{"nrhp_refnum":"89000474","name":"Congregation B'nai Jeshurun Synagogue and Community House","other_names":["Henry Lindenbaum Center"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"257 W. 88th St. and 270 W. 89th St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"New York","county":"Manhattan","state":"NY","lat":40.790209626000035,"lon":-73.97600473299997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1989-06-02","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Religion"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-building complex at 257 West 88th Street and 270 West 89th Street in Manhattan: the Congregation B'nai Jeshurun synagogue (1916-18) and its rear community house (1926), now the Henry Lindenbaum Center.","why_significant":"The synagogue is argued to be an intact, representative example of early twentieth-century synagogue design in New York City. Architects Walter S. Schneider and Henry B. Herts created an abstracted 'Semitic' style drawn from Middle Eastern and Moorish sources, which inspired many 1920s synagogues. It is also significant in religion as home to New York State's oldest Ashkenazic congregation, founded in 1825.","narrative":"Two linked buildings on Manhattan's Upper West Side make up this complex: a synagogue on West 88th Street and a community house behind it on West 89th Street. The synagogue, built 1916-18 for New York State's oldest Ashkenazic congregation, has an austere buff granite front with a richly carved compound-arch portal and a rose window with a star of David. Inside, an square auditorium seating 1,150 rises to an octagonal dome with Islamic-style muqarnas ceilings, stained glass and a Moorish-style ark. The six-story community house, designed in 1926 by Henry Herts and Louis Allen Abramson, uses gold brick with stone and terra-cotta ornament, including lions, eagles and a vase-and-vine emblem. Architects Walter S. Schneider and Henry B. Herts drew on museum research to create an abstracted Semitic style that many later New York synagogues imitated. The complex also reflects the congregation's move northward through Manhattan and the growth of Ashkenazic Judaism in America.","period_of_significance":"1916-1928","architect_builder":"Schneider, Walter S. and Herts, Henry B.; Abramson, Louis Allen, Herts, Henry B.","architectural_style":"Late 19th and 20th Century Revival: Other: Semitic","criteria":["A","C"],"status_note":"The synagogue remains a house of worship. The community house is no longer owned by the congregation; its upper floors house a Jewish day school, and the congregation keeps an office there. Leaks have damaged some plasterwork in the synagogue.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:44.656608-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/89000474.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89000474/c1b9a26688-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/89000474/c1b9a26688-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Americasroof","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Congregtion-banai-nyc.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Americasroof</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Congregtion-banai-nyc.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75319426","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%27nai_Jeshurun_(Manhattan)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4833631"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/manhattan/congregation-bnai-jeshurun-synagogue-and-community-house-89000474/"}