East Midwood Jewish Center

1625 Ocean Avenue | Midwood | built 1976

Open on the map7 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

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.

  1. 1926

    Congregation lays a cornerstone on Ocean Avenue and holds High Holiday services in the unfinished building

    The congregation's Real Estate Committee first bought land on Avenue L, but problems arose with developing it and most members felt Ocean Avenue would be more desirable. In 1925 the committee bought the present site at 1625 Ocean Avenue, and the cornerstone was laid the next year. Although the synagogue was not complete, the building was enclosed by autumn 1926, and High Holiday services were held in it. The Talmud Torah moved in from a temporary structure.

    Source: Wikipedia

  2. 1929

    Million-dollar synagogue-center with a pool and gym is completed; its architect is uncertain

    The building was completed in 1929 for $1 million. It typified the new synagogue-centers of the time, with a sanctuary alongside an auditorium, kitchens, a restaurant, classrooms, a gym and a pool. Its architect is not recorded: the Building Committee and construction superintendent Irving Warshaw are the officially named designers. The National Register nomination argues for Louis Abramson, while Maurice Courland's obituary claimed it as his work.

    “The East Midwood Jewish Center synagogue building's architect is uncertain. The design is officially credited to the Building Committee and Irving Warshaw, the construction superintendent.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  3. 1929

    Harry Halpern becomes rabbi and stays for 49 years

    Harry Halpern became East Midwood's rabbi in 1929, the year the building was completed, after the first rabbi, Reuben Kaufman, left for Temple Emanu-El in Paterson, New Jersey. Halpern also taught pastoral psychiatry, as an adjunct professor, at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He remained at the Center until retiring in 1977 and died in 1981.

    “Harry Halpern became East Midwood's rabbi. Halpern would go on to serve as rabbi for 49 years, until his retirement in 1977, four years before his death in 1981.”

    Source: Wikipedia

  4. 1950

    Congregation adds a three-story school building that enrolls nearly 1,000 pupils

    The congregation put up a school building three stories tall in 1950 beside the synagogue, joined to it by a two-story bridge. At its peak in the early 1950s the school enrolled almost 1,000 children. The Center's Talmud Torah had already drawn students such as the future feminist author Susan Brownmiller, who attended two afternoons a week as a child in the 1940s.

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1968

    October

    Mayor John Lindsay is jeered off the podium at the Center during the teachers strike

    During the 1968 New York City teachers strike, Mayor John Lindsay arrived at the synagogue to a mob of about 2,000 outside shouting that he must go. Rabbi Halpern asked the protesters whether this was the exemplification of the Jewish faith, but many answered yes. Inside, the audience heckled Lindsay off the podium. As he drove away, a crowd that had grown to 5,000 pounded on his limousine and threw trash at it.

    “Lindsay was heckled off the podium by the audience inside, and his limousine was "pounded on" and "pelted with trash" by the mob outside…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  6. 2016

    January 9

    Restored Grand Ballroom hosts a new community music series with Latin jazz band Sonido Isleño

    The Center's 300-person Grand Ballroom was restored over the months before January 2016, gaining an updated stage and sound system, in renovations organized by member and Brooklyn Music School owner Hagai Kamil. The new series opened on January 9, 2016 with the Latin jazz band Sonido Isleño, led by Midwood guitarist Ben Lapidus. Kamil said the concerts were meant for the whole neighborhood, not only the synagogue's regulars.

    Source: brooklynpaper.com

  7. 2018

    Scenes from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel are filmed at the synagogue

    In 2018 the television series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel shot scenes at the East Midwood Jewish Center. The building, completed in 1929, has remained architecturally unchanged since its construction.

    “In 2018 scenes from the television series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel were filmed here.”

    Source: Wikipedia

Further reading

Nearby

All 7 buildings with stories in Midwood