Issue
No. 4 July 2001
The authoritative source
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Feature
of the month
New Jersey's only remaining 19th century synagogues
At one time,
Newark could boast of 53 synagogues; today there are but two left, and
neither occupies a building from the last century. The Prince Street synagogue,
built
in 1884 by the Oheb Shalom congregation which was founded in 1860; it
was the third synagogue organized in Newark and services were conducted
in German until sometime in the 1880s, when English became standard. The
Moorish-style building was transferred to the Adas Israel congregation
in 1911, and later sold to the Metropolitan Baptist church, who worshiped
there from 1940 to 1993. It was scheduled for demolition when it was rescued
at the last moment from the wrecker's ball and now is being restored by
the Greater Newark Conservancy.
By the end
of the nineteenth century, there were numerous synagogues in Paterson,
where the first one in the state was organized in 1847, and sizable Jewish
populations resided in Elizabeth, Trenton, Passaic and throughout 
Hudson
county, but only Hoboken among those early centers has a synagogue that
dates to that period. Congregation Adas Emuno was organized in 1871 and
built the vaguely Romanesque building on Garden Street in 1883, which
they occupied until at least 1940. It served as a Christian church for
a time but now has been converted into an apartment building.
Of all of
the synagogues built in the nineteenth century in New Jersey, at least
seven survive, five in south Jersey. One is clearly at risk, and a couple
of the others appear tenuous, as they do not house active congregations.
To understand the curious geographical distribution of the survivors,
a little history is needed.
Although the initial Jewish settlers arrived
in the early part of the 18th century, well-documented in the area of
Bound Brook and Piscataway, it was not until the 1840s that sizable numbers
of German Jews arrived in New Jersey, largely in Newark and Passaic. Newark's
Springfield Avenue, Prince Street and High Street were known as "der
Deutsche Berg," the German hill, for the number of Jews concentrated
there. In the 1850s, additional immigrants, largely Orthodox Jews from
Poland arrived and in the 1880s, following persecution in Russia and eastern
Europe, thousands immigrated to New York and New Jersey. Since many of
the earliest immigrants had been largely assimilated into the social and
cultural life of the Jersey cities, they were uncomfortable with the mass
of Orthodox, Yiddish-speaking Jews flooding in from eastern Europe, whose
dress and customs, they felt, might jeopardize their social standing.
One result was that money was raised by organizations such as the Hebrew
Immigrant Aid Society of New York, to sponsor agricultural colonies in
south Jersey, Texas and North Dakota. The first such colony was established
in Alliance, in Salem county in 1882, joined shortly thereafter by similar
colonies in Woodbine, Carmel, Rosenhayn, Norma, Brotmanville, Six Points,
and Mizp
ah.
The synagogue in Alliance was built in 1884-85 by the Tifereth Israel congregation and resembles a large house, except for the two extended windows on the gable end. It is well-maintained but does not appear to hold services (I photographed it on a Friday afternoon).
Atlantic
City's Beth Israel congregation built this Moorish style synagogue in
1891-93 on Pennsylvania Avenue, two blocks from the Trump Taj Mahal Casino.
It later served as a restaurant and a rooming house, but now is boarded
up and for sale. The Moorish style, not evident any longer, was one of
the commoner architectural styles adopted for Jewish worship, although
there are examples of Georgian, Greek revival and Romanesque synagogues
throughout the county.
Woodbine
is a sprawling 
town
with wide streets in Cape May county; it hosted the most successful of
the agricultural colonies. The synagogue was built in 1893 by the Woodbine
Brotherhood congregation. This is a substantial brick building, externally
very much in the manner of several of the late nineteenth century Baptist
and Methodist churches of south Jersey. I understand it has been acquired
by a former Woodbine family member and will be restored as a museum.
Ahavas
Achim congregation built a small synagogue in Norma, in Salem county,
about 1888. It sits on a quiet residential street, and there is no sign
or architectural feature that suggests a house of worship. The architectural
idiom here seems traditional American vernacular—there is no hint
of any Russian element, or even any resemblance to synagogues elsewhere
in the county. There were several other, rather simple residential-style
buildings, built as synagogues in Salem county, dating to the early years
of the twentieth century.
The last
synagogue built in nineteenth century New Jersey lies in Rosenhayn, a
large township in Cumberland county;
the synagogue, built about 1898 by congregation Or Yisrael, is located
miles away from any population center, which poses the question of how
the early settlers got to services since the Orthodox sects are not permitted
to ride on the Sabbath. The farms were apparently smaller than, with plots
of only a few acres, or even less, so we can assume that the population
density was greater a century ago than today. Although well-maintained,
the synagogue does not appear to be in use.
Where lightning, depredations of British troops and growing congregations spelled doom for many of the early Presbyterian churches, the state's synagogues seemed to have succumbed to the rapid economic and social mobility of their congregations. The Third Ward in Newark, for example, had 22,000 Jews in 1924, but only 600 twenty years later. In south Jersey, the agricultural colonies prospered for years, but eventually the lure of the city diminished the Jewish population in scores of those late nineteenth century towns.
I am indebted to Mark Gordon of Maplewood for identifying several of these synagogues and for providing essential background information. Some of the dates given here are at variance with those of Mr. Gordon in his March 1966 article in American Jewish History and are based on Josephine Jackett's equally invaluable publication, The Churches of Salem County, Salem Tercentenary Committee, 1964.
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© 2001 Frank L. Greenagel
