Jews were among the first colonists in the New World in the 1600s, fleeing Europe to escape the Spanish Inquisition. However, Judaism was not widely practiced in New York until the 1800s, when another wave of pogroms in Europe forced hundreds of thousands of Jews to immigrate to America. This was the second wave of Jewish migration across the Atlantic, when approximately 250,000 Jews settled mainly in New York, Baltimore, and Cincinnati between 1835 and 1855. In the 1840s, Manhattan’s Lower East Side became home to waves of immigrants from Europe, who crowded into tenement buildings nearby. It was here, in a room on the second floor of an attic building near Grand Street and Clinton Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, that 33 Jews founded the Emanuel Congregation in 1845. The first services they held were highly traditional. The temple (as it came to be called) moved several times as the congregation grew larger and wealthier.
In October 1847, the congregation moved to a former Methodist church at 56 Christy Street. The congregation commissioned architect Leopold Eidlitz to design plans to convert the church into a synagogue. Radical departures from orthodox religious practice were soon introduced at Temple Emanuel, setting a precedent and proclaiming the principles of "classical" Reform Judaism in America. In 1848, German, the language spoken by the congregants, replaced the traditional liturgical language Hebrew in the prayer books, and over time they switched to English. In 1848, a magnificent organ was installed in the temple, and instrumental music, forbidden in orthodox synagogues, became part of the service. The tradition of calling congregants to the Torah was abolished, except for bar mitzvahs, and holidays such as Rosh Hashanah were observed for one day instead of two.
Further changes were made in 1854 when the temple moved to 12th Street. The most controversial was the adoption of mixed seating arrangements, allowing families to sit together instead of separating the sexes on opposite sides of the mechitza. After long heated debates, the congregants also decided to observe Rosh Hashanah for only one day instead of the usual two.
In 1868, a new building in the Moorish Revival style was erected for the synagogue by Leopold Eidlitz with the assistance of Henry Fernbach at the intersection of 43rd Street and 5th Avenue, raising about $650,000. The congregation hired its first English-speaking rabbi, Gustav Gottheil, in 1873 from Manchester, England.
In 1888, Joseph Silverman became the first American-born rabbi to lead services at the Temple. The 1870s and 1880s witnessed further departures from traditional ritual. Men could now pray without wearing a kippah to cover their heads. Bar mitzvah ceremonies were no longer held. The Union Prayer Book was adopted in 1895.
Felix Adler, founder of the Ethical Culture movement, came to New York as a child when his father, Samuel L. Adler, took the post of rabbi at Temple Emanuel-El, an appointment that made him one of the most influential figures in Reform Judaism.
In 1924, Lazarus Saminsky became the musical director of the temple and turned it into a center of Jewish music. He also composed and commissioned music for temple services.
By 1925, the number of congregants had tripled compared to 1895, and under the leadership of community president Louis Marshall, they purchased the John Jacob Astor mansion at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 65th Street to build a new synagogue. President Marshall is quoted as saying: “Whatever actions are taken will be a turning point not only in our history but in the life of the Jewish community of this great city and will have an important impact on the future of American Jewry. An institution that does not develop becomes stagnant, and stagnation means spiritual death.”
The Emanuel Congregation merged with New York’s Beth-El on April 11, 1927; they are considered equal progenitors of the current Emanuel. New York was also growing rapidly. By the mid-1920s, new skyscrapers overshadowed the temple; it was time to move uptown. In January 1926, the 1868 synagogue was sold for $6,500,000 to developer Benjamin Winter Sr., who sold it to Joseph Derst in December 1926 for $7,000,000. In 1927, Derst demolished the building to make way for commercial development. That same year, merging with another large city congregation, Temple Beth-El, Emanuel opened its new home at the corner of Fifth Avenue and 65th Street for the Upper East Side community in New York. At that time, Emanuel was the largest synagogue in the world. With a sanctuary seating more people than St. Patrick’s Cathedral, located just 10 blocks south, designed by Jewish architects, this majestic Romanesque Revival structure made a bold statement: leaving behind persecution and fear, New York Jewry had claimed its place in the mainstream of American life and reached the highest echelons.
By the 1930s, Emanuel began accepting large numbers of Jews whose families arrived in poverty from Eastern Europe, bringing with them the Yiddish language and fervently orthodox religious heritage. In contrast, Emanuel was dominated by wealthy German-speaking Jews whose liberal approaches to Judaism originated in Western Europe, where civic emancipation encouraged Jews to abandon many of their ethno-religious customs and adopt the lifestyle of their neighbors. For descendants of Eastern European immigrants, joining Temple Emanuel often meant upward mobility and progress in assimilation into American society. However, the acceptance of these new congregants also helped slow or halt, if not force a limited retreat from, the "rejected" attitude that "classical" Reform maintained toward traditional ritual.
In 1997, the Greenwald Hall renovation project was completed, which included the installation of stained glass windows that previously adorned the chapel of the Emanuel-Salem Field Cemetery. The Herbert and Eileen Bernard Museum of Judaica opened in 1997. It is a place where people can learn about Jewish tradition and culture in many of its manifestations and from around the world. A thorough restoration of the main building began in 2003.
Today, Temple Emanuel is a magnificent example of Romanesque Revival design with Byzantine influences, and many consider it one of the most beautiful houses of worship in the world. It can accommodate more worshippers than St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which seats 2,500. Worldwide, among Jewish synagogues, only the Dohány Street Synagogue in Budapest seats six more worshippers; however, Emanuel is larger in area and internal volume.
The decor of the main sanctuary shows influences of Moorish style and Art Deco, including warm shades of tile and stone. The bema is decorated with tile mosaics and hand-painted motifs on the ceiling and ceiling arches. Stunning stained glass windows are adorned with biblical scenes, and the number and shapes of the windows are meaningful. Eighteen elongated oval windows symbolize the Amidah, the daily prayer of eighteen parts, and the numerical equivalent of the Hebrew word for life (chai). Seven narrow arched windows symbolize the seven days of creation as well as the seven days of the week. This theme and design are repeated throughout the sanctuary with menorahs on both sides of the Ark. We are again reminded of the 12 tribes of Israel, as there are eight smaller pointed windows and four taller ones. This is reflected in the massive bronze entrance doors of the Temple. The sanctuary is filled everywhere with magnificent items made of cast and wrought metals such as decorative bronze, steel alloys, nickel, and brass; the Ark, menorahs, and chandelier in the main hall are such items and are made of ceramics inlaid with an impressive result by the famous metal master Oscar Bach.
The organ, located behind the magnificent metal grilles of the sanctuary, rises three stories and consists of thousands of pipes, ranging in length from the size of a pencil to entire three stories. The organ was restored and housed in a case made of beautiful wood and onyx.
In addition to the striking stained glass windows adorning the walls, hand-painted motifs and scrolls abundantly decorate the upper and side parts of the ceiling, creating a dramatic effect, the proper combination of proportions and volume of the sanctuary, ceiling height, the beauty of stone and tile, incredible metal finishes, stained glass, and striking ceilings—all produce a magnificent impression.
The 175-year history of Temple Emanuel reflects the rise to prominence of Jewish immigrants in New York and beyond. Over a century and a half, what began as a small prayer group has grown into a great congregation—a distinguished representative of Reform Judaism and an ongoing participant in the civic, cultural, and spiritual dialogue of our country—and the temple has become known as an important architectural landmark.
Sources:
https://www.emanuelnyc.org/about-us/our-history/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Emanu-El_(New_York,_1868)
https://synagogues-360.anumuseum.org.il/gallery/temple-emanu-el-5/
