The Jewish Center - 131 West 86th Street

 

photograph by Jim Henderson

On April 1, 1916 the Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide reported on "a unique building operation which will be erected at 131-135 West 86th street.  The project will be known as the Jewish Center and will combine the features of a synagogue, settlement home, and social center."  The 29-year-old architect Louis Allen Abramson had been hired to design the six-story structure, which The Reform Advocate said, "will contain a synagogue, a library, gymnasium, kindergarten, public hall, roof garden, and class rooms for educational work.  The centre will be for young people particularly."  The article explained, "the building will be for the use not only of people of the west side, but also for organizations connected with west side synagogues which are not without adequate meeting rooms."

And then the trustees of the newly formed organization expanded their vision.  On January 26, 1917 The Sun reported that the building would rise eight stories.  "Former plans were for a six story building," said the article.  No doubt because funds were still being raised, the project went forward in two parts.  Abramson filed plans for a four-story structure in May 1917.

Abramsons's rendering depicted the building as it would appear after the second phase was completed.  Real Estate Record & Builders' Guide, February 23, 1918 (copyright expired)

The cornerstone was laid on August 4, 1917 "in the presence of 100 members and guests of the organization," according to The New York Times.  Among the speeches was one by Professor Mordecai M. Kaplan, who would be rabbi of the congregation.  He "said that the purpose of the organization was to encourage Jewish culture, thought, customs and social life," related the article.

The first stage was completed in the following year.  In February 1918, a month before the dedication, the Real Estate Record noted, "The new structure is now erected so as to include the cornice directly over the fourth story.  Provisions have been made so that in [the] future the superstructure may be added."  

1918 photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The article said "The facade of this structure has been designed in a severe early Italian Renaissance style and has been constructed of Indiana limestone and granite."  On the first floor were the lobby and Adam style auditorium (or "public hall").  The synagogue engulfed the third and part of the fourth floors.  The other half of the fourth floor held the library, trustees room, and a gallery.  Without further explanation, the Record & Guide said, "The synagogue is interesting in that it has a seating arrangement that is novel in the manner in which the sections for men and women are segregated."

The building formally opened on March 22, 1918 "with considerable formality,"  as described by The Sun.  Two days later it was dedicated.  The celebrations began at 10:30 on the morning of the 24th with "a children's festival, 'The Land of Aleph Bes,' a Jewish fairy play.'"  It had been written for the occasion by Samuel S. Grossman.  The article noted, "At 3:30 in the afternoon a number of distinguished rabbis and citizens will formally dedicate the structure."

The auditorium was the scene of the Zionist summer lecture course that year, run by the Intercollegiate Zionist Association.  The New York Herald reported on July 8, "These lectures will be delivered from two to five o'clock each afternoon on the problems arising out of the re-establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine and other aspects of Judaism."

As summer drew to an end, the organization announced that Jews without a permanent synagogue were welcomed to attend holiday services here.  An announcement in The American Jewish Chronicle on August 30, 1918 said in part:

The Jewish Center of 131 West 86th Street, a self-supporting social and religious center for the Jews of the neighborhood, has at its disposal a number of seats for non-members, who wish to worship in its synagogue on the coming High Holidays.

Those who will avail themselves of this offer will be made to feel perfectly at home, and will have an opportunity to become acquainted with the character and purposes of the Jewish Center which has recently been established.

On July 26, 1919 the Record & Guide reported that construction was about to start on the additional floors.  The total cost of both projects came to just over 7 million in 2023 dollars.  The journal said the addition would hold "gymnasium and exercise rooms, a natatorium and baths ("including steam and hot rooms, showers, etc."), and class and club rooms.

The Jewish Center became an important meeting venue and cultural space.  On October 24, 1920, for instance, The Brooklyn Standard Union reported on the annual meeting of the Jewish Welfare Board.  In addition to a memorial address on the passing of the former chairman, the article said, "It is also expected a moving picture of the welfare work of the board during the war will be presented."

And three months later, in January 1921, an exhibition of Jewish-Polish artists was held in the gallery.  Among the Committee of Hostesses for the event were women with some of the most recognizable surnames in the Jewish community, including Straus, Wertheim, Guggenheimer and Lewisohn.

Storm clouds had been forming over the Jewish Center at the time of that exhibition.  Rabbi Kaplan's reformist views on Judaism had shocked several of the trustees.  In their 1997 book A Modern Heretic and a Traditional Community -- Mordecai M. Kaplan, Orthodoxy, and American Judaism, Jeffrey S. Gurock and Jacob J. Schacter quote a letter Kaplan later wrote to Carl Hermann Voss.  He said in part, "the board of directors objected to my having published in the Menorah Journal of 1920 the fact that Judaism is in need of reconstruction."

In fact, the dissatisfaction went beyond that incident.  The New-York Tribune explained on December 29, 1921 that the disagreement within the trustees and the congregation had "developed over the non-orthodox views and teachings of Dr. Modecai Kaplan."  The problem stemmed from Kaplan's expressing doubt on the authenticity of parts of the Torah, or Old Testament.  A proponent of "progressive Judaism," he had proposed that the story of the tablets handed down to Moses at Mount Sinai and similar biblical narratives were "of a seemingly mythological nature."  The article added, "he is said to have advocated practical modifications of the dietary laws and other forms of procedure contained in the Jewish religious code."  

So severe were the tensions that Kaplan had voluntarily taken a leave of absence beginning in August that year.  "His term as rabbi expires next April," said the article.  When the center's treasurer, Arthur M. Lamport, was asked about the problem by a reporter from the New-York Tribune, he was purposely vague.  He urged that there "are no serious differences extant in the Jewish Center."  But he added that the reporter would not understand them, anyway, saying, "those that do exist are theological and therefore too profound for off-hand discussion."  Kaplan was replaced by Dr. Leo Jung, whose religious views were more in line with the trustees and congregation at large.

The center continued to be the venue for a variety of activities, meetings and lectures.   The Collegiate Committee of the Women's Branch of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America held a Chanukah party on December 2, 1923, for instance; and on November 20, 1925 Tax Commissioner Henry Payne spoke in the auditorium "The Influence of Theodore Roosevelt."  The following month The Menorah Journal hosted a dinner here.

The focus within the Jewish Center would soon turn to Europe, as the Nazi Party gained power.  On April 29, 1933, Rabbi Leo Jung took advantage of President's Day to compare President Franklin D. Roosevelt to Chancellor Adolph Hitler.  He said in part, "against the barbarous bigotry of Adolph Hitler" the President "stands, the ideal leader of his people, pointing by his own example the way toward the humanization of humanity."

Jung had just received a bizarre communication from Berlin dated March 25, 1933 from Rabbi Dr. Esra Munk.  It was either a forgery, sent by Nazi propagandists, or it was forced.  Quoted in Marc B. Shapiro's Between the Yeshiva World and Modern Orthodoxy, it said in part:

Reports, flagrantly in conflict with the facts, of atrocities against the Jews in Germany have caused me, with the full agreement of all my colleagues, to direct this appeal to you as a friend of long standing...imploring you to denounce, categorically and with the utmost emphasis, such reports as criminal, because they are contrary to the truth and monstrous exaggerations of the excesses of individuals during the elections.

Dr. Jung seems to have been unswayed by the suspicious letter and continued his vocal campaign against Nazism and anti-Semitism. 

Not all of the Jewish deaths during the war were the result of the monstrous actions within the Nazi concentration camps.  American soldiers fell in battle and the first from New Jersey to die in action at Pearl Harbor was Private First Class Louis Schleifer, an air mechanic.  On June 30, 1942 a memorial service for the young soldier was broadcast over radio from the auditorium of the Jewish Center.

In the third quarter of the 20th century outside groups were renting space in the building.  June Day Camp, Inc. operated here in the early 1970s, and in the 1980s the Performing Arts Repertory Theatre Foundation, Inc. had its headquarters here.  At the same time, the Aerobics West Fitness Club operated in the Jewish Center.  In June 1986 it titled an advertisement "Who says the meek shall inherit the earth" and promised, "At Aerobics West Fitness Club, we turn the meek into the sleek."  The advertisement ended with "As fate would have it, we're located in a temple."

The 21st century saw Manhattan Jewish Experience on the fourth floor.  Catering to adult students, it offered "a full schedule of basic courses for free, including the Monday Night Lounge, which includes a sushi dinner and interesting discussions of how current issues (sexuality, free will, business and medical ethics) relate to the ancient religious, followed by music and dessert," according to The Cheap Bastard's Guide to New York City in 2008.

Also operating from the building was PresenTense Group, which promoted itself in 2013 as "a largely volunteer-run community of innovators and entrepreneurs, thinkers and leaders, creators and educators, from around the world, who are investing their ideas and energy to revitalize the established Jewish community."

The Smith School, which caters to "students with a variety of learning and social-emotional needs," was in the building by 2010, and the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education occupied part of the 9th floor by 2019.

Importantly, the building continues to house a modern Orthodox synagogue (affectionately known by members as "the first Shul with a pool."  Few casual passersby would suppose that the handsome neo-Classical style structure is a synagogue.  And almost no one could guess that Louis Allen Abramson  purposely (and adroitly) designed it in two parts.

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Louis A. Abramson's 1926 210 West 78th Street

British actor Maurice Barrymore was a major star on the American stage.  Each of his three children, Lionel, Ethel and John, would go on to stellar careers, as well.  (As would his granddaughter, Drew Barrymore.)  Barrymore and his second wife, Mamie Floyd, lived in a three-story brownstone-fronted house at 210 West 78th Street at the turn of the last century.  

On March 28, 1901 Barrymore broke down during a performance, raging with emotional rants until he was taken off stage as the shocked audience looked on.   He was committed to Bellevue Hospital.  Soon thereafter, Mamie held an auction of the 78th Street house and its contents.

The Barrymore house and the three identical 18-foot wide homes at 206, 208 and 212 survived until 1925 when they were purchased to make was for a modern apartment building.  At the time a fascination with the neo-Tudor style was sweeping the country.  Anne Hathaway-ready cottages, suburban mansions, and even entire planned communities were being designed in the storybook style.  

Architect Louis Allen Abramson joined the trend in designing 210 West 78th Street with a castellated entrance and parapet, rough-faced Flemish bond brickwork, and charming half-timbering.  Completed in 1926, the structure rose nine stories plus a single-apartment penthouse unseen from the street.

The building filled with professionals like Henry Mendelson, president of the William Murray Coat Company, and physician Lewis G. Griffin.  One resident, however, seems to have been a bit shadier.

Oscar Holub, his wife, Sophia, and their 16-year old daughter were among the initial occupants.  Holub listed his profession as an automobile salesman but, in fact, he was in the "wholesale liquor business," as diplomatically worded by the Beacon, New York Daily Herald.   More directly put, he was a bootlegger.

He also seems to have been a philanderer.  On the night of December 14, 1926, shortly after moving into 210 West 78th Street, he was riding on the Albany Post Road outside of Fishkill, New York with a 27-year-old woman named Margaret Jackson.  His driver, Abraham Lato crashed the car, which flipped over, killing Holub instantly.  Lato and Margaret Jackson were taken to police headquarters.

Police found $9,000 in cash in Holub's pocketbook--the equivalent of $130,000 today.  Margaret quickly changed her identity to the recently widowed Margaret Holub.  As Coroner George Logan was taking her statement, another woman walked in, claiming to be Lena Holub--the actual widow.  The Daily News reported, "She claimed the body and the $9,000.  No sooner did the coroner set about the task of untangling the problem which the appearance of two women created than a third entered his office.  This one was Sophie Holub."

The Newburgh News reported, "The problem was too great for Coroner George Logan, and he has turned the money over to Surrogate Southard of Putnam County.  The women will have to argue their claims to court."  A reporter from the Daily News went to 210 West 78th Street, where the doorman confirmed Sophia's claim.

The tenant list during the 1930's included some fascinating figures.  Retired New York police detective Stephen J. Reardon was among them.   Because he had worked in the Theater District throughout his career, he was close friends with celebrities, like George M. Cohan.  Reardon's portrait by the well-known illustrator Harrison Fisher hung in his apartment here.

At the same time Paul N. Lazarus, Jr., advertising manager of Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc., and Robert A Simons, music critic of The New Yorker lived in the building; as did Julius Rosenberg, one of the owners of the American Rug and Carpet Co., his wife, Anna, and their son Thomas.

Anna Rosenberg drew much more attention than did her businessman husband.   The Jewish Telegraphic Agency called her "one of those highly efficient modern women of today."  Born in Budapest as Anna Lederer, she had been involved in politics since 1922 when she managed the campaign of Walter Hagan for a seat on the Board of Alderman.  She also managed the campaigns of State Senator James J. Buckley and Congressman Theodor A. Peyser.  In November 1934 she was appointed to succeed Nathan Straus, Jr. as the State National Recovery Administration Compliance Director.  

Aside from the untidy issue of Oscar Holub's bootlegging, there was only one instance of scandalous behavior within the building.  In 1933 Flo Brown and her "sweetheart," Jimmy Fredericks, moved into an apartment here.  Flo was known in Chinatown as Cokey Flo because of her drug habit.   Fredericks was the reputed general manager of gangster Charles "Lucky" Luciano.  Flo retained her previous apartment on West End Avenue and operated her business from both locations.

On May 23, 1936 the Daily News reported, "A powerful chain of disorderly houses for the retailing of counterfeit love was the dream which Charles (Lucky) Luciano, Public Enemy No. 1, set out to make a reality here.  He outlined his ambition before a gathering of his lieutenants and their girl friends in a smoke-filled Chinatown restaurant, one of his feminine party companions testified dramatically yesterday."

That woman was Flo Brown.  The newspaper said, "Cokey Flo's nerves twitched for lack of the drugs she has used for five years, but she held the stand all day and proved by far the most important witness yet called."

Flo was asked about the West End Avenue and 210 West 78th Street apartments:

"They were both houses of prostitution, were they not?"

"Yes."

"And were they both five dollar places?"

"No, by that time I had lowered the price to three."

Understandably, Flo Brown and Jimmy Fredericks were no longer residents in 1937.

More upstanding tenants throughout the next decades were dentist Aaron Hirschenbaum; Edward A. Lipton and his wife, Blanche; and attorney-CPA Samuel Yamin.  The residents' comfortable lifestyles were reflected in Lipton's mentioning in 1956, "During the winter I live at 210 West 78th Street," suggesting a country home.

The building was converted to co-ops in 1981.  In 1990 architect Andrew Tesoro purchased the nondescript, 400-square-foot penthouse apartment which sat upon the roof almost like an afterthought.  He wisely negotiated the air rights into the purchase.  He enlarged the one-floor space to a two-story structure with a sloping A-frame style copper roof.  The triangular shape created a third-floor attic, what Tesoro described to The New York Times journalist Barbara Whitaker as a "kind of treehouse bedroom for my niece and godson."  The quirky and delightful structure can be spied from street level at the precise angle across Amsterdam Avenue.

Tesero was also responsible for the the sidewalk outside the building.  Rather than using imitation bluestone as was common, the co-op board chose a lighter, limestone color.  On October 5, 1997 The New York Times architectural columnist Christopher Gray reported that Tesero "also put in 11 decorative tiles--nine-inch terra cotta colored squares he salvaged from a remodeling job at the 1907 Hendrik Hudson apartment house, at 110th Street and Riverside Drive."

Externally, Louis A. Abramson's charming neo-Tudor fantasy is utterly unchanged since 1926 when the first well-to-do residents moved in.

photographs by the author

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The B'nai Jeshurun Community Center -- 270 West 89th Street

In 1926, nine years after Congregation B’nai Jeshurun relocated to West 88^th Street, it purchased the three four-story houses at Nos. 266, 268 and 270 West 89^th Street.  The plots were directly behind the impressive synagogue building, and The New York Times, on May 25, noted “The Congregation contemplates erecting a nine-story community centre building, which will be used in connection with the Synagogue in the rear.”

The Congregation was formed in 1825 when a faction broke from the Congregation Shearith Israel (in Manhattan since 1654).  It moved repeatedly until completing its Moorish Revival synagogue in 1918.   If some New Yorkers found its hulking facade somewhat foreboding, they would find the Community Center much more so.

Architect Henry Beaumont Herts received the commission to design the structure.  While he signed his name to the plans, his associate, Louis Allen Abramson is given the credit for its design.  Faced in dark brown Roman brick and trimmed in variegated stone, the fortress-like structure might be seen as more menacing than welcoming.

The architects’ design included several unique and fascinating elements.  Just below the stone cornice five gigantic flowers projected, cannon-like, above the paired openings.  The windows of the third and fourth floors were joined vertically by stonework reminiscent of Florentine balconies.  But most unusual of all was the treatment above the two entrances.  Here rows of disconnected Gothic arches hung like stalactites, prompting the AIA Guide to New York City to say that the building “drools ‘Moorish’ tentacles from its entry cornice.”

The dripping ornament over the entrances is unique.  Note the carved panels within the entrance and the fasces motif along the perimeter.

While the exterior of the Herts and Abramson structure hinted at dungeons and cells within; such was not the case.  The interiors were lavishly decorated in period styles.  The staircase hall was Elizabethan Revival, with oak paneling and carved newels and balusters.  The Reception Room picked up the Moorish theme, with an arched entry and intricately-carved ceiling.  Other rooms included the auditorium, classrooms, a ballroom, club rooms and a salon and library for women.

Wurts Bros. photographed the building in 1928, shortly after completion.  from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

The Community Center was multi-functional.  Funerals, weddings and musical programs, among other events, were held here over the decades.  And it was the scene of lectures, discussions and meetings regarding political, social and religious topics.  They most often dealt with the hot-button issues of the day.

On February 27, 1930, for instance, Louis Lipsky, President of the Zionist Organization of America, addressed the first open forum of the West Side Zionist District here.  His topic was “The Arab Problem, Dr. Magnes and the British.”  A month later a lecture and discussion on “The American Palestine Settlers” was held.

The Elizabethan Revival staircase hall featured a handsome stained glass window on the landing.  photo by Wurts Bros. from the collection of the Museum of the City of New York

Three years later American Jews would turn their focus from Palestine to Germany.  On January 30, 1933 Adolph Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany and soon after the Nazi Party began eliminating political opposition.    As nervousness and fear grew, the Rev. Dr. Everett R. Clinchy, director of the National Conference of Jews and Christians, addressed 400 women of the Sisterhood of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun at a luncheon in the Community Center on October 17.

Clinchy did not blame the Germans, but Hitler, and stressed “the nations of the world must adopt a generous and tolerant attitude toward Germany that she may rid herself of the leaders who control the picture.”  Another speaker that afternoon, Bernard S. Deutsch, rather surprisingly partially blamed the Nazi rise on Jews.  The New York Times reported “Dr. Deutsch denounced the German Jewish industrialists who, he said, afraid of the ‘bugagboo of communism,’ supplied ‘the ammunition which paved the way for the ascendancy of Hitler.’”

The following week, on October 29, delegates from 50 synagogues throughout New York City assembled in the Community Center to discuss the Nazi problem.  They resolved to carry out a boycott of German goods, and to appeal to New York shopkeepers to “remove goods of German make from their shelves and to substitute American-made products.”  Once again, reason was called for.  Jacob Weinstein, who had been an advisor to Jewish students at Columbia University, stressed the importance that “no innocent German storekeeper in this country suffers from the boycott movement.”  He told the assemblage “It must be made clear that we are not being vindictive, but that only by making the program of German anti-Semitism untenable can we end the persecution of our co-religionists.”

Louis Abramson stepped away from the Moorish Revival theme of the Reception Room by adding stylish Art Deco chandeliers, seen here in 1930.  from A Century of Judaism in New York: B'nai Jeshurun 1825-1925

In the meantime, the Community Center continued to be an important cultural spot on the Upper West Side.  On December 9 that year an “operatic bill” was offered; and on March 26, 1934 Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera was performed.

Zionism and Nazism were sensitive and heated issues.  They collided in the Community Center on December 2, 1937 when a debate was held by the Men’s Club between Supreme Court Justice Joseph M. Proskauer and author Maurice Samuel.

Proskauer spoke first, saying he was against the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.  He explained “that such a political division with its political military and diplomatic status was bound in the long run to be harmful to Jews in other parts of the world, especially in Europe.”

In his rebuttal, Samuel said a Jewish home in Palestine would not increase anti-Semitism and, in fact, it was the “moral privilege” of Jews to support the cause.  He then took a shot at Justice Proskauer saying “there were some [Jews] who were willing to compromise with Hitlerism.” 

That ended the debate.

Proskauer stormed off the stage and left the building, later saying he resented the implication.  Maurice Samuel simply told the audience “He can dish it out, but he can’t take it.”

The fears of the Jewish community concerning Adolph Hitler’s growing program of hatred were realized on November 9, 1938--the first of two days of terror that would become known as Kristallnacht.  At least nine Jewish people were murdered, 30,000 were arrested, and more than 7,000 Jewish businesses were damaged or destroyed.  Synagogues were burnt to the ground.  The New York Times reported on the horror saying “No foreign propagandist bent upon blackening Germany before the world could outdo the tale of burnings and beatings, of blackguardly assaults on defenseless and innocent people, which disgraced that country yesterday.”

The regime offered Jewish Germans one way out—an offer that would not last long.  They could leave the country on the condition that they left their wealth behind in the form of “taxes” and “contributions.” 

On December 17, 1938 Rabbi Israel Goldstein railed against the proposal from the dais in the Community Center.  He said it “is on the same level with a kidnapper’s ransom” and called Germany “the gangster among the governments of the world today.”

Throughout the rest of the 20^th century the Community Center would continue to serve the congregation and the neighborhood.   Operas were still held here through the 1940s and The Abraham Joshua Heschel School was established in the building in 1983. 

The school was named for the theologian who walked alongside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march in 1965; and of whom literary critic Edward Rothstein said in 2007 “no modern Jewish thinker has had as profound an effect on other faiths as Heschel has.”   In 2007 the school began construction of a new facility on West End Avenue, eventually leaving West 89^th Street.

In the meantime, famed preservation architect Giorgio Cavaglieri worked on a restoration of the Community Center building in the last years of the 20^th century.  Perhaps best known for his work on the Jefferson Market Library in Greenwich Village, he brought the aging structure back to its 1928 appearance.  

photographs by the author