Temple Emanuel of Borough Park

1908 - 1997

Temple Emanuel of Borough Park was established in 1908 as a Conservative Jewish congregation at the intersection of 14th Avenue and 49th Street. At this point, the Conservative movement was starting to emerge as a widely followed branch of Judaism that was more open to ritual change than orthodoxy and more "conservative" than the radical Reform movement that began in the mid-1800s. The building, as seen in artist renderings, was magnificent and spacious with an ornate columned facade. With the arrival of Hasidim in the post-WWII decades and the departure of Conservative Jews for the suburbs, the congregation struggled and eventually closed in the 1990s. The building was first sold to Bais Yaakov of Boro Park, an Orthodox girls school, and eventually the Bobover Hasidim purchased it in 2007. The Bobov did not appreciate the church-like structure of the building and had it torn down in order to make space for a new synagogue that would serve their population, a dominant force in Boro Park for many decades. The abandonment, selling, and eventual demolition of the building is indicative of the multi-faceted demographic shift that occurred in the neighborhood throughout the 20th century. Jews began moving into this neighborhood in the early 20th century, thus causing the gentile inhabitants to leave. These original Jewish residents themselves would leave throughout the 1950s and 60s as the Hasidim moved in and created a large demand for real estate space.