Congregation B'nai Abraham
- Year
- 1910
- Style
- Byzantine
- City
- Philadelphia, PA
Congregation B'nai Abraham traces to 1874, when it formed as the "Russian shul" serving Society Hill's growing community of Jewish immigrants from Russia; it incorporated in 1882 as Chevra B'nai Avrohom Mi Russe, Hebrew for "Organization Sons of Abraham from Russia." The current synagogue at 523-527 Lombard Street, completed in 1910, still hosts Orthodox Ashkenazi-rite services today, alongside a Jewish preschool and Lubavitch of Center City.
the building
A name that traces the immigration. The congregation's shifting names — Beth Hamedrosh Hagadol B'nai Abraham Anshe Russe, then Chevra B'nai Avrohom Mi Russe, then simply B'nai Abraham Anshe Russa — chart its founding by and for Russian Jewish immigrants, with Rabbi Israel M. Sacks serving as its first official rabbi as early as 1881.
the style
The 1910 building was raised in the Byzantine Revival style, giving the synagogue the domed massing associated with that revival and setting it apart from the rowhouse fabric of Lombard Street.
More on Byzantinenearby
- Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church
- Hill-Physick-Keith House
- St. Peter's Episcopal Church
- Athenaeum of Philadelphia
- Pennsylvania Hospital
- Head House Square