Revived, Re-Opened, Newly Appreciated

Headnote

«The majestic Eldridge Street Synagogue, in Lower Manhattan, made a statement when built in 1887. It still does, as it opens again.»

Asynagogue is frequently a passageway in our lives. We may grow up in one, experience notable events in it, and then travel on.

In time, the community which created the institution may relocate or wither; the building may be abandoned, recycled, or torn down.

In either case - and both of these are familiar to American Jews - the synagogue of one period of our lives is all-too-frequently left behind during later periods. There is memory of, and sometimes gratitude for, the time spent in its sanctuary. Yet it is still a passageway which may disappear during life's journeys.

This, however, has not been the case of one Lower Manhattan New York City synagogue, which, remarkably, was not only revived and re-opened last month, but finally publicly appreciated for its historic role in the life of American Jews.

Congregation Kahal Adath Jeshurun with Anshe Lubz - known by that variously-spelled name and as the Eldridge Street Synagogue had been hanging on by a thread for more than 50 years when it first attracted the attention of a preservationist-minded university professor. The glory days of that Lower East Side Orthodox institution were long behind it.

During all of its 120 years of existence, the Eldridge Street shul had no famed members associated with it, and was involved in no singular events. But it was unique, in two ways.

First, there is the grand building itself, which stands out to this day with its Gothic, Romanesque and Moorish elements.

It was erected by a congregation which dates to 1852, and was opened (at a cost of $19,000 after only a year of construction) for Rosh Hashanah 1887.

Its magnificence was a statement.

It said that Eastern European Jews - who began reaching America's shores in droves in the early 1880s during the third (and greatest) wave of Jewish immigration to this country had arrived.

They could build buildings with the best of America's immigrant population.

It was unique, secondly, in that its congregation represented a new force in American Jewish life.