The 1887 Synagogue is the first great house of worship built on the Lower East Side by Eastern European Jews. From its opening, the Eldridge Street Synagogue 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 from the 1850's to the 1940's. Today, it is an inspiration to all those who visit and experience its beauty, rich history and soul. In recognition of the building's architectural magnificence and its role in the American immigrant experience, the Eldridge Street Synagogue was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996.

The Eldridge Street Project was founded by local residents, urban historians and preservationists, who joined together to rescue the building, then in a dire state of deterioration from neglect and water damage and to spearhead a major restoration effort.

To date approximately half of an estimated $15 million Completion Campaign has been raised and applied to building improvements and we anticipated completing the Synagogue restoration by the beginning of 2007. The Synagogue is stable and secure, and a master plan has been prepared to guide the restoration. Current work includes the installation of new heating, air-conditioning and ventilation systems to protect the building, as well as access for disabled visitors. A final phase will restore the paint finishes, stained-glass windows, and other aesthetic elements.

Alongside this major restoration effort, the Eldridge Street Project has opened the Synagogue to the public, offering tours, lectures, concerts, readings, festivals, family events, and other special programs that interpret the history of the landmark Synagogue and its immigrant neighborhood. More than 20,000 people, representing diverse cultural and religious backgrounds, visit the building each year. They learn about architecture, about American-Jewish history, about their own roots on the Lower East Side and about the common bond of immigration that links so many Americans.

By the 1880s their ranks were bolstered by the great waves of immigrants who fled the violent pogroms of Europe. Fearing for their lives and property, they sought a new life in America and arrived daily on the Lower East Side. Many of the original congregants had prospered by this time, and so it became possible to leave behind several temporary shuls for a large synagogue building of their own.

Both Sephardic and German Jews, who preceded the Eastern Europeans in America, had already established their own synagogues. Eldridge Street was the first synagogue built to be a synagogue by Jews from Eastern Europe.

The Synagogue's Glory Years
When completed in 1887, the Eldridge Street 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 -- so many that, on High Holidays, police were stationed in the street to control the crowds. The diverse membership of K'hal Adath Jeshurun exemplified the immigrant spirit, the resilience, artistry and accomplishments of first generation Americans. The artists Ben Shahn and Max Gropper, the performers Eddie Cantor, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson, and scientist Jonas Salk were among those who attended Eldridge Street in the early decades of this century.

Throughout the years the Synagogue functioned not only as a house of worship but as an agency for acculturation. Before the settlement houses were established and long afterward, the Synagogue was a place where poor people could secure a loan, hungry people would be fed, job opportunities were publicized, and arrangements were made to care for the sick and the dying. It was, in this sense, a mutual aid society.

Years of Struggle
For fifty years, the Synagogue flourished. Then membership began to dwindle as immigration laws changed, members moved to other parts of New York City and America, and the Great Depression affected the congregants' fortunes. The exquisite main sanctuary was used less and less during the 1930s, and was abandoned some time in the mid-1950s.

The space remained empty for nearly thirty years, from approximately 1950 to 1980. Without the resources needed to heat and maintain the sanctuary, the congregants chose to worship downstairs, as they do today, in the more intimate house of study ("Beth Hamedrash"). By the 1960s, with the rain leaking in and the inner stairs unsound, the congregants cordoned off the sanctuary.

The Rescue
In the late 1970s, when the Synagogue building was in serious jeopardy, it came to the attention of an NYU professor who led walking tours of the neighborhood. He rallied together a volunteer organization, the Friends of the Eldridge Street Synagogue, to rescue the historic Synagogue. This dedicated group recognized the building's architectural distinction and its significance for American Jews.

The building was at this point in a dire state of deterioration. The roof was virtually useless in stopping rain and roosting pigeons, the foundation had suffered severe structural damage, plaster and paint fell steadily, and one of two sets of 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. The Eldridge Street Project, Inc. was established shortly thereafter.

About the Restoration
By the end of 1987, the Synagogue's 100th anniversary, the Eldridge Street Project had raised $1.5 million to begin the first phase of construction. A Historic Structures Report prepared by architect Giorgio Cavaglieri was the basis for the phase one rescue and stabilization effort. Work commenced in 1989. At that time the Project closed the Synagogue building to the public for two years and arranged a space for the small congregation to convene in the synagogue and thus continue their unbroken chain of worship there. Offices and public program functions moved to a rented space half a block away.

The building's foundation has now been excavated, reinforced and stabilized; all of the windows have been sealed with protective Lexan; the exterior has been made watertight; all rotten and insect-infested structural members have been removed and replaced; one of the stairways has been rebuilt; six major stained glass windows have been restored and reinstalled; the building has been fully pre-wired for the installation of new electrical and HVAC systems; the Beth Hamedrash has been plastered and painted; new offices and a gallery space have been created.

In 1991, a restoration Master Plan was completed by the firm of Robert Meadows, Architects. This comprehensive document provides the blueprint and philosophy for restoration work from this point on. The next phase of restoration work will make the once endangered Synagogue fully functional. Once the roof and skylight system are restored, and new heating and ventilation systems are in place, work on the aesthetic elements will proceed systematically.

Work proceeds when funds are in place to complete in their entirety one or more of the discrete phases outlined in the Master Plan.

The Eldridge Street Synagogue is a New York City Landmark, is on the National Register of Historic Places, and, in 1996, was honored by the Federal government with National Historic Landmark status. This new status acknowledges that the Synagogue is a national treasure with historical significance for all Americans.

Twenty five years later, a local effort was initiated to rescue the building, then in a dire state of deterioration from neglect and water damage. The not-for-profit Eldridge Street Project was incorporated in 1986 to spearhead the restoration. To date, approximately one-third of an estimated $10 million capital campaign has been raised and applied to building improvements. The Synagogue is now stable and secure. Against tremendous odds, the Eldridge Street Congregation (known as K'hal Adath Jeshurun with Anshe Lubz) has survived, not missing a Sabbath or holiday service in over 110 years.

The Congregation meets for services in the Beth Hamedrash downstairs every Sabbath and on Jewish Festival days. Continuing the traditions of Eldridge Street's founders, the Congregation observes Orthodox practice. Congregants do not ride or carry objects on Shabbat, and there is separate seating for men and women.

An Aging Synagogue Propels a Philanthropist on a Quest for Identity

With a $1 Million City Grant, Project at Eldridge Street Shul Sparks a Battle Over Church-State Separation

For years, Roberta Brandes Gratz, the product of an "over-assimilated" family, grew up with barely a semblance of Jewish identity. Coming of age in Greenwich Village, Ms. Gratz had virtually no connection to the vibrant Jewish history of the Lower East Side, a mere 15-minute walk away.

But one of her life's defining moments came in 1986 when her friend, attorney Bill Josephson, brought her to the derelict Eldridge Street Synagogue near Canal Street. Mr. Josephson had discovered the synagogue by chance, Ms. Gratz recalled, and he asked her to "come help determine if it was worth the rest of our lives saving it."

It was. A well-known urban critic, Ms. Gratz already had an appreciation for historic sites and an intricate understanding of civic landmarking. But as she toiled to rejuvenate the synagogue, she also discovered a renewed sense of Jewish identity. "I walked into this building and felt connected to something I hadn't been connected to," she remembered. "This place added such a wonderful dimension of depth and attachment to the many threads of my life."

Ms. Gratz founded the Eldridge Street Project — a non-sectarian, not-for-profit organization — in 1986 in order to preserve the synagogue, the first house of worship in the United States built by Eastern European immigrant Jews. "This is the preeminent landmark of the great Eastern European immigration of the 20th century," said Ms. Gratz. "This is it for the Ashkenazis."

Eyebrows were raised last month when the New York City Council and the office of the Manhattan borough president granted $1 million to help restore the synagogue, a move that has provoked outcries about the blurring of the line between church and state.

But the congregation housed in the synagogue, K'hal Adath Jeshurun with Anshe Lubz, has no plans to buy a new Torah or build a new social hall. "We're totally separate," said Ms. Gratz, adding that the project is legally distinct from the congregation. "We're totally in charge of the non-religious programs and we have nothing to do with the congregation's programs."

Jews have prayed, uninterrupted, at the synagogue for 109 years. For decades, the congregation flourished but, as the Jewish population in the Lower East Side began to dwindle, so did the synagogue's membership. By the 1960s, the bright, spacious main sanctuary had to be cordoned off because of its disrepair and the congregation moved its services to a cramped downstairs sanctuary.

Before the restoration of the Eldridge Street Synagogue, the impressive Moorish-style building was in such disarray that it was structurally unsafe, the roof was leaking and one of two staircases had collapsed. Since the synagogue's "discovery," however, millions of dollars have been pumped into its repair. The Project secured the foundation, restored the stained glass windows and recently added a new slate roof with skylights.

There is more to go. "While the inside is as terrible as it looks, at least the outside is okay," Ms. Gratz said. Indeed, the main sanctuary is dusty and musty, the wood is worn and the foundation is exposed through the walls. But Ms. Gratz's pride is noticeable as she looks around the room. With its 70-foot ceilings, its powerful sense of history and the sunlight streaming through its many stained glass windows, the main sanctuary in the Eldridge Street Synagogue is breathtaking.

Unlike the sanctuary's impressive architecture and intricate embellishments, Ms. Gratz, 60, presents a no-nonsense appearance. Dressed entirely in black, she wears her salt-and-pepper hair cropped short. The author of two books, "The Living City: Thinking Small in a Big Way" and "Cities Back from the Edge: A New Life for Downtown," she is articulate about her involvement with the synagogue, a passion she said she would have "forever." To date, Ms. Gratz has helped raise $4.5 million, funding that has been applied both to programming and to restoring the synagogue to its former grandeur.

The money recently awarded by the city, she said, is going strictly toward improving the synagogue's infrastructure. The cavernous interior has raised difficult heating, plumbing and electrical challenges that the Eldridge Street Project hopes to overcome. "We were thrilled to abide by the city's stipulations," said Ms. Gratz. "Heating and electricity are what we need most of all."

Others are uneasy about the city's sponsorship of the restoration. "We think that it raises serious constitutional questions," said the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, Norman Siegel. "From what we've heard it's constitutionally suspect," he said, adding that the use of the landmark status for skirting the church-state divide is "troublesome."

Ms. Gratz is not convinced. "I understand the critics' questions when they don't know what goes on in the building," she said. "But once they know what goes on, their criticism evaporates." The Eldridge Street Synagogue, a national historic landmark, is a beautiful structure that helps enhance the civic life of the city, she noted.

"This synagogue is the consummate Jewish legacy, but it's now serving the public in a very 21st century way," said Ms. Gratz, citing the variety of groups served by the Eldridge Street Project's educational programs and the project's sponsorship of art installations, panel discussions and community dialogues. "It's not just a synagogue; it's not a museum. This is a hands-on place."