Temple Emanu-El

Year: 1930
Style: Romanesque Revival
City: Manhattan, NY

Temple Emanu-El, at 1 East 65th Street on the Upper East Side, was built in 1928-1930 for the Reform Jewish Congregation Emanu-El of New York, whose history dates to 1845. With capacity for 2,500 seated worshippers, it is one of the largest synagogues in the world. The congregation moved here in 1929 after outgrowing an 1868 Moorish Revival building at 43rd Street and Fifth Avenue, demolished in 1927.

the building

Load-bearing masonry walls. Vast load-bearing masonry walls support the steel beams that carry the building's roof, a hall large enough to seat 2,500 — more than St. Patrick's Cathedral.

the style

Built in the Romanesque Revival style, the 1930 synagogue replaced the congregation's earlier Moorish Revival building, marking a shift in how the congregation chose to present itself architecturally on Fifth Avenue.

nearby

Sara Delano Roosevelt Memorial House 0.1 mi · 1907
Park Avenue Armory 0.2 mi · Gothic Revival · 1880
Central Presbyterian Church 0.2 mi · Gothic Revival · 1821
Percy Rivington Pyne House 0.2 mi · Federal · 1911
Church of Saint Vincent Ferrer Complex 0.3 mi · Gothic Revival
General Motors Building 0.3 mi · International Style · 1968

All 413 buildings in Manhattan