Central Synagogue (Manhattan)

Common card · No. 227122

Central Synagogue (formerly Congregation Ahawath Chesed Shaar Hashomayim; colloquially Central) is a Reform Jewish congregation and synagogue at 652 Lexington Avenue, at the corner with 55th Street, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, US. The current congregation was formed in 1898 through the merger of two 19th-century synagogues: Shaar Hashomayim and Ahawath Chesed. The synagogue building was constructed from 1870 to 1872 for Ahawath Chesed. Since 2014, Angela Buchdahl has been Central's senior rabbi. Shaar Hashomayim was founded in 1839 by German Jews, while Ahawath Chesed was founded in 1846 by Bohemian Jews. Both congregations originally occupied several sites on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Central was constructed as the fifth building of Ahawath Chesed, whose members had moved northward during the late 19th century. Though the congregations originally held services in German, they had become largely Anglophone by the time of their merger. Ahawath...

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