By David Smigel, Staff Writer
This article was published in conjunction with “A Diamond in the Rough: Revitalizing a Century-Old Congregation.”
It is astounding that one can go through their full time at Yeshiva University without hearing a word about Congregation Beth HaMedrosh Hagodol. It is an institution older than even our own, only a few blocks away from the Wilf Campus, yet it has been widely forgotten by our community. In an attempt to better understand its rich history, the YU Observer sat down with its current leadership, studied various records pertaining to its progression and scoured the web, archives, newspapers and obituaries for every detail to be found about this shul.
What the YU Observer uncovered contained more multitudes than one could have ever imagined, and it surely only scratches the surface. The shul’s story is one of struggle and triumph, commitment to a mission even in the face of contention. Delving into its past, one can begin to understand why Beth HaMedrosh Hagodol was the sole surviving shul of its kind in Washington Heights. Its story unveils the unique grit that keeps a community alive.
1916-1926
The congregation was founded by a group mostly made up of European immigrants on December 18, 1916 and spent its first nine years across several locations, moving to accommodate its growing size, until eventually settling in its current sanctuary on W175th Street in 1926. A plaque in the entrance chamber commemorates a $5,000 (about $88.5k at the time, accounting for inflation) donation from the Ladies’ Auxiliary, the shul’s first women’s organization, which enabled the construction and acquisition of the new grounds, with a $75,000 mortgage (valued at about $1.3 million today). Construction began in 1925 and concluded a year later.
1929-1937
Because of the stock market crash in 1929, the shul struggled to pay its inaugural rabbi’s salary and keep up with mortgage payments. President Samuel Kurlan fought and succeeded to extend the shul’s mortgage, but their inaugural rabbi, Rabbi Schuchatowitz, had to resign in 1933 as a result of the financial troubles. For a year, he was replaced by Rabbi Meir Hillel Rappaport, a talmid of Rav Soloveitchik (like many other pulpit rebbeim of the shul) from Brisk known as the Bialystocker Shtot-Maggid. In that interim, the shul, unable to keep up with costs, halted its mortgage payments by declaring a moratorium on them. Rabbi Judah Leib Schuelwitz assumed the pulpit, but tragically died young in the summer of 1937. Rabbi Morris Besdin took the position next. A year after arriving, Rabbi Besdin opened a yeshiva in the shul known as Yeshivat Rabbi Moshe Soloveitchik.
Throughout the 1930s, Jews fleeing persecution in Europe began finding their way to the shul.
1940-1948
The shul saw financial improvement and resumed its mortgage payments. In February, 1944, Rabbi Besdin volunteered as a chaplain in the United States armed forces, serving in the Second World War until his return to the shul in August, 1946. Rabbi Abraham H. Stern led in his stead. Upon Rabbi Besdin’s return, Rabbi Stern moved to Florida and founded the Hebrew Academy in Miami Beach, later named after him and now housing over 600 students.
A gala dinner was held to celebrate Rabbi Besdin’s return and the leadership attempted to utilize the traction to raise money to construct a community center adjoining the shul. Though the effort was ultimately unsuccessful, the funds raised were used to renovate the Hebrew school and erect a partition between its classrooms and the beit midrash. Rabbi Besdin joined Yeshiva University as a maggid shiur.
Over the course of the war, waves of Jews fleeing the horrors of Europe flooded in. The shul adopted them, seeing to it that they were well supported both financially and emotionally. These survivors were the first major immigration wave to hit the shul since its founding, and they began to make up a large portion of its population. Rabbi Abraham Rappaport, who led them from the early fifties through the seventies, wrote of this time: “The refugees of persecution in the late thirties and the displaced persons of the late forties found open arms to receive them at our Shul.”
1950-1965
In 1950, Rabbi Besdin resigned and became the pulpit rabbi of Kew Gardens Synagogue. In 1958, he became the founding director of Yeshiva University’s James Striar School (JSS), a position he maintained for 25 years – also becoming a key figure in the kiruv movement.
In 1951, Business-savvy Morris Boylan was appointed shul president; he put his skills toward resolving the resurfaced financial crisis. Under his leadership and that of his successor, Max Roth, the shul’s Hebrew school was renovated, mortgage drastically reduced and several other parts of the shul were also refurbished.
Community resources continued to sprout up. A daycare, nursery school, chevra kedisha, a bi-weekly bulletin and Talmud classes were established. Two after school programs were also started, one for boys in high school and the other for girls, among other developments.
By 1961, the mortgage was finally paid off; this was celebrated by burning the document at that year’s shul dinner. Membership numbers were at 354 families. The shul enjoyed its golden age.
1966
A souvenir journal celebrating the shul’s fiftieth anniversary, documenting much of its early history, was made for the annual dinner. The document flaunts congratulatory messages from the White House, both houses of Congress, Yeshiva University, the New York City mayor, Beth Medrash Govoha (the reason I can’t call this place “BMG”) and Rabbi Moshe Feinstein.
In the president of YU Samuel Belkin’s congratulations, he wrote, “The past 50 years have been fraught with serious problems for our orthodox community. Your congregation’s unswerving and persistent adherence to the highest standards of Torah and tradition constitute a source of strength and inspiration to all of us.”
1966-1982
The Jewish population of Washington Heights shrunk significantly starting in the mid-60s, moving mostly to suburbs and higher income areas. Many surrounding shuls were shut down as demand dwindled; only BHH survived.
1988-1992
In 1988, a homeless man broke into the building seeking warmth and started a devastating fire in the downstairs shul (this should not be confused with the 2018 arson attack on a shul of the same name in the Lower East Side). Costly damage was incurred to the uninsured shul, quoted at about $150k (over $400k today), and the area had to be renovated again.
Many members, viewing the damaged state of the shul, decided that it has no future for them and left, hurting attendance and resources even further. The shul went from having three minyanim daily to only on Shabbatot. Over the coming years, gradual decline of attendance made even the Shabbat Shacharit minyan a struggle to assemble.
An opportunist offered to buy the shul, hoping to turn the damaged building into a furniture warehouse, but the remaining congregants refused, opting to repair the damage instead.
A local lawyer, insurance agent and landlord named Harry Fotopoulos, who served as a Shabbat goy growing up in the Bronx, offered to help organize the repairs. He lent some of his workers, including a plasterer, a carpenter, and an electrician to assist in the repairs at a reduced rate, only asking they be paid daily wages for their work. Ceiling repairs, electrical revamping, and replacements for windows and lighting fixtures cost the shul only $15,000 (about $40k today).
Congregants volunteered to clean up the shul and the graffiti now surrounding it.
Because windows were broken in by the fire department to vent out, the building’s disrepair and easy accessibility caused it to become a hub for drug users common in the neighborhood for a short time. Upon refurbishing, this issue was resolved.The vulnerability from damages also attracted burglars who stole various silver articles meant to adorn the shul’s Torahs.
1992-1995
With the collapse of the Soviet Union, many Russian Jews fled to Washington Heights. The congregation began to have more consistent minyanim, offering stipends to those that joined them for tefillot. This lasted a few years, but the struggle continued, the shul and the shul got used to weeks without minyanim.
The shul received an offer for a daycare to rent out their lower floor, the former second minyan room which was primarily damaged in the fire, but the shul was unable to afford the repairs necessary to qualify under city code. Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, who was taking over the daycare’s old building, stepped in and covered the $125,000 of renovations needed to prepare the basement and relocate them. The rent brought in some money for the shul and helped it stay alive.
2005-2009
Before finding a proper locale, Chabad of Washington Heights tried to acquire the shul. The president was against letting it go, worried about preserving its heritage or offending the remaining population. The sale was declined, and they maintained a good relationship with Rabbi Kirschenbaum of the Chabad, who continued to attend their minyanim before the Chabad got its own space.
2015
Open Up Washington Heights, a volunteer group dedicated to outreach toward the thousands of (mostly unaffiliated) young professional Jews in Washington Heights through programming and Shabbatonim in collaboration with the OU, reached out to BHH to host Rosh Hashanah services. Over 150 people attended, a third of whom were unaffiliated, and the event was a large success.
Today
The shul has now entered its hundredth year, the 109th for the congregation itself. The minyan has about six male members in attendance every week, some of them older. They are supplemented by semicha and other YU students who aim to ensure they will have a minyan every week. At the present, services are exclusive to Shacharit on Shabbat. The congregation has no official rav, but several congregants have semicha.
Over the last summer, the previous president, who had been running the shul for many years and ensuring its perpetuity, passed away. It is now in the hands of his daughter Gabrielle and her husband Shimon, who are committed to continuing its legacy.
Photo Caption: A picture of Congregation Beth HaMedrosh Hagodol in the shul’s anniversary journal
Photo Credit: Congregation Beth HaMedrosh Hagodol