Portal:Judaism

Beth Hamedrash Hagadol is an Orthodox congregation that was, for over 120 years, located in a historic synagogue building at 60–64 Norfolk Street in Manhattan, New York, on the Lower East Side. It was the first Eastern European congregation founded in New York City and the oldest Orthodox Russian Jewish congregation in the United States. Founded in 1852 by Rabbi Abraham Ash as Beth Hamedrash, it split in 1859, with the rabbi and the bulk of the members renaming their congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagadol. Rabbi Jacob Joseph, the first and only Chief Rabbi of New York City, led the congregation from 1888 to 1902 . The congregation's building, a Gothic Revival structure built in 1850 and purchased in 1885, was one of the largest synagogues on the Lower East Side, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. In the late twentieth century the congregation dwindled and was unable to maintain the building, which had been damaged by storms. Despite funding and grants, the structure was critically endangered. As of 2008^[update] the Lower East Side Conservancy was trying to raise an estimated $4.5 million for repairs, with the intent of converting it to an educational center. (Read more...)

Did you know...

• ... that the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes (pictured), site of Willy Brandt's Warschauer Kniefall in 1970, was made from labradorite intended to be used in monuments in Nazi Germany?
• ... that the Chaim Potok novel The Book of Lights is based on Potok's exposure to non-Jewish religions as a military chaplain in Korea and Japan?
• ... that Polish Jewish resistance fighter Vladka Meed was a central source of the 2001 television movie Uprising?
• ... that most Russian-speakers in the United States are Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union?

The Zagreb Synagogue was the main place of worship for the Jewish community of Zagreb in modern-day Croatia, from its construction in 1867 in the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia within the Austrian Empire, until its demolition by the fascist authorities in 1941 in the Axis-aligned Independent State of Croatia.

The Moorish Revival synagogue was located on modern-day Praška Street and has been the only purpose-built Jewish house of worship in the history of the city. It was one of the city's most prominent public buildings, as well as one of the most esteemed examples of synagogue architecture in the region.

Since the 1980s, plans have been made to rebuild the synagogue in its original location, but due to various political circumstances, very limited progress has been made. The current major disagreements which inhibit the construction of a new synagogue concern the involvement of Jewish organizations in the reconstruction and the design and character of the new building. (Read more...)

• Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the Commonwealth and member of the House of Lords, dies (7 November 2020)
• The Pittsburgher Rebbe, Mordechai Yissachar Ber Leifer dies of COVID-19
• A peace agreement is reached between Israel and the UAE (13 August 2020)
• Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz dies, editor of the Steinsaltz Talmud (7 August 2020)

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