Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun
125 East 85th Street | also 117 East 85th Street | Upper East Side | built 1915
Open on the map8 entries
The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.
Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.
- 1937
Rabbi Joseph Lookstein starts the Ramaz day school, with its elementary school at the synagogue
Rabbi Joseph Lookstein founds Ramaz in 1937 as a modern Orthodox Jewish day school. Its name echoes Rabbi Moses Zevulun Margolies, who became a rabbi at Kehilath Jeshurun in 1905 and was known as the Ramaz. JTA noted in 2015 that the school's elementary division is housed at the synagogue.
Source: jta.org
- 1958
Haskel Lookstein is installed as assistant rabbi under his father
Haskel Lookstein is installed as an assistant rabbi of Kehilath Jeshurun on June 14, 1958, serving under his father, Senior Rabbi Joseph Lookstein. The younger Lookstein had been one of the first six students in the Ramaz School's opening class in 1937.
“Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, son of Joseph Lookstein, was installed as an assistant rabbi on June 14, 1958, serving under his father…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1979
Haskel Lookstein takes over the congregation after his father Joseph's death
When Rabbi Joseph Lookstein dies in 1979, his son Haskel takes the helm of Kehilath Jeshurun. Family leadership of the congregation reaches back to 1905, when their ancestor Moses Zevulun Margolies became a rabbi there. By 2015, JTA describes the 1,100-member congregation as one of the nation's most prominent synagogues, with members including businessman George Rohr and the Kushner real estate family.
Source: jta.org
- 2004
Reggae singer Matisyahu begins attending services at the synagogue
In 2004, as the reggae singer Matisyahu becomes more religiously observant, he begins attending services at Kehilath Jeshurun. Wikipedia lists him among the congregation's notable members, alongside the philanthropist Harry Fischel, the author Lisa Birnbach and the Kushner family.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2008
The congregation is reported to have lost $3.5 million in the Madoff scandal
Reports in December 2008 put the congregation's losses in the Bernard Madoff scandal at $3.5 million. The synagogue, founded in 1872 and closely affiliated with the Ramaz School, is a Modern Orthodox congregation on East 85th Street on the Upper East Side.
“In December 2008, it was reported that the congregation lost $3.5 million in the Bernard Madoff scandal.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2011
A fire sweeps through the 110-year-old synagogue while it is under renovation
Late on a Monday night, a fire tears through the synagogue. Neighbors, many of them in pajamas, gather at police cordons as around fifteen fire trucks head up Park Avenue, and the smoke can be smelled from Fifty-ninth Street. Forty fire units and 170 FDNY personnel are dispatched. Police say the building had been under renovation since May 2, so no Torahs were inside.
Source: The New Yorker
- 2013
A $21 million rebuild saves the limestone facade and adds a Ramaz school wing above the sanctuary
The fire left the synagogue a charred shell, though scaffolding from the roof work spared the 18,000-square-foot sanctuary from worse damage. Tearing the building down was considered, but a team led by FXFowle rebuilds it from 2013 to 2015 for $21 million. Craftspeople skilled in scagliola come from Italy to restore the ark's original features, nearly half of the 40 stained glass windows are recreated, and an 8,000-square-foot education and fitness wing for Ramaz is built above the sanctuary.
Source: bdcnetwork.com
- 2015
The congregation hires Chaim Steinmetz, its first senior rabbi from outside the Lookstein family in about a century
Kehilath Jeshurun votes in summer 2015 to hire Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, longtime leader of Tifereth Beth David Jerusalem in Montreal, as senior rabbi. He had not applied; the congregation sought him out, and he is to start on January 1. Haskel Lookstein, then 83, becomes rabbi emeritus, ending about a century in which the Looksteins and their family had led the synagogue in whole or in part.
Source: jta.org
Further reading
- Congregation Kehilath JeshurunWikipedia
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