First Roumanian-American congregation
- Architect
- J. Cleaveland Cady
- Year
- 1889
- Style
- Romanesque Revival
- City
- Manhattan, NY
The First Roumanian-American Congregation, also known as Congregation Shaarey Shomayim or the Roumanishe Shul, was an Orthodox Jewish congregation at 89-93 Rivington Street on the Lower East Side, organized in 1885 by Romanian-Jewish immigrants. Its building, erected around 1860, had switched between church and synagogue before being extensively remodeled in 1889 under J. Cleaveland Cady in the Romanesque Revival style; the congregation purchased and again remodeled it in 1902.
the building
The Cantor's Carnegie Hall. The synagogue earned that nickname for its high ceiling, good acoustics, and seating for up to 1,800 people, and hosted noted cantors including Yossele Rosenblatt, Moshe Koussevitzky, Zavel Kwartin, Moishe Oysher, Jan Peerce, and Richard Tucker.
Famous congregants. Red Buttons sang in the choir, George Burns was a member, and Edward G. Robinson had his Bar Mitzvah there.
the style
The 1889 remodeling was carried out in the Romanesque Revival style.
More on Romanesque Revivalthe architect
J. Cleaveland Cady designed the 1889 remodeling; no further biographical detail is documented here.
significance
The congregation's membership reached the thousands in the 1940s but had declined to around 40 by the early 2000s as Jews moved out of the Lower East Side. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
nearby
- Tenement Museum
- University Settlement Society of New York
- Angel Orensanz Center
- Beth Hamedrash Hagadol
- New Museum
- Germania Bank Building