s significant immigrant experience, architectural magnificence, and heritage. To this day, a group of worshippers hold Sabbath and Jewish holiday services in the synagogue.
Spanning the Miles and Eras
This is the kind of spiritual importance and history one finds in the Sacred Sites Open House.
A glance at the Sacred Sites map shows the geographic reach and array of sacred places that will be open in the city and state. (The conservancy has a searchable list of sites, which one can filter by county, neighborhood, activity, date, etc.) In the Buffalo area sites is the Corpus Christi Church, a Romanesque Revival building constructed in the early 20th century to serve the rapidly growing Polish population. Noted Buffalo architects Karl Schmill and George Gould designed this church built of Onondaga limestone, with a façade of red Medina sandstone and two striking copper domes atop twin spires. Also, among the six sites in Buffalo open to the public is Temple Beth Zion, a 1967 neo-expressionist synagogue that noted architect Max Abramovitz designed. It is home to one of the oldest Reform congregations in the United States. Artist Ben Shahn created two stunning 40-foot-high stained-glass windows, the menorah, and the Ten Commandments tables.
The breadth of spiritual places is truly impressive. The map and listings outline 158 Sacred Sites in New York State that are open to the public during the weekend. Sixty-seven sites are open in New York City. They include: the Flushing Quaker Meeting House in Queens, built in 1694, the second oldest Quaker meeting house in the country; the 1885 Moslem Mosque in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where the open house will encompass a guided tour and a presentation from the Brooklyn Historical Society’s “Muslims in Brooklyn” project – a “listening party” of oral histories; and the Calvary Presbyterian Church in Staten Island, where visitors can take a self-guided tour of an 1894 Tudor Revival-style church.
Each sacred space has its own story of resilience and generational renewal. It is often a challenge, even a struggle, to maintain and consistently renew these historic spiritual sites. For an example, look no further than the Lower East Side, and the Eldridge Street Museum. The Museum completed a two-decade-plus restoration effort, supported ultimately by18,000 supporters. A lasting and crucial element of this work was the installation of a new eastern rose window, an artwork by artist Kiki Smith and architect Deborah Gans. A Star of David is at the center of the window, with five=pointed stars floating throughout a brilliantly bright sky-blue background.
Like the art, artifacts, architectural styles, and cultural and spiritual outreach of each of these sacred places, the window connects the old with the new, reflecting a continuance and meaning for the 21st century.
Nice to see you posting again. You’ve been silent for awhile. We’ve missed your comments over on the Pirates blog.
Hey there, Bob! Thank you so much! The Pirates and historic preservation, two of my passions. I vow to get back to the blog for the banter about our Bucs. Other work and some of life’s demand have taken some time, to be sure. Hope all is great with you!
I hope to see you back soon. I enjoy your articles about historic preservation although I profess to not knowing much about the history and architecture of NYC. I do like to learn about new things though so keep writing for idjits like me.
Ha ha, Bob! You aren’t giving yourself enough credit. And besides, I learn LOTS from your insights on the blog. If you make it up New York way, it would be fun to meet you and your wife in person. It does mean a lot to share the streets, neighborhoods, buildings, and environs of NYC and the Hudson Valley. I believe my own feeling for and love of spiritual places started with the comfort I felt as a child in the old St. Monica’s Catholic Church, growing up in Wampum. I see preservation as a living thing, from generation to generation, though it can be complicated.
Speaking of generation to generation, did you see the new book by author and architecture critic Paul Goldberger, Ballpark: Baseball in the American City, has just come out? Eager to see it!
Hi Susan,
Being a product of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, baptized at Transfiguration Church on Mott Street NYC, the Eldridge Street Synagogue was a part of my youth. The Lower East Side was and no doubt still is a wonderful example of immigrants making good in their adopted new country. The Lower East Side connected folks from Asia, Europe, Africa, and more.
I love your views on my beloved city and I always look forward to one of your “discoveries.” Any chance you might take a look-see at the Roman Catholic Church Transfiguration at 28 Mott Street, NYC? Also a New York City landmark. I have such wonderful memories of that church and schoolyard. My grandmother lived on the 5th floor of 32 Mott Street, and as children we could watch the Chinese New Year celebrations – where the dragon always danced in front of the Transfiguration schoolyard – fireworks cracking and wee little ones looking down from Nonni’s 5th floor apartment at all the festivities. Thanks for bringing my spirit back to my youth and the wonderful architecture of the Lower East Side.
Hi Kathy,
So great to see you here, too (like Bob)! Wow. In this passage, you have rendered perfectly such awesome memories and why these places mean so much in our neighborhoods and lives. I can picture the dragon dancing in the Chinese New Year festivities and all of you kids watching the fireworks cracking. Something else!
I looked up your Church from the nabe, and know of it from walking by. Your idea to take a look-see of it is excellent!
The Transfiguration online church calendar reflects your point about the welcome of continuing generations. I see listings for “Sunday readings” in Cantonese, Bible sharing in Mandarin, the Chinese Opera Club, and the Trans Youth Society. Does that not say so much?
I see from the church history that the English Lutherans first acquired the site and erected a church during the first decade of the 19th century. However, and you may well know this history, due to financial difficulties, this group transferred the church building to a group of Episcopalians. They consecrated it as Zion Protestant Episcopal Church in 1810, as the Transfiguration Church site explains.
Then, as the Episcopalians moved uptown, Right Rev. John Hughes, of the Roman Catholic Diocese of New York purchased the church and it became the Parish of the Transfiguration. Just want to share this with others, too.
What a great childhood memory you shared.
It is, indeed, a very historic parish and building, and it must have been something to grow up in this neighborhood of the Lower East Side. As I said, wow!
Susan.
Having moved back to Philly in 2017, I have come to realize how much I missed living in a melting pot city. Pittsburgh is a great city with its own melting pot of European “hunky” immigrant groups, but it doesn’t have the quite the same cultural immersion that you get in a city that has people from all continents and all cultures. I think that Philly has the third largest Chinatown in the U.S. behind NYC and San Francisco, and in addition there are large populations of Thais, Vietnamese, Cambodians, and indigenous African (non African Americans) peoples from more than 27 nations. There are also large populations of Mexican, Dominicans, and Puerto Ricans throughout. It’s like walking through the United Nations every day. It’s a precious experience that I wish that all who limit their approval of immigration to European countries could experience.
Well-said about the wish and hope for those who limit their approval of immigration to European countries and culture. We are living what the prior generations encountered and lived through in chapters of American history. I think, for one, of the Immigration Act of 1924 that limited immigration, set national origin quotas, and excluded immigration from Asia. We are seeing a similar reactionary effort, and I am heartened to see the resistance to it, though appalled by the treatment of families on the southern border.
It is worth noting that the word you cite about that historic culture in Pittsburgh was itself derived from an ethnic slur aimed at Poles, Hungarians, and other Central European immigrants who came and worked in the coal mines and mills. (I recall first hearing that as a child.) I know that new immigrants settle in Pittsburgh, and of course, the scale of Pittsburgh is far smaller than New York and Philadelphia. I love Philadelphia! And I can appreciate your observation of a daily experience akin to the U.N. Hearkening back to the article and Sacred Sites Open House, each year I have been struck by the tales of old and new generations in these buildings.
See, I learned a lot about Philly from you
I think that the tech, robotic and tech industries that have started to take serious root in Pittsburgh will eventually bring a different kind of diversity to Pittsburgh.
For most of the time that I lived in Pittsburgh proper (1996-2007), there were almost no Hispanic residents. I live in Bellevue and then in Beechview. Since I left I have heard that there is now a thriving community of Mexican immigrants in Beechview, including numerous ethnic restaurants and groceries along Broadway Avenue, and that right across Route 51 and up the hill in Brookline there is a similar growing mixed Indian and Central American community that is rapidly expanding.
I think that a lot of the hysterical overreaction to immigration is mostly due to a lack of exposure to people from different cultures and regions.
I was curious about your statement on the Hispanic population in Pittsburgh, Bob. Interesting. So I found a good series of articles in the Post-Gazette, “Unsettled in America,” which examined these issues. It stated that the Pittsburgh metro area has fewer Hispanics by far than any U.S. metro area its size or larger (35,730 Latinos in the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area as of 2015, the P-G reported, citing U.S. Census Bureau figures). The article also noted that this Hispanic population is growing (as you alluded to, and particularly with the Beechview neighborhood as well). Yes, the job market is definitely a key impetus as people see opportunities, and so that could well evolve.
This is a big reason I find looking at these worship spaces and congregations in prior times so fascinating and, in various cases, affirming. They helped the immigrants settle and flourish in their new country, albeit with the backlash and discrimination the immigrants faced so often. Think of it, and I was pretty astounded to read this from the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designation document on the Eldridge Street Synagogue: One third of all Eastern European Jewry transplanted to the U.S. in a generation and a half, during the last half of the 19th century. Many had dealt with discrimination and maltreatment in their home countries. So many were fleeing the pogroms.
Today, we have many asylum seekers escaping violence and difficulties in their home nations of Central America. America has been this beacon, as it was with those generations who established the historic temples, mosques, and churches that are part of this Sacred Sites weekend.
May we find out way again!
So I would estimate that Beechview and Brookline between them, have about 8,000 family-sized structures and could therefore house perhaps 32,000 – 40,000 people. Even if those neighborhoods become 100% Hispanic they would still only comprise about 8% of Pittsburgh’s overall population. Of course, they won’t become 100% Hispanic.
St. Catherine of Siena in Beechview has a Spanish language Mass at 12:30 on Sundays, and St. Pius X in Brookline has a Mass in Portuguese on Sundays at 6 p.m. to accommodate the Brazilian community. Like so many other faith communities, due to dwindling inter-city populations and a shortage of priests, these two parishes will soon be merged, but both worship sites will continue to be used.
Both sites offer CCD classes in Spanish, and St. Pius offers the classes in Portugese as well. [Church site] St. John Bosco Academy is the elementary school that serves both communities.
That is so impressive and indicative of a resilient and welcoming faith community, one that embraces diversity and renewal over generations. Thanks, Bob!
You’re welcome, Susan.
Oh my — you are amazing. No, Sue, I did not know the evolution of the building itself — Many hands, many lives, a true Transfiguration. Now, based on your research the name of my beloved church reflects its history so well. It has been years and years since I have been along Mott Street, but through your writings, I am right back along that long, and uniquely shaped street smelling the smells, hearing the voices of many dialects and knowing I learned about how we are all connected – not by language or skin tone, but a desire to be a part of – for many – a chance to begin anew.
Did you know that there was a funeral parlor, directly around the corner (down that hill) next to the bocce courts, along Mulberry Street called Bacigalupo’s. It is now a Chinese funeral home, but once was a bank. The interior of that small building is absolutely beautiful. It truly is a diamond in the rough. You may want to check it out. Charles and Katherine Bacigalupo were family friends of my father and grandmother. Most of my relatives when they passed were laid to rest from Bacigalupo. There are many jokes about Bacigalupo and songs were sung with that name, and when I tell people there really was a Bacigalupo’s, they look at me like I had three heads.
I know we are talking about the Synagogue and I recall as a young girl attending a service there. I loved the wood in that beautiful building. It is amazing how many gorgeous buildings there are nestled in that small area. One could spend a lifetime just on those streets alone. From the first Bowery Savings Bank to the wonderful Bell Yarn Store along Delancey Street to the bakeries along Canal Street, if they are still there, it truly was beautiful and very educational. (Sigh)