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Interior of Shearith Israel’s recently restored main sanctuary—in its current building at 8 West 70th Street in Manhattan—with stained-glass windows and interior design by Louis Comfort Tiffany. The congregation moved sever- al times before settling in its current home in 1897.

Winter 5765/2004 JEWISH ACTION Left: The Shabbat lamp, dating to colonial times, that hangs in front of I the center window on the western wall of the Little Synagogue. n September 1654, twenty-three Jewish Left middle: A page from the minutes book of the trustees of Shearith refugees from Recife, Brazil, arrived in the Dutch Israel that includes the order of service for January 4, 1861, when President Lincoln called on all congregations to pray that a civil war colonial town of New Amsterdam aboard the St. might be averted. Charles. The Portuguese had just retaken Brazil from the Dutch, and these Jews feared living under Below: Michael Allen, who served unofficially as a Jewish chaplain to Union the same repression that had caused their ancestors troops during the Civil War, was the first person to do the work of a Jewish chaplain in the United States armed forces. He was a teacher in Shearith Israel’s to flee Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497. religious school after the War. The group settled in New Amsterdam. At first calling themselves Shearith Jacob, or Left bottom: The two-tiered lamps in the women’s gallery are known as “skeptic” lamps. When the building at West 70th Street was first construct- Remnant of Jacob, and later Shearith Israel, they ed in 1897, lighting was provided by gas lamps. With the inception of elec- became the tric lighting, the board of Shearith Israel decided to modernize the syna- first Jewish A Torah scroll damaged by British soldiers during the gogue by introducing electric lights. Yet, some members resisted this new- congregation in American Revolution. This was the only physical damage fangled suggestion. It was decided, therefore, to have some lamps—“skep- to the synagogue; soldiers also stole silver bells (rimonim) tic” lamps—that would address both concerns. The top tier would be elec- North America. that were used as Torah scroll ornaments. trified; the bottom would continue to operate with gas lighting. When it For almost became clear that electricity was a safe means of lighting, the two-tiered 175 years, Shearith Israel (also known as the Spanish and lights were converted entirely to electricity. Portuguese Synagogue in New York) was the only Jewish congregation in New York City, and its history has been deeply intertwined with that of the city and the nation. Remnant of Israel: A Portrait of America’s First Jewish Congregation (Riverside Book Company, Inc., New York, 2004) marks Shearith Israel’s 350th anniversary. The following sampling of the book’s portraits, historical documents and ritual objects tells a fascinating story about the early history of Jews in the United States. 7

Above: Rev. Dr. Henry Pereira Mendes (1852-1937) spiritual leader of Shearith Israel, and founder of the Orthodox Union. From when he first arrived in the United States from England in 1877, Dr. Mendes strove to unify the fragmented ranks of traditional Jewry and to halt the frightening trend of assimilation among New World Jews. In 1896, Dr. Mendes called upon Orthodox congregations throughout the United States and Canada to organize a representative common body. Two years later, in 1898, representatives of an array of congre- gations throughout North America convened, under Dr. Mendes’ leadership, at Shearith Israel, the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue. The purpose of the meeting was to establish the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. Today, more than one hundred years after it was first founded, the Orthodox Union is a foremost leader in kashrut supervision, Jewish outreach, advocacy and pro- grams for the disabled, synagogues services, adult education and political action.

Right: In 1730, Shearith Israel built its synagogue—the first syna- gogue building erected in North America and the only Jewish congre- gation in New York until 1825—on Mill Street. Shown here is Shearith Israel’s Little Synagogue, which contains furnishings and artifacts from the Mill Street Synagogue.

Winter 5765/2004 JEWISH ACTION BookReview

Left: These rimonim were fashioned by the great Jewish silversmith of Remnant of Israel eighteenth-century New York, Myer Myers.

Bottom: Shearith Israel’s main sanctuary in its current building at A Portrait of America’s West 70th Street. First Jewish Congregation

By Rabbi Marc D. Angel Rabbi Angel indeed, to most American Jews and Riverside Book Company, Inc. certainly to most Americans, as are New York, 2004 has taken an Sephardic Jews more generally, as the 189 pages active interest latter immigrations of Jews to America Reviewed by Marc Michael Epstein in the history were so vast and so heavily Ashkenazic. Yet this does not mean that Sephardic of his Jews are unknown. Jews of Spanish- O congregation Portuguese descent have been inti- nce, over Shabbat lunch mately involved in the life of Jewish at the lovely little restaurant attached for the sake communities in America, and of the to the Bevis Marks Synagogue in of chinuch American scene at large. Think of London, I was told a joke told by Benjamin N. Cardozo, of Emma Augustus Gomez De Mesquita—(“but rather than Lazarus, of Uriah Philips Levy, of the you must call me ‘Gus’”)—the ninety- nostalgia Gomez and the Hendricks families. year-old scion of the illustrious family Paradoxically, while not making a par- of cantors at that venerable institution, or pride. ticularly big deal of the fact that they apropos his long and lofty-sounding were Jews (though the fact was often name. It seems that the concierge at an raised by others), their involvement in American hotel, when requested to call American affairs was often intrinsically a cab for a visiting English Sephardi informed by their Jewishness. gentleman (let’s call him Moshe Kohen Institutional histories come and go, de los Gatos Rojas, Baron d’Aguilar y often written for internal consumption Trujillo, Mayordomo Principal de la and commonly producing nary a rip- Casa del Rey y Barrendero de las ple on the consciousness of the general Escaleras Traseras) was nonplussed by public. But Rabbi Marc Angel’s new such an embarrassment of nomenclat- book, Remnant of Israel: A Portrait of America’s First Jewish Congregation, tells Professor Epstein has been teaching at the story of a very important congre- Vassar College since 1992, and was its gation, not only the mother congrega- first director of Jewish Studies. He has tion of the Spanish and Portuguese written on various topics in Jewish art, Jewish community in America, but, as among them, Dreams of Subversion in the title insists, the first Jewish congre- Medieval Jewish Art and Literature gation in America. This would be (Pennsylvania, 1997). He is currently enough to insure its place on the writing a new book, Overthrowing the shelves and tables of many different Photos: Joanne Savio (except for photographs of Rev. Dr. Henry Pereira Mendes and Michael Allen). All photographs and Idols: A Radical Reappraisal of Jewish ural riches, and stuttered in reply, “But kinds of Jews and Americans. But illustrations courtesy of Congregation Shearith Israel. Photographs and illustrations appear in Remnant of Israel: A Portrait of Visual Culture. Previously, he served as sir, we haven’t got a cab that’ll hold all readers will rejoice to find the fascinat- America’s First Jewish Congregation by Rabbi Marc D. Angel. director of the Hebrew Books and those gentlemen!” ing history of this congregation pre- Manuscripts Division of Sotheby’s “All those gentlemen”—whom sented in such an accessible, thought- The book is available at Barnes & Noble stores throughout the country and on barnesandnoble.com. It is also available at the Judaica Department. He continues to Stephen Birmingham dubbed “The fully compiled and beautifully present- following stores: In New York City: The Metropolitan Museum, The Jewish Museum, The Museum of Jewish Heritage, Rizzoli serve as a consultant to various libraries, Grandees” in his eponymous popular ed volume. When Rabbi Angel joined Bookstore, Eichler’s, West Side Judaica and The Jewish Book Center. In Brookline, Massachusetts: Israel Book Shop. auction houses, museums and private history of the Sephardic elite in the congregation in 1969, Shearith collectors throughout the world. America—are somewhat of a mystery, Israel was 315 years old. This year, it is

Winter 5765/2004 JEWISH ACTION Rabbi Angel manages to capture the grandeur, but he also informs us of the small, yet omnipresent, connections to the humbler buildings of the congregation’s past, incorporated into its present architectural tour de force.

350, an institution coterminous with articles about individuals who were that which is most essential, giving the settlement of Jews in America. connected with Shearith Israel— us not only the facts, but also a And Rabbi Angel, the much-celebrat- descriptions of the lives of persons glimpse of the heart and soul of an ed author of many works of history who happened to be members of this institution most of us are unfamiliar and halachah, focusing primarily, but congregation. Remnant of Israel is able with, in a way that only encourages not exclusively, on the cultural and to demonstrate the compelling nature us to want to know it better. intellectual world of Sephardic Jewry, of the institution, and one can easily Anecdotal asides and interesting facts is the best possible choice to chart the see how it helped form the character enliven the presentation. We learn in venerable history of his institution. and the priorities of many important a sidebar, for instance, that the The spectrum of Jewish experience has and influential Americans. In the women’s gallery contains “skeptic shown us, time and again, that institu- chapter that discusses the institutional, lamps”—half-gas, half-electric hybrids tions—regardless of how old or distin- charitable and communal outreach of installed when the utility, safety and guished—are dinosaurs if they cannot Shearith Israel, we see the largesse that long-term viability of electricity was learn the lessons of their own histories characterized the charitable priorities still being questioned by some mem- and proceed forward into the future of the congregation and the intersec- bers. Ultimately, the gas jets in the with them. History for the sake of his- tion of the life of the congregation, lower parts of the lamps were tory is a vain and fruitless endeavor. not only with its important and influ- replaced by electricity, but only with Rabbi Angel has taken an active inter- ential members, but also with the much sensitivity and after due con- est in the history of his congregation wider community. sideration. Is this not a metaphor for for the sake of chinuch rather than Shearith Israel is a congregation that thoughtful change within tradition nostalgia or pride, without the senti- aspires to (and achieves) a high aes- more generally, and for the way mentality that causes one to rest on thetic. From the Louis Comfort Shearith Israel has comported itself ? one’s laurels and to live in the past. Tiffany glass interior to the gravitas of This sense of deliberation, along with its liturgy and the choreography of its openness to the world and its rich ritual, it is a grand place. Rabbi Angel panoply of possibility, are so essen- manages to capture the grandeur, but tially characteristic of Spanish and T he also informs us of the small, yet Portuguese Jewry. The American he book’s eight chapters omnipresent, connections to the sim- Sephardic community is one that has lucidly paint a picture of a quintessen- pler and humbler buildings of the con- adamantly (and admirably) refused to tially American, and simultaneously gregation’s past, incorporated into its carve itself up into denominations. proudly Jewish, congregation. Anyone present architectural tour de force. The There, the advocates, so to speak, of who has visited Mikveh Israel in building is a metaphor for the institu- the warm, old glow of gas, and the Philadelphia, or Bevis Marks or Maida tion—solemn, grand and venerable. chassidim of bright, newfangled elec- Vale in London, knows that each Yet it is also bright, delicate, fine and tricity live alongside one another, so Spanish Portuguese congregation has open. This comes across very well in that each member, regardless of level its own unique character and tradi- the book, with its magnificent illustra- of observance, can lay equal claim to tions, small but often telling variations tions in fine color and clear black and its long historical lineage and a pre- that characterize each one. Rabbi white. cious religio-cultural legacy. Rabbi Angel details the history of his congre- It is difficult to write the history of Angel’s wonderful new book goes a gation with love and reverence, and an institution in a couple of hundred long way towards revealing the histo- one gets a sense of the place from his pages—much must be abbreviated, ry of that community in all its rich- prose. The personalities come to life as much left out. Remnant of Israel ness, and I, for one, am grateful to well. Over the years, I have read many manages to preserve and to present him for the glimpse he has given us. JA Winter 5765/2004 JEWISH ACTION