The Synagogues of Brownsville
[nggallery id=”31835″ template=galleryview] A book called The Lost Synagogues of Brooklyn has just been published and we’ve got some of the photos for you above. Author Ellen Levitt, a lifelong Brooklynite, examines 91 former synagogues in Brownsville, East New York, East Flatbush and Bedford Stuyvesant that, largely through shifting demographic patterns, are no longer used…
[nggallery id=”31835″ template=galleryview]
A book called The Lost Synagogues of Brooklyn has just been published and we’ve got some of the photos for you above. Author Ellen Levitt, a lifelong Brooklynite, examines 91 former synagogues in Brownsville, East New York, East Flatbush and Bedford Stuyvesant that, largely through shifting demographic patterns, are no longer used for their original purpose. In most cases, like the five from Brownsville above, they have been converted to churches despite retaining their Jewish symbols.
Nice to see pictures from my boyhood neighborhood. There are lots of buildings like this in ENY.
If we are quoting Jesse the Body:
If I could be reincarnated as a fabric, I would come back as a 38 double-D bra.
Jesse Ventura
The saddest loss of a synagogue building I’v seen was the one formerly on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights. My group had to relocate the social service program formerly housed there and I went over to get a sense of their needs. The synagogoue had very nice, albeit down-at-the-heels, double-hight space with wood floors and kind of Doric/Colonial detailing. The director of the program showed me a poster called something like “The Temple Doors of Crown Heights” and then said the congregation was splitting up into smaller temples. They then took me on tours of several, former 3-family houses that had been converted into temples. They ended up tearing down the temple and building one of those blocky apartment buildings for 17 families. I wonder how many three family houses that synagogue factionalized into?
“religion is a crutch for the weak” – Minnesota Governor Jessie Ventura
Brenda, all religions are cash registers; all of them.
No, no, “heck,” Scientologists have “centers” and cash registers, not temples.
But seriously, cool topic; as a Catholic, I empathize with demographic “shrinkage” and the evolution of sacred spaces to other uses, and find it very poignant. Our area, Church Ave. between about Marlborough Rd. and Flatbush Ave., was the precise sector described by the character Stingo in “Sophie’s Choice” just after WWII as “the Kingdom of the Jews,” and we are fortunate in still having Temple Beth Emeth on the corner as a reminder of that era when Flatbush was a vibrant middle-class Jewish enclave; otherwise, at least along Church Avenue, it has vanished under a tide of new immigrants with their own culture (even as, to the west and south, the very Orthodox are reshaping other neighborhoods with their own stamp). I wish there were Time Lord Goggles you could put on, dial the date back, and walk around in another decade. Now that would be cool.
Reminds me of Seville church(es?) that used to be mosques, synagogues or both. Some day, perhaps, a Scientology temple?
Oy! I actually was planning a story on this topic. I think it’s fascinating; architecturally, historically, and socially.
One nit to pick, Shaare Zedek Synagogue, at 221 Kingston Ave, at Park Place, across from Brower Park, is most definitely in Crown Heights, not Bed Stuy. It is now the Historic First Church of God in Christ, and the interior was on our house tour last year. It is incredibly beautiful, with impressive stained glass windows, beautiful stenciled walls, even some wonderful Art Deco altar screens, light fixtures, and an impressive stained glass dome with Mogen David symbology.
The COGIC denomination has been there since 1969, and they have loved the building, and respected all of the temple fittings and fixtures, and are doing whatever they can to preserve and protect it. Bxgrl did a lot of research on it, and she and I are trying, with the Crown Heights North Association, to connect them with agencies that can help them with preservation and restoration.
so cool! thanks for posting this…