The 1927 Park Avenue Synagogue - 50 East 87th Street

 

On June 5, 1926, The Reform Advocate began an article saying, "'There are considerably fewer Synagogues in New York today than there were forty years ago, although the number of Jews here has increased greatly,' Dr. Stephen S. Wise, rabbi of the Free Synagogue, said last Sunday at the laying of the cornerstone of the new Park Avenue Synagogue, 50 East Eighty-seventh Street."  Ground for the structure had been broken a year earlier and construction would be completed in 1927.

The congregation had its roots in the immediate neighborhood, having been founded in 1882 as Temple Gates of Hope, known familiarly as the Eighty-Sixth Street Temple.  In 1896 the congregation merged with Congregation Agudat Yesharim, and in 1920 joined with the Seventy-Second Street Temple.  The congregation's name became the Park Avenue Synagogue in 1923.

The architectural firm of Deutsch & Schneider received the commission, with Walter S. Schneider taking the lead.  Although the Gothic style had been avoided in Jewish ecclesiastical architecture for decades because it was so favored in Christian churches, Schneider gave subtle Gothic touches to his Moorish design--like the noticeably pointed main arch.

Faced in cast stone, the facade was dominated by that triple-height arch, within which three entrances stood above a broad stone staircase.  The upper hem of the arch was emblazoned with the inscription that translates to "I Love Your Temple Abode, The Dwelling-Place of Your Glory."  A handsome, blind arcade of engaged columns ran below the gabled roofline.  

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

The magnificent new shul had not come cheaply.  The New York Times reported on September 18, 1926, "The building is being erected at a cost of $280,000, while the land is worth $240,000."  The combined costs would equal about $8.6 million in 2023.   It opened in 1927 with an auditorium capable of accommodating 1,200 worshipers.

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

The seating capacity was insufficient for those wishing to attend the funeral of attorney Maurice Bloch on December 8, 1929.  One of the shul's most prominent members, he had been the Democratic minority leader in the State Assembly.  The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported, "Before and during the services in the temple, a crowd of several thousand persons stood in the street outside, completely filling Eighty-seventh Street from Madison to Park Avenue.  A detail of 120 patrolmen, besides the regular motorcycle escort, was necessary to marshall [sic] the throng."

The Troy Times said, "Two thousand persons crowded into the Park Avenue Synagogue and thousands more, unable to gain entrance, stood reverently in the streets outside."  The New York Evening Post added, "Governor Roosevelt, former Governor Alfred E. Smith, Mayor Walker, Senator Robert F. Wagner and Acting Governor Herbert H. Lehman were among the honorary pallbearers at the funeral."  The eulogy was delivered by Rabbi Stephen Wise, who had also been a close friend of Bloch.

It was most likely after much discussion that the congregation changed from Reform Judaism to Conservative in the early Depression years.  It was a response to the shul's merger with other congregations composed of many Eastern European Jews.

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

On May 27, 1934, Senator Royal S. Copeland addressed Jewish war veterans here.  The New York Sun said he, "appealed to them to enlist in the battle that the police are making to exterminate the 'traitors of the government which has given them the protection of its laws.'"  At the time, another threat was brewing across the ocean.

That threat had become exceedingly clear by November 19, 1937 when The New York Sun reported, "Dr. Joachim Prinz, former Berlin rabbi, who fled Germany last year, will be the guest speaker at the 8:15 o'clock service tonight at the Park Avenue Synagogue...The subject of his talk will be 'Why Hitler Is Not Overthrown.'"

The horrors of the Nazis left little trace of what had been thriving Jewish communities.  Following World War II, British Jews discovered sacred relics in the ruins of synagogues--Torah scrolls, ceremonial objects, and prayer books, for example.  Edward F. Bergman, in his 2001 The Spiritual Traveler, writes:

At the front of the sanctuary of Park Avenue Synagogue, a case holds Torah scroll Number 375, written by a scribe at the end of the eighteenth century and treasured at the synagogue in Horazodvice, Czechoslovakia, until the synagogue was destroyed and its members killed in 1942.  A tablet beneath the scroll quotes Deuteronomy 25:17, "Remember what Amalek did unto thee..."  Amalek harried the Jews as they left Egypt under Moses, and he represents all evil men.

With the war's end, the congregation turned to happier things.  In 1942 Cantor David J. Putterman established an annual tradition of highlighting works by contemporary composers.  

On March 3, 1946, for instance, The New York Sun reported, "Cantor David J. Putterman will present a Service of Liturgical Music by Contemporary Composers at the Park Avenue Synagogue next Friday." 

The following year, on April 28, 1945, The New York Sun announced, "Cantor David J. Putterman will present new compositions by thirteen contemporary composers" on May 11; and on April 29, 1947, The New York Times reported, "Nine composers have written works especially for the fifth annual Sabbath eve service of liturgical music by contemporary composers that will be presented on Friday night by the Park Avenue Synagogue."  The article noted, "Cantor David J. Putterman will be in charge of the program, which will be performed by the synagogue choir and the Hebrew Art Singers."  Over the years composers like Leonard Bernstein, Morton Gould, Darius Milhaud and Lukas Foss wrote music for services here.

Dr. Milton Steinberg had been rabbi of the Park Avenue Synagogue since 1933.  The scholar was the author of A Partisan Guide to the Jewish Problem, As a Driven Leaf (a philosophical novel), The Making of a Modern Jew, and Basic Judaism.  He was, as well, a member of the editorial board of The Reconstructionist, and contributed articles on Jewish problems and issues to various periodicals.  He died on March 20, 1950 at the age of 46.

An addition to the synagogue was erected in Rabbi Steinberg's memory, known as the Milton Steinberg House.  Designed by Kelly & Gruzen, it featured an extraordinary stained glass wall designed by Adolph Gottlieb.  On August 30, 1954, syndicated columnist Meyer Berger wrote, "The report last week that artisans were putting up an all-stained-glass facade at the Steinberg house, 50 East Eighty-seventh Street, led some people to wonder where stained-glass workers were to be found in mid-twentieth-century New York."  The article said Otto W. Heinigke had been working with stained glass since 1890.  The building was opened on September 19, 1954, its completed facade consisting of 91 Gottlieb-designed panels.

Steinberg House.  from the collection of the Gottlieb Foundation

The 75th anniversary of the congregation was celebrated on March 31, 1957 in an striking display of religious unity.  The New York Times reported, "Protestants, Roman Catholics and Jews paid tribute yesterday to the Park Avenue synagogue, 50 East Eighty-seventh Street."  The article continued, "Delegations from neighboring Presbyterian, Baptist, Unitarian and Catholic churches were scattered through the congregation, as well as representatives from several New York synagogues."

On May 28, 1965, former President Dwight D. Eisenhower worshiped with the congregation on the 20th anniversary of the liberation of concentration camps by troops under his command.  

A moving address was made here on December 5, 1994 when the Rev. Jesse Jackson condemned what he termed the "repressive" California anti-immigrant initiative.  The state's Proposition 187 denied education to children of undocumented immigrants.  Newsday reported, "He told the crowd that if it was wrong for America to turn its back on a boatload of Jewish refugees in 1939, and to round up 120,000 Japanese-Americans during World War II, and to turn back Haitian boat people in 1991, 'then it is racist and wrong to deprive Latino children of an education and health service in 1994.'"

Regrettably, in 1980 the unique Milton Steinberg House was dismantled.  Some of the panels were preserved and reused as clerestory windows in the replacement structure.

According to Edward F. Bergman, the Park Avenue Synagogue "is New York's largest and one of its leading Conservative synagogues."  

photographs by the author

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The Lost Unity Synagogue - 130-132 West 79th Street

 

photograph by Wurts Bros. from The Architect, November 1928.

The synagogue of Congregation Peni-El, incorporated in 1906, stood at 527 West 147th Street.  Two decades after its formation, as the character of Harlem underwent change, its members were moving to the Upper West Side.  In response, in May 1927, the congregation acquired vintage structures on West 79th Street, including the quirky Bonheur Studio buildings.  The following month, architect Walter S. Schneider filed plans for a new synagogue.  In July, Peni-El merged with Mt. Zion Congregation, which was also located in Harlem.  The combination resulted in Unity Synagogue.  

On August 13, 1927, the New York Evening Post reported that the structure would include "an auditorium seating 2,000 people, with a combination platform and stage, which can be utilized for lectures, cinema productions and theatrical performances."  Walter S. Schneider's design was a medley of styles.  "The temple is to be a combination of Persian, Byzantine and Coptic architectural forms and ornamentation," said the article.

The façade would be clad in buff and brown stone, its design dominated by a massive stained glass window above the entrance.  Schneider originally planned to crown the full-height, tower-like piers on either side with "large ornamental dome[s]...mounted by large copper minarets, to be illuminated at night by flood lights."  That plan was later scaled down.

On May 13, 1928, as construction neared completion, around 1,000 people filed into the auditorium for the consecration of the cornerstone.  Among the speakers was Attorney General Albert Ottinger, who commented on the "striking beauty" of the new temple.  The New York Times reported, "The synagogue, he said, was more than a monument of stone and proved that the Jew was devoted to the highest ideals of mankind."

Construction was completed in September 1928.  On September 7 The New York Times reported, "The edifice cost more than $800,000 and when the parish house is completed it will bring the total cost to about $1,000,000."  The total outlay would equal about 15 times that much today.

The New York Evening Post described the auditorium as being "surmounted by [a] large ornamental dome, pierced with decorative grilles in ornamental plaster."  The platform of the altar and ark were "of marble and mosaic."  The journalist said, "Practically the entire illumination of the auditorium will be from concealed sources."  The building included a small memorial chapel for smaller services, a "spacious study for the ministers," a meeting room and the superintendent's living quarters.  In the basement was a Sunday school for up to 400 children and the kitchen.

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

Among the speakers at the opening on September 7, 1928 was Mayor James Walker.  He said in part, "Some people are trampling on each other in an effort to get to Heaven.  they act as if they thought there were not enough seats there for everybody."  But, he insisted, "Religion will be preached here, and understanding, not strife and hate.  No word of bigotry will come from this pulpit and no sensationalism and scandal will be heard here."

The formal dedication of the structure would not come for another seven months, in April 1929.  Later that year the congregation received an impressive gift.  On November 1 the New York Evening Post reported, "At a special good-will service to be held this evening in Unity Synagogue...America's Good-Will Union will present an American flag donated by John D. Rockefeller, Jr.  Mayor Walker will deliver the principal address."

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

The enormous cost of Unity Synagogue's opulent temple was its undoing.  Six months after the official dedication, the Stock Market crashed, initiating the Great Depression.  Unity Synagogue was forced to place sell building at auction in September 1930.  It was purchased by Mount Neboh Congregation, which re-dedicated it in October.  Founded in 1907, like Peni-El and Mt. Zion, it had worshiped in Harlem, on West 150 Street.

On May 17, 1935 Mount Neboh Congregation installed its new rabbi, Abraham L. Feinberg.  The new leader had a colorful past.  Feinberg had been assistant rabbi at Temple Israel until 1930, when he resigned to pursue an operatic career.  He received a scholarship to the Julliard School of Music, and then studied at the American Conservatory in Paris.  Upon returning to America, he performed under the name of Anthony Frome, making his radio debut in 1932.  He gave his last radio performance on April 7, 1935, one month before returning to religious life with Mount Neboh Congregation.

Feinberg, as Anthony Frome, posed for a publicity shot.  original source unknown

Rabbi Feinberg was fiery and opinionated, The New York Times decades later saying, "He was always ready to march, lend his name or send a telegram if there was a protest for disarmament or for a treaty on a nuclear test ban, or against racism in South Africa, radical injustice in America and United States policy in Vietnam."  But Vietnam and nuclear tests were far in the future.  A more imminent threat was rising in Europe.

On May 20, 1938, he warned his congregation "if Japan absorbs China, the entire political and economic balance of the world will tip toward tyranny."  He recommended that the United States should help China both financially and with the sale of arms.  "If china wins," he said, "a bulwark will be established against the 'holy alliance' of Japan, Germany and Italy, the onward course of dictatorship will be checked, and new hope will be inspired."

Later that year, in November, he made a tour on the Pacific Coast to raise funds for the aid of German Jews.  He telegraphed his sermons to Mount Neboh Congregation where they were read from the pulpit.  His words, read on November 18, 1938, were clear concerning the urgency of the situation.  He said in part:

The Christian outcry against Nazi brutality strengthens more than ever the ages-old Jewish faith in the final triumph of the best in man over the beast in man...While Hitler makes hatred the basic policy of a powerful Government and inflames one race against another, the world of religion has been reconciled and closes its ranks together for the preservation of human decency.

The 36-year-old rabbi left Mount Neboh Congregation in December that year, after accepting an offer from Temple Emanuel in Denver, Colorado.  His resignation ended a short but distinctive period in the congregation's history.

Rabbi Feinberg had initiated a tradition, however, that continued under his successor, Rabbi Samuel M. Segal.  That was the annual memorial service for fallen policemen.  Each year a procession of 300 policemen marched from the 68th Street Police Station to Mount Neboh Congregation.  Rabbi Segal shared Feinberg's passionate feelings about Nazism, and took advantage of the memorial service on November 24, 1940 to decry Hitler.

"This is not a Jewish war," he told the assembled policemen.  "The Jewish people do not seek war."  The New York Times reported, "Dr. Segal declared that the tragedy of Hitler's rise to world power was that the West did not realize his war was not only against the Jews, but against democracy itself."

Rabbi Samuel M. Segal stepped down in 1961.  Over the next decade the membership waned and the once-prosperous congregation developed financial problems.  In 1979 the building was sold to The Corporation of Seventh Day Adventists.  The group resold it just two years later, to developer Alexander Edelman.

On January 12, 1982 the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building an individual landmark, calling it "one of the important synagogue buildings on Manhattan's Upper West Side" and praising Schneider's design as "distinctive."

But exactly one year to the day later, the LPC voted to allow Edelman to demolish the landmarked structure.  The New York Times explained the designation "had caused the owner a financial hardship that could be relieved only by allowing the demolition of the building."  Ironically, a spokesperson for the Landmarks Preservation Commission, Dorothy Marie Miner, stressed that the landmark status had not been rescinded.  "It will be, until the end, a designated landmark."  The commission's chairman, Kent L. Barwick, added, "It is unfortunate, but ultimately only fair, that we now issue this notice to proceed."

In place of Walter S. Schneider's "distinctive" and "important" synagogue structure Edelman erected a 19-story apartment building, The Austin.

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