Tour of The Stanton Street Synagogue
Located in a very multicultural part of the Lower East Side, Congregation Bnai Jacob Anshe Brzezan (“Sons of Jacob, People of Brzezan”), was founded in 1893 by a community of Yiddish-speaking Jewish immigrants from the town of Brzezan in Southeast Galicia, (formerly Austria-Hungary -then Poland, now Ukraine). This little synagogue, known as The Stanton Street Shul, is a distinctive architectural, cultural, and religious landmark of the older Jewish Lower East Side whose congregation and building exemplify both continuity and change.
Remarkably, the congregation is one of the very few still left of the 700 congregations recorded as being on the Lower East Side in 1918. The Shul building, which is listed on the National and State Registers of Historic Sites, dates to 1913 and has been in continuous use by its congregation since then. The building is a rare remaining example of the poorer tenement synagogues that once dotted the neighborhood. This stone and brick structure is wedged into a tiny, narrow lot—only twenty feet wide and roughly 100 feet long. On its walls is a series of 12 paintings of the months, with zodiac signs, that date back to the 1930s.
The Shul’s motto is: “All are Welcome; All Will Feel Welcome.”
A portion of the proceeds of the tour are returned to the synagogue.
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