The Eldridge Street Synagogue is the first great house of worship built on the Lower East Side by East European Jews. From its opening in 1887, the building has been a symbol of the religious freedom and economic opportunity sought by so many immigrants to America. It is the most significant remaining marker of the huge Jewish community that flourished on New York's Lower East Side in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Today, it is an inspiration to visitors of all cultural backgrounds from around the city, nation and globe.
In recognition of the building's architectural magnificence and its role in the American immigrant experience, Eldridge Street was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996. Nearly lost to time, harsh weather, and limited use, the Eldridge Street Synagogue has been faithfully restored to its original evocative grandeur.
Glory Years
When completed in 1887, the grand synagogue was "reviewed" in the local press. Writers marveled at the imposing Moorish-style building, with its 70-foot-high vaulted ceiling, magnificent stained-glass rose windows, elaborate brass fixtures and hand-stenciled walls.
Thousands participated in religious services in the building's heyday, from its opening through the 1920s. On the High Holidays, police were stationed in the street to control the crowds. The diverse membership included artists Ben Shahn and William Gropper, performers Eddie Cantor, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson, and scientist Jonas Salk. Throughout these decades the Synagogue functioned not only as a house of worship but as an agency for acculturation, a place to welcome new Americans. Before the settlement houses were established and long afterward, poor people could come here to be fed, secure a loan, learn about job and housing opportunities, and make arrangements to care for the sick and the dying. The Synagogue was, in this sense, a mutual aid society.
To learn more about what was going on in the late 19th century at the time the Eldridge Street synagogue was founded, please click here.
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Years of Struggle
Membership began to dwindle as members moved to other parts of New York City and America, immigration quotas limited the number of new arrivals, and the Great Depression affected the congregants' fortunes. The exquisite main sanctuary was used less and less from the 1930s on. By the 1950s, with the rain leaking in and inner stairs unsound, the congregants cordoned off the area.
Without the resources needed to heat and maintain the main sanctuary, they chose to worship in a smaller chapel in the building's downstairs level. The upstairs sanctuary remained empty for twenty-five years, from approximately 1955 to 1980.
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The Rescue
In the late 1970s the building was in serious jeopardy. Then it came to the attention of NYU professor Gerard Wolfe, who led walking tours of the neighborhood and who was working on a book about Lower East Side synagogues. He rallied together a volunteer organization, the Friends of the Eldridge Street Synagogue, to rescue the historic house of worship. This dedicated group recognized the building's architectural distinction and its historic significance.
At this point the building was in a dire state of deterioration. The roof was virtually useless, the foundation had suffered severe structural damage, plaster and paint fell steadily, and one of two sets of interior stairs had collapsed. The Friends secured emergency funds from public and private sources. They began the process to secure landmark designations, and organized the emergency stabilization of the building's exterior, which was completed in 1984.
Once it became clear that the restoration would be a complex, protracted and multi-million-dollar endeavor, the not-for-profit, non-sectarian Eldridge Street Project was established to see it through.
Restoration & Renewal
By the end of 1987, the Synagogue's 100th anniversary, the Eldridge Street Project had raised funds to begin the first phase of construction. Work commenced in 1989.
During the 1990s the building's foundationwas excavated, reinforced and stabilized; the slate roof was restored and a skylightsystem was opened and refurbished; all of the windows were sealed with protectiveLexan; the exterior was repointed and made watertight; rotted and insect-infested structural members were removed and replaced; one staircase was rebuilt; six major stained glass windows were restored and reinstalled; one of seven rooftop finials was fabricated; and the building was pre-wired for the installation of modern systems.
The Eldridge Street Synagogue is now a New York City Landmark, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and, in 1996, was honored by the Federal government with National Historic Landmark designation, confirming that the Synagogue is a national treasure with meaning for all Americans.
Over a 20-year period the Project raised $20 million to restore the synagogue. The last phase of work entailed the restoration of the synagogue's beautiful aesthetic elements - luminous stained-glass windows, painted murals, and Victorian-era lighting fixtures. In December 2007, the Museum at Eldridge Street completed the synagogue restoration - also marking the 120th anniversary of the building's 1887 opening.
Tens of thousands of people of diverse cultural backgrounds will visit this year. They learn about architecture, about American-Jewish history, their own roots on the Lower East Side and the common bond of immigration that links so many Americans.
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