Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue

Kehila Kedosha Janina is a small synagogue on Broome Street in Manhattan's Lower East Side, built between 1925 and 1927 to designs by architect Sidney Daub. Its buff-colored brick front with cast stone detailing blends Classical and Moorish elements. Keystoned arches top the second-floor windows, a cusped arch frames the entrance, and Ten Commandments tablets and copper Stars of David add Judaic symbolism. The congregation was founded in 1906 by Greek-Jewish immigrants from Ioannina, who followed the Romaniote rite, a Greek tradition. Because the lot is narrow, the sanctuary runs north-south, which put the reading platform in the center, an arrangement drawn from Sephardic practice. Original furnishings survive, and a women's gallery overlooks the main space. Other Romaniote congregations in New York have closed, leaving this as the only one in the Western Hemisphere. Its significance rests on that ethnic and religious heritage and on its intact early-twentieth-century synagogue design. It still functions as a synagogue and houses a small public museum.