List of New York City Synagogues Now Updated!

The Museum's list of mostly defunct synagogues that once stood in Manhattan proper has been widely updated. It now includes information on synagogues from fifteen city directories, ranging from 1869 to 1933. Hopefully more will be added in the future.

The synagogue list is being presented to you in the form of an address directory, i.e. the listing is sorted first by building address, and when available, the names of the synagogue president, the rabbi, cantor and sexton. You can find this updated list by clicking here.

Synagogues of New York City Update

Within the next few weeks the Museum of Family History's Education and Research Center will be updating its Manhattan webpage for its "Synagogues of New York City" exhibition. I now have copies of the synagogue listings from thirteen more Manhattan City directories. This will be a great addition to the current page which only represents a portion of all the synagogues that once existed on the island of Manhattan.

The synagogues to be added are listed in the directories starting in 1869 and go to 1933-4.

What's helpful on these lists -- besides the synagogue name and its address at the time the directory was printed-- is that often times the rabbi, president, reader and sexton of the synagogue are listed.

I have amended the way I present this particular list, so that it is an "address directory", so to speak, so it will be most helpful if you knew at least the street on which the synagogue once stood. Of course, you can always do a search on the page for any keyword you choose.

I will notify those of you who follow my blog once the webpage is updated, though as I've said, it might take a few weeks or so. To see the current lists of New York City synagogues, click here.

Updated list of New York City Synagogues

The Museum's list of synagogues once found within the borough of Manhattan, New York, has now been updated with an additional one hundred and seventy new entries. With this healthy number of additions, the list now includes the names of more than eight-hundred Manhattan synagogues.

This new synagogue information comes from Trow's New York City 1905-6 city directory, and this, in addition to the prior list (taken from another source, date unknown, but later than 1905-6), makes for a nice compilation of synagogue names and addresses.

The city directory from 1905-6 lists, from time to time, the names of the synagogue president, rabbi, sexton and the occasional cantor.

Most of the synagogues added to this list once stood on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

When it can be discerned, the town association of a synagogue is listed too, as well as its street address.

To visit the page of Manhattan synagogue names, please click here.

Kristallnacht and the Destruction of the Polish Jews, 1939-43

A powerful film of nearly thirty-four minutes about the time of Kristallnacht and later, between 1928-43 in Poland, when destruction rained down upon the Jewish people.

In this film you will see a combination of archival film and roving scans of still photographs that give one a jarring view of this period.

Included within this film one can see pictures of many Polish synagogues, both interior and exterior; those synagogues that were still relatively intact before their destruction, and those who were destroyed or were in the process of being razed to the ground.

Tomek lists the following towns and their synagogues that are represented in his film. I can't vouch for the fact that each are represented, but it is most likely:

Lodź, Lodz-Litzmanstadt, Białystok, Zambrów, Wieruszów, Markuszów, Koło, Bychów, Biłgoraj, Lubaczów, Lubieszów, Tarnów, Luboml, Biała Podlaska, Jordanów, Częstochowa, Przemyśl, Żółkiew, Grajewo, Grodno, Mława, Równo, Łęczyca, Łaszczów,Tomaszów Lubelski,Knysyn, Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Jonawa, Połock and Czyżew. The link to this film can be found at the very top of the Tomek Wisniewski list.

Be sure to stick around until the very end of the film past the scrolling Polish-language text as the English version of the text will follow.

The Synagogues of Egypt

For those of you who would like to see a small number of black and white photographs of three Cairo synagogues and one in Alexandria, Egypt, you may now do so within one of the Museum's synagogue exhibitions.

The synagogues in question are the Eliyahu HaNavi synagogue in Alexandria; the Haim Cappoussi Synagogue, the Ben Ezra Synagogue and the Sha'ar Hashamayim Synagogoue in Cairo. Also featured with these photos is a photo of a synagogue in Mozambique.

Within the Museum of Family History's Synagogue photo collection you may see many photographs of synagogues, both past and present, from Europe, Asia and Africa.

If you have other synagogue photographs from outside North America and would like to send them to the Museum for inclusion, please send them to postmaster@museumoffamilyhistory.com .

The Synagogue of Lubaczów, Poland

A magnificent synagogue, built in the eighteenth century and rebuilt in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, the Lubaczów Synagogue was burned down by the Germans between 12 and 15 September 1939. Used in this newest film of Tomek Wisniewski, "The Synagogue of Lubaczów", were photographs taken by German soldiers.

Lubaczów today is located in southeast Poland and was once part of Galicia/the Austrian Empire (until 1918 when Poland was declared an independent state.) At that time Lubaczów became part of an independent Poland.

The film is set to music and is less than ten minutes long. It is composed of slow scans of both the interior and exterior of the synagogue and its surrounds.

You can find the link to the film on the Museum's Tomek Wisniewski Film Series page. The films are listed alphabetically by town association.

More Synagogue and Holocaust Memorial Photographs from Europe

The Museum has added to its evergrowing exhibitions of European synagogue and Holocaust memorial photographs.

New synagogue photos have been added for the following countries and towns:

--Austria: Kobersdorf (Kabold).
--Croatia: Varazdin.
--Germany: Dresden.
--Hungary: Esztergom, Gyongyos, Gyor, Gyula, Hajdúböszörmény, Keszthely, Kisvarda, Mad, Mako, Miskolc, Nyiregyhaza, Pecs, Siklos, Sopron, Tapolca, Tata, Tiszafured and Zalaegerszeg.
--Poland: Krakow, Tarnogrod, Tarnow and Wrzesnia.
--Romania: Targu-Mures.
--Slovakia: Samorin.
--Ukraine: Brody, Kamyanka Buzka and Vylok.

You can find these photos by visiting the particular country synagogue page. Just click here.

New Holocaust memorial photographs have been added from:

--Hungary: Budapest and Kunmadaras.
--Poland: Deblin, Kielce, Kozienice, Krakow, Lodz, Opole, Piotrkow Trybunalski, Przemysl, Radomsko, Rzeszow, Sochaczew, Tarnow, Warszawa and Wrzesnia.
--Ukraine: Rogatyn.

You can find these and all the other exhibition's collection of Holocaust memorial photos by clicking here.

More such photographs are always welcome. You may send jpegs to the Museum at steve@museumoffamilyhistory.com. Please identify the photographs, e.g. country and town where they are located, name of the synagogue, and any other information you think is relevant.

The Jewish New Synagogue of Harbin, China

You can now view a number of photographs of the Jewish New Synagogue of Harbin, China. It used to be the largest synagogue in Northeast China, but it hasn't be used as such since the Jews left Harbin in the 1950s. Built in 1921, it served as both a synagogue and library and has within the past number of years been renovated. Harbin used to have the largest Jewish population in the Far East.

The Harbin photos can be found at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/ce/jasia/jasia-02c-china-harbin.htm.

More Photos of the Synagogues of Europe

Many more photographs of the synagogues of Europe (now close to six hundred in all), both from sometime before World War II and of the recent past, can now be found within the Museum's exhibition. "Synagogues of Europe..." which arguably has the largest number of synagogue photos from Europe online.

More photographs will be added along the way as time permits. Recent photos added to this collection are of Polish synagogues from Przeymyl, Slupsk, Bydgoszcz, Bielsko Biala, Wlodawa, Lesko, Krakow, Szydlow, Inowroclaw, Pinczow, Kielce, Ostrow Wielkopolski, Gliwice, Wroclaw, Konskie, Lodz, Lublin, Lowicz, Piotrkow Trybunalski, Porozow and Opole.

Also from the Ukraine: Berehove, Uzhhorod, Mukacheve, Vylok; also a synagogue in Sveksna in Lithuania, Budapest and Szeged in Hungary, and Subotica in today's Serbia. You can now also see new webpages created for synagogues in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Slovenia and Portugal. The main page for this exhibition can be found at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/s/mfh-syn-europe.htm. More synagogue photos are always welcome.

What Was it Like to Attend Services in an East Side Synagogue in 1905?

So, maybe you've wondered what it was like to attend religious services at a Lower East Side synagogue at the start of the twentieth century?? The Museum has already given you so many glimpses into Jewish life on the Lower East Side, this is but another for you to read about and learn about, and an important one at that.

You can certainly form a visual impression of these services by reading the Museum's 25th article within its "Lower East Side of New York" series entitled "Impressive Services in Synagogues of the Ghetto."

Especially mentioned here is the Chaari Zedek Synagogue and their cantor, A. Minkowsky (who had arrived not long ago from Odessa). Also mentioned in this article is a synagogue on Forsyth Street (probably the Kol Israel Ansche Poland synagogue), Kahal Adath Jeshurun (on Eldridge Street), and two locations where many poor Russian Jews would go to pray, the Henry Street Synagogue and the People's Synagogue, the latter of which was sponsored by the Educational Alliance.

Enjoy!

You can access this article by clicking here.

The Jews of Asia: Synagogues and Memorials

In the beginnings of this new exhibition at the Museum of Family History entitled "The Jews of Asia," you will over time find a myriad of subject matter that might be of interest to you.

As many of you know, the Asian continent is quite large, with a population of approximately four billion people. Many of you also may know that the population of Jews who live in Asia today is relatively small, yet, in the first half of the twentieth century many Jews immigrated there to escape their lives in Europe for any of a number of reasons.

The Museum will be presenting to you various aspects of Jewish life in Asia, from various perspectives, predominantly historical.

The Museum's first offering to you is an exhibition subsection entitled "Synagogues and Memorials." This offering is yet incomplete, but nevertheless what is available to you now will be worth visiting if only for a few minutes. Currently you can see photographs taken in the 1990s and 2000s in the following locations: Hong Kong and Shanghai, China; Bombay (Mumbai) and Cochin (Kochi) in India; Rangoon (Yangon) in Burma (Myanmar), Singapore and Istanbul, Turkey (i.e. the Asian side of the Bosphorus).

More synagogue and memorial photos will be added over time, along with other relevant information. Of course, if you've visited any such sites not currently included within this exhibition and have photos, video of such sites, please consider contacting me at steve@museumoffamilyhistory.com.

Also in the works are historical accounts--some first-hand accounts--of Jewish life in Asia, and when such material is ready for your perusal, it will be announced on this Museum of Family History blog.

The link to the aforementioned exhibition is www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/ce/jasia/jasia.htm

The Lost Synagogues of Europe

Imagine that the Museum of Family History was made of "brick and mortar" (as opposed to existing solely in cyberspace, which it does). A "promenade" exists on its upper floor through which you can take a stroll while viewing various artwork exhibitions, both created by Jewish artists and pertaining to Jewish themes.

Now you can visit the Museum's "Art Gallery on the Promenade." Currently on exhibit are gouaches (on watercolor paper) of fourteen former European synagogues. The synagogues represented in this exhibition once stood in the following locations:

Germany: Aachen, Baden-Baden, Bielefeld, Bochum, Breslau (now Wroclaw), Bruchsal, Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland), Essen and Konigsberg (now Kalinigrad, Russia).

Netherlands: Amsterdam.

Poland: Katowice.

Slovakia: Bratislava.

Ukraine: Belz, Chernivtski (Czernowitz).

There is a plaque next to each gouache which gives information about the history of the particular synagogue.
The Museum thanks artist Andrea Strongwater for her willingness to display her attractive artwork on the Museum's "Promenade."
You can access this at www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/prom-lse.htm. Just click on the "enter" link on this page to see the full exhibition of her works.

Also please visit the Museum's other exhibition entitled "The Synagogues of Europe" where you can see photographs or postcards of dozens of former European synagogues from eighteen different countries. The photographs are organized first by country and then by town. The link for this exhibition is www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/mfh-syn-europe.htm.