Landmark of the Spirit: The Eldridge Street Synagogue - Couverture rigide

Polland, Annie

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0300124708 ISBN 13 : 9780300124705

Editeur : Yale University Press, 2008

Synopsis

The first major history of the gloriously restored Eldridge Street Synagogue, the first synagogue in the United States built by east European Jews, has a seminal place in the history of American Jewry.

New York City's magnificent Eldridge Street Synagogue was built in 1887 in response to the great wave of Jewish immigrants who fled persecution in eastern Europe. Finding their way to the Lower East Side, the new arrivals formed a vibrant Jewish community that flourished from the 1850s until the 1940s. Their synagogue served not only as a place of worship but also as a singularly important center in the development of American Judaism.

A near ruin in the 1980s that was recently reopened after a massive twenty-year restoration, the Eldridge Street Synagogue has been named a National Historic Landmark. But as Bill Moyers tells us in his foreword, the synagogue is also "a landmark of the spirit, . . . the spirit of a new nation committed to the old idea of liberty."

Annie Polland uses elements of the building's architecture--the façade, the benches, the grooves worn into the sanctuary floor--as points of departure to discuss themes, people, and trends at various moments in the synagogue's history, particularly during its heyday from 1887 until the 1930s. Exploring the synagogue's rich archives, the author shines new light on the religious life of immigrant Jews, introduces various rabbis, cantors and congregants, and analyzes the significance of this special building in the context of the larger American-Jewish experience.

For more information, go to: www.EldridgeStreet.org

A propos du livre

À propos de l?auteur

Annie Polland is vice president for education at the Museum at Eldridge Street, where she oversees the development of exhibits and curriculum and coordinates lecture series, and a visiting professor at the New School and at New York University.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Yale University Press
• Date d'édition: 2008
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0300124708
• ISBN 13: 9780300124705
• Reliure: Relié
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 192
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible