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Congregation Shearith Israel
The Congregation Shearith Israel (), often called The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue located at 2 West 70th Street, at Central Park West, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, New York, United States. Established in 1654 in New Amsterdam by Jews who arrived from Dutch Brazil, it is the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. Until 1825, when Jewish immigrants from Germany established a congregation, it was the only Jewish congregation in New York City. The Orthodox congregation follows the Sephardic rite, and has occupied its current Neoclassical building since 1897. Founding and synagogue buildings The first group of Spanish and Portuguese Jews were twenty-three refugees from Dutch Brazil, who arrived in New Amsterdam in September 1654. After being initially rebuffed by the anti-Semitic Director of New Netherland Peter Stuyvesant, Jews were given official permission to settle in the colony in 1655. This yea ...
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Central Park West
Eighth Avenue is a major north–south avenue on the west side of Manhattan in New York City, carrying northbound traffic below 59th Street. It is one of the original avenues of the Commissioners' Plan of 1811 to run the length of Manhattan, though today the name changes twice: At 59th Street/Columbus Circle, it becomes Central Park West, where it forms the western boundary of Central Park, and north of 110th Street/Frederick Douglass Circle, it is known as Frederick Douglass Boulevard before merging onto Harlem River Drive north of 155th Street. Description Eighth Avenue begins in the West Village neighborhood at Abingdon Square (where Hudson Street becomes Eighth Avenue at an intersection with Bleecker Street) and runs north for 44 blocks through Chelsea, the Garment District, Hell's Kitchen's east end, Midtown and the Theater District, before it finally enters Columbus Circle at 59th Street and becomes Central Park West. North of Frederick Douglass Circle, it resu ...
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Jewish Arrival In New Amsterdam
The Jewish arrival in New Amsterdam of September 1654 was the first organized Jewish migration to North America. It comprised 23 Sephardi Jews, refugees "big and little" of families fleeing persecution by the Portuguese Inquisition after the conquest of Dutch Brazil. It is widely commemorated as the starting point of the history of Jews in New York and the United States. Brazil The Jews had sailed from Recife on the ship ''Valck'', one of at least sixteen that left mostly bound for the Netherlands at the end of the Dutch–Portuguese War. ''Valck'' was blown off course to Jamaica and/or Cuba. Caribbean According to the accounts of Saul Levi Morteira and David Franco Mendes, they were then taken by Spanish pirates for a time. In Cuba, the Jews eventually boarded the ''St. Catrina'' (called by later historians "the Jewish ''Mayflower''"), which took them to New Amsterdam. New Amsterdam The new Jewish community faced antisemitic opposition to their settlement from Dir ...
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Solomon Schechter
Solomon Schechter (‎; 7 December 1847 – 19 November 1915) was a Moldavian-born British-American rabbi, academic scholar and educator, most famous for his roles as founder and President of the United Synagogue of America, President of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and architect of American Conservative Judaism. He is an important figure in Jewish studies and Jewish history, particularly his study of the Cairo Geniza. Early life He was born in Focşani, Moldavia (now Romania), to Rabbi Yitzchok Hakohen, a shochet ("ritual slaughterer") and member of Chabad hasidim. He was named after its founder, Shneur Zalman of Liadi. Schechter received his early education from his father. Reportedly, he learned to read Hebrew by age 3, and by 5 mastered Chumash. He went to a yeshiva in Piatra Neamț at age 10 and at age thirteen studied with one of the major Talmudic scholars, Rabbi Joseph Saul Nathanson of Lemberg. In his 20s, he went to the Rabbinical College in ...
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Union For Reform Judaism
The Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), formerly known as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) until 2003, founded in 1873 by Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, is the congregational arm of Reform Judaism in North America. The other two arms established by Rabbi Wise are the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion and the Central Conference of American Rabbis. The current president of the URJ is Rabbi Rick Jacobs. The URJ has an estimated constituency of some 880,000 registered adults in 819 congregations. It claims to represent 2.2 million, as over a third of adult American Jews, including many who are not synagogue members, state affinity with Reform, making it the largest Jewish denomination. The UAHC was a founding member of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, of which the URJ is the largest constituent by far. Belief and practice Reform Judaism, also known as Liberal or Progressive Judaism, embraces several basic tenets, including a belief in a theistic, p ...
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Union Of Orthodox Jewish Congregations Of America
The Orthodox Union (abbreviated OU) is one of the largest Orthodox Judaism, Orthodox Jewish organizations in the United States. Founded in 1898, the OU supports a network of synagogues, National Conference of Synagogue Youth, youth programs, Jewish and Religious Zionism, Religious Zionist advocacy programs, programs for the disabled, localized religious study programs, and international units with locations in Israel and formerly in Ukraine. The OU maintains a kosher certification agency, kosher certification service, whose circled-U hechsher symbol, , is found on the labels of many kosher commercial and consumer food products. Its synagogues and their rabbis typically identify themselves with Modern Orthodox Judaism. History Foundation The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America was founded as a lay synagogue federation in 1898 by Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes. Its founding members were predominately modern, Western-educated Orthodox rabbis and lay leaders, of whom sev ...
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Hebrew Union College
Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and remained in regular use as a first language until after 200 CE and as the liturgical language of Judaism (since the Second Temple period) and Samaritanism. The language was revived as a spoken language in the 19th century, and is the only successful large-scale example of linguistic revival. It is the only Canaanite language, as well as one of only two Northwest Semitic languages, with the other being Aramaic, still spoken today. The earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date back to the 10th century BCE. Nearly all of the Hebrew Bible is written in Biblical Hebrew, with much of its present form in the dialect that scholars believe flourished around the 6th century BCE, during the time of the Babylonian captivity. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as '' Lashon ...
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Jewish Theological Seminary Of America
The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) is a Conservative Jewish education organization in New York City, New York. It is one of the academic and spiritual centers of Conservative Judaism as well as a hub for academic scholarship in Jewish studies. The Jewish Theological Seminary Library is one of the most significant collections of Judaica in the world. History Possible antecedents: Jewish Theological Seminary of Breslau Zecharias Frankel (1801–1875) was a rabbi and leading figure in mid-19th-century German Jewry. Known for both his traditionalist views and the esteem he held for scientific study of Judaism, Frankel was at first considered a moderate figure within the nascent Reform movement. He severely criticized the 1844 first Reform rabbinic conference of Braunschweig, yet eventually agreed to participate in the next despite warnings from conservative friends such as Solomon Judah Loeb Rapoport. He withdrew from the assembly, held in Frankfurt in 1845, making a final ...
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Henry Pereira Mendes
Henry Pereira Mendes (, 13 April 1852 – 21 October 1937), was an American rabbi who was born in Birmingham, England and died in New York City. He was also known as Haim Pereira Mendes. Family history and education Henry Pereira Mendes was born into an old Spanish and Portuguese Jews, Spanish & Portuguese rabbinic family that settled in Jamaica West Indies in the early 1700's. His father Abraham Pereira Mendes was Rabbi in Kingston and Montego Bay, Jamaica, Birmingham, England, and the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island. His grandfather David de Aaron de Sola, David Aaron de Sola was the Rabbi at Bevis Marks Synagogue in London, and his great-grandfather Raphael Meldola (Sephardic Rabbi), Raphael Meldola was the Chief Sephardic Rabbi of London. In addition, his brother Frederick de Sola Mendes also served as a rabbi in New York. He was educated at Northwick College (rabbinics), at University College London, University College (London). In addition, he studied and graduate ...
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Newspapers
A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports, art, and science. They often include materials such as opinion columns, weather forecasts, reviews of local services, Obituary, obituaries, birth notices, crosswords, editorial cartoons, comic strips, and advice columns. Most newspapers are businesses, and they pay their expenses with a mixture of Subscription business model, subscription revenue, Newsagent's shop, newsstand sales, and advertising revenue. The journalism organizations that publish newspapers are themselves often Metonymy, metonymically called newspapers. Newspapers have traditionally been published Printing, in print (usually on cheap, low-grade paper called newsprint). However, today most newspapers are also Electronic publishing, published on webs ...
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Mikveh
A mikveh or mikvah (,  ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvot'', or (Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazic) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for ritual washing in Judaism#Full-body immersion, ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve Tumah and taharah, ritual purity. In Orthodox Judaism, these regulations are steadfastly adhered to; consequently, the mikveh is central to an Orthodox Jewish community. Conservative Judaism also formally holds to the regulations. The existence of a mikveh is considered so important that, according to Halakha, halacha, a Jewish community is required to construct a kosher mikveh even before building a synagogue, and must go to the extreme of selling Torah scrolls, or even a synagogue if necessary, to provide funding for its construction. Etymology Formed from the Semitic root ק-ו-ה (''q-w-h'', "collect"). In the Hebrew Bible, the word is employed in the sense of "collection", including in the phrase מקוה המים (''miqwêh hammayim'', "collection of ...
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Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan, also known as Downtown Manhattan or Downtown New York City, is the southernmost part of the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Manhattan. The neighborhood is History of New York City, the historical birthplace of New York City and for its first 225 years was the entirety of the city. Lower Manhattan serves as Government of New York City, the seat of government of both Manhattan and the entire City of New York. Because there are no municipally defined boundaries for the neighborhood, a precise population cannot be quoted, but several sources have suggested that it was one of the fastest-growing locations in New York City between 2010 and 2020, related to the influx of young adults and significant development of new housing units. Despite various definitions of Lower Manhattan, they generally include all of Manhattan, Manhattan Island south of 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street, with the Bowling Green (New York City), Bowling Green and The Batte ...
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William Street (Manhattan)
William Street is a street in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan, Lower Manhattan, New York City. It runs generally southwest to northeast, crossing Wall Street. At Beaver Street, William Street splits in two. The western segment is known as South William Street and terminates at Broad Street (Manhattan), Broad Street, while the eastern segment continues as William Street and terminates at Stone Street. The northern terminal is Spruce Street. North of Beekman Street, in front of New York Downtown Hospital, William Street is a Pedestrian zone, pedestrian-only street. History It is one of the oldest streets in Manhattan and can be seen in the 1660 Castello Plan of New Amsterdam. It was originally called King Street, but was later renamed William after Wilhelmus Beekman, Willem Beekman who arrived in New Amsterdam in 1647 as a fellow passenger of Peter Stuyvesant. Beekman got his start as a Dutch West India Company clerk and later served ...
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