Enjoying the Neighborhood's Past and Present

 

Lori Weissman, who has served the Conservancy for six years, always begins her tours with a joke. She repeats the story of the time when she was giving a tour with her husband, Paul Weissman, another Conservancy tour guide, and told the group that she married into the neighborhood, but he was born and raised on the Lower East Side. It seemed that Paul was "insulted" after he heard her remark. He said that chickens are raised, but he was reared on the Lower East Side.





 

 

Conservancy's first Bus and Walking tour
Highlights Harlem's Jewish Past

From 1870 to 1930, there was a vital Jewish community and many grand synagogues in Harlem. In 2009, interest in the Jewish community of Harlem remains vital. After the LESJC's first-ever bus and walking tour of "Jewish Harlem" was announced earlier this spring, interest in attending was so strong that the tour was presented twice, on May 17th and June 21st to accommodate demand. 
 
"Harlem was once the second largest Jewish community in the United States," said Yeshiva University History Professor Jeffrey S. Gurock, who led the tour. "In 1917, there were more than 175,000 Jews in the remarkable urban settlement of Harlem."

Between 1870 and approximately 1920, Harlem's Jews, Italians, Germans, and Irish outnumbered the uptown black population. Three generations of Jews lived uptown and were not only Harlem's largest ethnic group during this time, they comprised the second largest immigrant Jewish community in the United States. From the 1880s until the beginning of World War I, Harlem was the third largest Jewish community in the world. Only the Lower East Side and Krakow, Poland had more Jewish residents.
 
"Harlem was only Jewish for a brief period of time, but it was a significant time in Harlem's history," Dr. Gurock explained. "Both socially and spiritually, Jewish Harlem was a booming place."
 
At the turn of the century, there were nearly 150 synagogues in Northern Manhattan, according to the Jewish Communal Register, and Harlem was undergoing a rapid transformation during this time.
 
In 1921, Congress passed a law limiting the influx of Eastern European immigrants into the United States. Many of Harlem's wealthy Jewish families moved to the Upper West Side. Other Jews relocated to working class neighborhoods in The Bronx and Brooklyn. By 1930, Jewish Harlem had disappeared.
 
"Jews with money wanted to move up the economic ladder," Dr. Gurock commented. "As the Upper West Side grew and developed, it became the new place to be."
 
Although many of the neighborhood's synagogues have been turned into churches, a few traces of Jewish Harlem remain. Every Sunday, tourists attend church services throughout Harlem to hear Gospel music - little realizing that they are often sitting in the women's balconies of former Orthodox Jewish synagogues.
 
Tour participants marveled at the exteriors of several of the renowned synagogues of Harlem's Jewish past. They walked by the former home of Temple Israel of Harlem, presently the Mount Olivet Baptist Church. The church is housed in one of the City's most noted synagogues of the early 20th century German-Jewish Community. Built in the Neo-Roman style, today's congregation maintains the building in exemplary condition. The interior of this former synagogue is nearly entirely intact.
 
The Jewish Harlem tour included a congregation that originally met at 38 Henry Street on the Lower East Side, Congregation Shaare Zedek, which is presently the Bethel Way of the Cross Church of Christ. Founded in 1837 by Polish Jews, Congregation Shaare Zedek, with its distinctive Moorish design, is the third oldest synagogue in New York City.

In addition, the synagogue of the beloved cantor Josef "Yossele" Rosenblatt, Congregation Ohab Zedek, was another highlight of the tour. It is presently the Baptist Temple Church. In this enormous synagogue, a Hungarian group that came from the Lower East Side thrilled worshipers by hiring the Ukrainian-born cantor and composer, Yossele Rosenblatt, who sang there during the era of 1910-1920s. He was and remains renowned for his extraordinary technique, the sweetness of his timbre, and his unique ability to transition from his typical voice to falsetto with hardly any noticeable break.

 

Included in the tour was a monument to American Jewry: Harlem's Institutional Synagogue on 116th Street. In 1917, Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein established the Institutional Synagogue in a concerted effort to address the needs of a young Jewish audience. His dream was to reinforce the synagogue as the center of Jewish communal life - integrating the sanctuary, study and social halls, and a gymnasium - all within an Orthodox Jewish atmosphere. It was nicknamed "the shul with a pool." Today, the congregation is located at 170 West 76th Street, and the Harlem building houses the Salvation and Deliverance Church. The former Mount Morris Theater, where Rabbi Goldstein held popular youth rallies, was also viewed.

Among the other sacred sites and famous landmarks discussed during the "Jewish Harlem" tour was the former Uptown Talmud Torah.

The Harlem Talmud Torah and the Harlem Hebrew Institute merged as the Uptown Talmud Torah. Harlem's Uptown Talmud Torah served more than 1,700 students weekly. The building that once housed the Uptown Talmud Torah is now home to the Greater Highway Deliverance Temple.

 

"I don't think Jews made an enduring mark on Harlem, but Harlem made a mark on Jews," Dr. Gurock observed. "It was one of the first times that Eastern European Jews began living as American Jews outside of the downtown enclave."
 
The Jewish Harlem tour was led by a distinguished scholar. Jeffrey S. Gurock, Ph.D., is the Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University. In 1979, Dr. Gurock published the classic text, "When Harlem Was Jewish: 1870-1930."  He is the author or editor of fourteen books, served as associate editor of American Jewish History, and was the former chair of the Academic Council of the American Jewish Historical Society. Dr. Gurock is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy.
 
"Because the interest in Jewish Harlem among our tour participants was so high, we are planning to continue to offer this tour," said Laurie Tobias Cohen, Executive Director of the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy. "'Jewish Harlem' is a fascinating tour, and an interesting aspect of New York's historical and cultural diversity. It reflects the Conservancy's primary programming goal of creating unique touring experiences."