Memory Lane: Temple Beth El

The edifice has stood at the corner of 48th Street and 15th Avenue in Boro Park for more than one century. 

For more one hundred years it has been dedicatedly preserved by the stewards of this magnificent Shul—beginning with those early members who have toiled to build this grand mikdosh me’at—and it continues to stand today as a testament to the vibrant Jewish life in the Boro Park community. 

“Big New Temple” 

A number of the members acquired wealth, and moved to the more upscale part of Boro Park, away from the chicken markets and pickle stands…and sough to erect a fitting edifice for the shul—as we read in one of the newspapers in September of 1919: 

“Big New Temple. $350,000 house of worship of Congregation of Beth El of Borough Park. One of the principal plans filed this week with the Brooklyn Bureau of Buildings is that for a beautiful temple to be built by the Congregation Beth El of Borough Park, according to plans filed by Shampan and Shampan. The structure, which will be 82 feet 8 inches by 100 feet, will cost $350,000. 

It will be located at the southwest corner of 15th Ave and 48th Street. It will have a balcony and mezzanine floor and another large auditorium in the basement. Work will start on the excavation on Monday next, and the cornerstone will be laid in two weeks.” 

More about Shampan & Shampan and their architectural work in the 1920’s comes to us from one of the architectural journals who lauded the Shul and its beauty thusly: 

“A grander example of the “Semitic” style is Temple Beth-El of Borough Park. Its Orthodox congregation – Central and Eastern European immigrants who had become prosperous bankers, merchants and professionals – commissioned a synagogue that the New York Times described as “a new house of worship of unusual beauty.”

“Shampan & Shampan were well known for their apartment houses and garment-district loft buildings, but they also designed several synagogues. Beth-El’s principal façade includes a grander version of the colonnettes-and-arch entrance at Kol Israel. The two main colonnettes are decorated with an ornate diaper (diamond shaped) pattern often seen in Moorish design. The triple entrance within the arch is framed in cast-stone adorned with Arabesque designs, into which are mixed Judaic symbols, notably a shield with a ceremonial menorah (candelabra) in the triangular pediment above the central doorway.

“Brooklyn’s Carnegie Hall” 

The aforementioned article continues to describe the exquisite details of the shul: “The building’s glory, however, is its sumptuously ornamental sanctuary, including an enormous, 81-foot-diameter octagonal Guastavino ceiling dome – said to be the third largest such dome in the country at the time of its construction. The sanctuary is covered in arabesques, with Judaic symbols mixed in. The coffered ceiling is dripping with muqarnas – stalactite forms borrowed from the most famous Moorish monument in Spain, the Alhambra. This sanctuary provided a fitting backdrop for the world-renowned cantors who helped win the synagogue fame as “Brooklyn’s Carnegie Hall.”

Below, we will learn more about the cornerstone-laying of the shul, but the New York Times on the day of June 13, 1920, the day the stones were laid, elaborated some more: “The predominating feature of the front will be the main portal, richly ornated with suggestions from Moorish and Egyptian sources, which will ease the severity of the façade. The main lobby is treated with simplicity, the walls to be finished with a buff cast floor with buff-colored brick floor tile. At opposite ends of the main lobby, marble staircases with the cast stone railings ascend to the balcony and descend to the basement. The basement is utilized for a large auditorium for daily services, trustees’ room, social room, janitors’ quarters, coal storage, heating, and artificial ventilation rooms.” 

“News for Boro Park” 

As the summer of 1922 wore on, and the Yomim Noro’im of the year 5683 neared, the grand edifice was being prepared to welcome the Beth El congregation, as we read in Der Morgen Zhournal from that summer: 

“Thanks to great efforts on the part of the esteemed president Mr. Morris Kulok (a famed Boro Park philanthropist whose name appears on the cornerstone) and the building committee, it has been made possible to complete the greatest temple in recent times, Temple Beth El, 15th Avenue and 48th Street, which will serve as a jewel, not only for Boro Park, but for the entire America. IT will be opened amid great fanfare, im yirtze Hashem, in time for the first slichos. 

“With this new ‘G-d’s home,’ Temple Beth El of Borough Park opens up a new chapter in the history of the Russian Jews in America. No could have fathomed in their most far-fetched fantasy that Yidden who have arrived in this country only a few dozen years ago as immigrants would be able to erect a beis mikdosh me’at whose construction cost more than half-a-million dollars! 

“Boro Park Jewry is readying itself for this great Yom Tov. The first slichos of Chazzan Hershman will impress all of American Jewry. The Chazzan has never recited these slichos on American soil, and the skies will open up when he will say “haneshomo loch.” Further news about the chazzan’s performance will be disseminated in all the newspapers (which it would be).” 

Moztei Shabbos slichos of 1922 arrived, and the new shul was packed. One Yid came up to president Morris Kulok who was proudly walking the aisles and gushed about the breathtaking beauty of this grand edifice. He had but one concern, he said, “with such glamor right here in America, would we forget Jerusalem?” At this president Kulok raised his right hand, and said, “Im eshkocheich Yerushalayim tishkach yemini.”