Hollis Hills Jewish Center
210-10 Union Tpke | also 210-10 Union Turnpike | Hollis Hills | built 1960
Open on the map5 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.
- 1949
Hollis Hills Jewish Center lays its cornerstone on Union Turnpike
Work on the synagogue started on May 15, 1949, and the cornerstone went down that December 18. The congregation built in phases, beginning with a basement on the 211th Street side of Union Turnpike that held its first sanctuary. A second sanctuary was later raised on top of it during the 1950s. When the center opened it counted 500 member families.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1960
A new west-facing sanctuary on the 210th Street side is dedicated
The third and last stage of the building added the current sanctuary at the 210th Street end of the lot, dedicated in 1960. The two earlier sanctuaries, stacked one above the other on the 211th Street side, had both faced east; the new hall turned the congregation to face west. The main sanctuary now bears the name of longtime shammes Reverend Frank E. Strassfeld.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1964
Sol Zim becomes cantor, a post he still holds more than fifty years later
The congregation's first cantor, the Polish-born Army veteran Sol J. Sanders, served from 1952 until 1962, when he left for Congregation Shearith Israel in Dallas. Joseph Weiss, who came from the Prestwich Hebrew Congregation in Manchester, England, followed him until 1964, when Sol Zim was appointed. Zim was still the cantor in 2015, serving alongside Rabbi David Wise.
Source: Wikipedia
- 2000
The block outside is renamed Reverend Frank Strassfeld Turnpike for the synagogue's shammes
Frank E. Strassfeld, born in Poland in 1922, came to the United States in 1935 and served in the Army Air Corps in World War II. He worked at Hollis Hills Jewish Center for 49 years in roles that included shammes and director of religious activities and daily services, and died in November 1998. In 2000 the stretch of Union Turnpike in front of the building took his name, and the main sanctuary is dedicated to him.
“…the block of Union Turnpike directly in front of the building was named Reverend Frank Strassfeld Turnpike in 2000.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 2021
Hollis Hills merges with Marathon Jewish Community Center to form Congregation Etz Hayim
The egalitarian Conservative congregation in this building took its present name, Congregation Etz Hayim at Hollis Hills Bayside, after a May 2021 consolidation with the Marathon Jewish Community Center. It had earlier joined with the Bayside Jewish Center, whose own building was sold in 2016 as part of that consolidation.
“The congregation was formed through a May 2021 consolidation of the Hollis Hills Bayside Jewish Center and the Marathon Jewish Community Center.”
Source: Wikipedia
Further reading
Nearby
- St. Francis Preparatory School61-00 Francis Lewis Boulevard | 2 entries
- The Summit School (Upper School)187-30 Grand Central Parkway | 2 entries