Stephen Wise Free Synagogue

Stephen Wise Free Synagogue
Looking south across West 68th Street at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue. (May 2011)
Basic information
Location	30 West 68th Street, Manhattan, New York City,  United States
Geographic coordinates	40°46′26″N 73°58′45″W / 40.7739°N 73.9791°W / 40.7739; -73.9791Coordinates: 40°46′26″N 73°58′45″W / 40.7739°N 73.9791°W / 40.7739; -73.9791
Affiliation	Reform Judaism
Country	United States of America
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Synagogue
Status	Active
Website	www.swfs.org
Architectural type	Synagogue

The Stephen Wise Free Synagogue is a synagogue located at 30 West 68th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The congregation was the first of multiple "free synagogue" branches in the early 20th century.

In 1905, Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise then serving a congregation in Portland, Oregon, was under consideration as Rabbi of Temple Emanu–El in New York City, but withdrew his name after learning that his sermons would be reviewed in advance by the synagogue's board of trustees. In January 1906, The New York Times published a letter from Rabbi Wise that stated that the demands placed on him raised the "question whether the pulpit shall be free or whether the pulpit shall not be free, and, by reason of its loss of freedom, reft of its power for good." The Times noted that Wise planned to head to New York to "organize and lead an independent Jewish religious movement."

Within months of this letter, Rabbi Wise started work toward a "free synagogue" holding services at the Hudson Theater on West 47th Street and on the Lower East Side. At a meeting on April 15, 1907, Henry Morgenthau, Sr. told the more than hundred assembled at the Hotel Savoy that "The Free Synagogue is to be free and democratic in its organization; it is to be pewless and dueless."

In 1910, the congregation's 500 members celebrated Rosh Hashanah at Carnegie Hall, and a number of brownstones were purchased on West 68th Street in 1911 as the site of a permanent home for the synagogue. Branches of the Free Synagogue were started in the Bronx, Washington Heights, Manhattan, Flushing, Queens, Westchester County, New York and Newark, New Jersey in the period from 1914 to 1920.