The congregation was incorporated in 1911 under the name Chevra Talmud Torah Anshei Marovi by Morris Schiff, aPolishimmigrant who lived in the Harlem area, an area with a high Jewish population at the time. As of 2011[update], the congregation claimed to represent the diversity of theWest Harlem community,[2] including students fromColumbia University,Barnard College, and theJewish Theological Seminary.[3]
The Synagogue is located at 15 Old Broadway (a rare vestige of theBloomingdale Road in Manhattan). The Old Broadway Synagogue is a "vernacular" style synagogue built in 1923 by the architectural firm of Meisner and Uffner. The congregation formed from the mostlyAshkenazic Jewish population of Russian and Polish immigrants to New York during the 1880s who had made their way up to Central Harlem, then migrated to blocks west. The members initially met in storefronts and purportedly in the back room of a bar until the congregation purchased a house on Old Broadway. This structure was torn down shortly thereafter to make way for the synagogue. The congregation had an active Talmud Torah (Hebrew school) probably from its founding until the 1960s or 1970s. Among its early rabbis were the authorSimon Glazer and Shepard Brodie.
The Synagogue is perhaps best known for its late rabbi,Jacob Kret, a formerRosh yeshiva inBialystok and laterOstrów Mazowiecka, both in Poland. Afterthe division of Poland between Germany and USSR, Rabbi Kret was arrested by the Soviet authorities while attempting to bring his students to relative safety inLithuania. He was then deported to a Soviet labor camp, and was later released. After the war, Rabbi Kret headed a yeshiva that was in or associated with the Displaced Persons camp in Zeilsheim, a section ofFrankfurt. By the time Rabbi Kret became the spiritual leader of the Old Broadway Synagogue in 1950, many of the founding families had moved away. Rabbi Kret recruitedHolocaust survivors who were moving to New York at that time to settle in the vicinity of the synagogue. These survivors, many of whom came from Polish Hasidic backgrounds, helped fill the synagogue in the 1950s and 1960s. By the time most of these had moved away, in the 1970s and 1980s, Rabbi Kret had become amashgiach (kosher food supervisor) in the nearbyBarnard College dining hall as well as a Talmud tutor at theJewish Theological Seminary of America students. As such Rabbi Kret had a deep influence on manyColumbia University, Barnard College and Jewish Theological Seminary students until he retired from the Synagogue in November 1997. He died in February 2007.
Since 2000, the Synagogue has attracted young people who live in Harlem andWashington Heights, as well as fromMorningside Heights and theUpper West Side. The Synagogue offers a weekly class onPirkei Avot (Ethics of the Fathers), a section of theTalmud containing ethical maxims.
Dr. Paul Radensky, Museum Educator for Jewish Schools for theMuseum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, is the president of the congregation. The synagogue also has a "Shabbaton" once a month where they bring in a guest scholar, whether that be a speaker or a Rabbi to come and speak, in addition to having meals for Friday night, Sabbath day, and Sabbath afternoon.[5]
Media related toOld Broadway Synagogue at Wikimedia Commons
