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Beth Hamedrash Hagadol (Manhattan, New York)

Beth Hamedrash Hagodol
(Norfolk Street Baptist Church)
The front and part of the side of a three-story building is visible. The side is mostly hidden by the photographic angle and by a leafless tree. The front shows two rectangular towers, one on each side of a recessed bay. All are clad in tan stucco, which is stained in places. The towers have pointed arched windows on the bottom and square ones on top. The bay has four wooden doors at the bottom and a sign with Hebrew writing on top of them, surmounted by large arched, multi-paned window. Atop the roof of the bay is a small metal Star of David. To the right of the building is a much taller brown rectangular apartment building.
(2008)
Basic information
Location 60–64 Norfolk Street,
Manhattan, New York City
Geographic coordinates 40°43′01″N 73°59′16″W / 40.71706°N 73.98774°W / 40.71706; -73.98774Coordinates: 40°43′01″N 73°59′16″W / 40.71706°N 73.98774°W / 40.71706; -73.98774
Affiliation Orthodox Judaism
Country United States of America
Status active
Leadership Rabbi Mendl Greenbaum
Architectural description
Architect(s) Unknown /
Schneider & Herter
Architectural style Gothic Revival
Groundbreaking 1848
Completed 1850
Specifications
Direction of façade West
Capacity 1,200
Materials Foundation: brownstone
Walls: brick,
stucco over brick
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Added to NRHP November 30, 1999
NRHP Reference no. 99001438

Beth Hamedrash Hagodol (Hebrew: בֵּית הַמִּדְרָש הַגָּדוֹל‎, "Great Study House") is an Orthodox Jewish congregation that for over 120 years was located in a historic building at 60–64 Norfolk Street between Grand and Broome Streets in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It was the first Eastern European congregation founded in New York City and the oldest Russian Jewish Orthodox congregation in the United States.

Founded in 1852 by Rabbi Abraham Ash as Beth Hamedrash, the congregation split in 1859, with the rabbi and most of the members renaming their congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagodol. The congregation's president and a small number of the members eventually formed the nucleus of Kahal Adath Jeshurun, also known as the Eldridge Street Synagogue. Rabbi Jacob Joseph, the first and only Chief Rabbi of New York City, led the congregation from 1888 to 1902. Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, one of the few European Jewish legal decisors to survive the Holocaust, led the congregation from 1952 to 2003.

The congregation's building, a Gothic Revival structure built in 1850 as the Norfolk Street Baptist Church and purchased in 1885, was one of the largest synagogues on the Lower East Side. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999. In the late 20th century the congregation dwindled and was unable to maintain the building, which had been damaged by storms. Despite their obtaining funding and grants, the structure was critically endangered.


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