![Synagogue building](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e7/Synagogue_building.jpg)
Khal Adath Jeshurun (KAJ) is an
Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
German Jewish
The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...
Ashkenazi
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
congregation in the
Washington Heights neighborhood, in the
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
borough
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
of
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
. It has an affiliated synagogue in the heavily Orthodox
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
neighborhood of
Monsey, New York
Monsey (, yi, מאנסי, translit=Monsi) is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Ramapo, Rockland County, New York, United States, located north of Airmont, east of Viola, south of New Hempstead, and west of Spring Valley. The ...
.
History
![Samson Raphael Hirsch (FL12173324)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/Samson_Raphael_Hirsch_%28FL12173324%29.crop.jpg)
The community is a direct continuation of the pre-Second World War Jewish community of
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
led by
Samson Raphael Hirsch
Samson Raphael Hirsch (; June 20, 1808 – December 31, 1888) was a German Orthodox rabbi best known as the intellectual founder of the ''Torah im Derech Eretz'' school of contemporary Orthodox Judaism. Occasionally termed ''neo-Orthodoxy'', his ...
. Khal Adath Jeshurun bases its approach, and structure, on Hirsch's philosophy of ''
Torah im Derech Eretz
''Torah im Derech Eretz'' ( he, תורה עם דרך ארץ – Torah with "the way of the land"Rabbi Y. Goldson, Aish HaTorah"The Way of the World", Ethics of the Fathers, 3:21/ref>)
is a phrase common in Rabbinic literature referring to variou ...
''; it was re-established according to the protocol originally drawn in 1850, to which the congregation continues to adhere.
The community is colloquially called "Breuer's" after Rabbi
Joseph Breuer
Joseph Breuer, also known as Yosef Breuer (March 20, 1882 – April 19, 1980) was a rabbi and community leader in Germany and the United States. He was rabbi of one of the large Jewish synagogues founded by German-Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi opp ...
, founder of the American incarnation and its first Rabbi. He was a grandson of Samson Raphael Hirsch.
Nusach
Unlike most Ashkenazic synagogues in the United States, which follow the Eastern Ashkenazic (''
Poilisher'') liturgical
rite Rite may refer to:
* Ritual, an established ceremonious act
* Rite of passage, a ceremonious act associated with social transition
Religion
* Rite (Christianity), a sacred ritual or liturgical tradition in various Christian denominations
* Cath ...
, KAJ follows the
Western Ashkenazic rite, in its liturgical text, practices, and
melodies
A melody (from Greek language, Greek μελῳδία, ''melōidía'', "singing, chanting"), also tune, voice or line, is a Linearity#Music, linear succession of musical tones that the listener perceives as a single entity. In its most liter ...
. They use the Rödelheim Siddur Sfas Emes (see:
Wolf Heidenheim
Benjamin Wolf ben Samson Heidenheim (; 1757 – February 23, 1832) was a German exegete and grammarian.
Biography Early life
Born at Heidenheim, at an early age Heidenheim was sent to Fürth, where he studied Talmud under Joseph Steinhardt (a ...
), though the congregation's nusach varies in some places from
Rödelheim
Rödelheim is a quarter of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is part of the ''Ortsbezirk Mitte-West'' and is subdivided into the ''Stadtbezirke'' Rödelheim-Ost and Rödelheim-West.
There are a number of celebrities who have established their base ...
.
Full service community
![Yeshiva Hirsch Bennett Av 186 St jeh](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Yeshiva_Hirsch_Bennett_Av_186_St_jeh.jpg)
True to the "full-service community" as originally established in Frankfurt, the community includes a
synagogue
A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of worshi ...
, an
elementary school
A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
(located at 85 Bennett Avenue), various educational facilities, a social hall, a
high school
A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...
, a ''
Beth Midrash
A ''beth midrash'' ( he, בית מדרש, or ''beis medrash'', ''beit midrash'', pl. ''batei midrash'' "House of Learning") is a hall dedicated for Torah study, often translated as a "study hall." It is distinct from a synagogue (''beth kness ...
'' (these are several blocks north, where Bennett Avenue meets 190th or 191st St). The ''Kehilla'' also offers its members a ''
mikveh
Mikveh or mikvah (, ''mikva'ot'', ''mikvoth'', ''mikvot'', or (Yiddish) ''mikves'', lit., "a collection") is a bath used for the purpose of ritual immersion in Judaism to achieve ritual purity.
Most forms of ritual impurity can be purif ...
'', ''
Kashrut
(also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...
'' supervision and ''
Shechitah
In Judaism, ''shechita'' (anglicized: ; he, ; ; also transliterated ''shehitah, shechitah, shehita'') is slaughtering of certain mammals and birds for food according to '' kashrut''.
Sources
states that sheep and cattle should be slaughtere ...
''.
Parshiyot VaYakhel/Pekudei/ HaChodesh - 5761
, Orthodox Union
The Orthodox Union (abbreviated OU) is one of the largest Orthodox Jewish organizations in the United States. Founded in 1898, the OU supports a network of synagogues, youth programs, Jewish and Religious Zionist advocacy programs, programs for ...
. Accessed February 22, 2008. The yeshivas go under the name Yeshiva Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch
Yeshiva Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (YRSRH, also known as Breuer's, after its creator) was founded in New York City in 1944, as a means of reestablishing the Orthodox Jewish community of Frankfurt, Germany in the United States. The school, founded ...
. It also offers an independent ''Chevra kadisha
The term ''Chevra kadisha'' (Modern Hebrew: חֶבְרָה קַדִּישָׁא) gained its modern sense of "burial society" in the nineteenth century. It is an organization of Jewish men and women who see to it that the bodies of deceased Je ...
''. The members of the community tend to live in the buildings on Bennett Avenue, Overlook Terrace, and the adjacent cross streets towards the west and Fort Washington Avenue.
Rabbis
* Rav Joseph Breuer
Joseph Breuer, also known as Yosef Breuer (March 20, 1882 – April 19, 1980) was a rabbi and community leader in Germany and the United States. He was rabbi of one of the large Jewish synagogues founded by German-Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi opp ...
: founded the American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
community, led it until his passing in 1980.
* Rav Shimon Schwab
Shimon (Simon) Schwab (December 30, 1908 – February 13, 1995) was an Orthodox rabbi and communal leader in Germany and the United States. Educated in Frankfurt am Main and in the ''yeshivot'' of Lithuania, he was rabbi in Ichenhausen, Bavaria, ...
: In 1958, Rav Breuer recruited Rav Schwab as Rav. Rav Schwab, became head of the community in 1980, until his death in 1995.
* Rav Zechariah Gelley: In 1987, Rav Schwab helped select Rav Gelley as the next Rav. Rav Gelley became the community's third leader in 1995, until his Petirah on April 19, 2018.
* Rav Yisroel Mantel, previously of Lucerne
Lucerne ( , ; High Alemannic German, High Alemannic: ''Lozärn'') or Luzern ()Other languages: gsw, Lozärn, label=Lucerne German; it, Lucerna ; rm, Lucerna . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking po ...
, Switzerland, was Rav together with Rav Gelley, and became the official Mora D'asra upon Rav Gelley's Petira.
Literature
*Stephen M. Lowenstein: ''Frankfurt on the Hudson, The German Jewish Community of Washington Heights, 1933-82, Its Structure and Culture'', Wayne State University Press 1989.
See also
*Yekke
A Yekke (also ''Jecke'') is a Jew of German-speaking origin. German Jews are perceived in Israel as having attention to detail and punctuality.
Demography
The wave of immigration to British Mandatory Palestine in the 1930s and 1940s known as ...
* Torah Lehranstalt
References
External links
*
"Rabbi Joseph Breuer: The Rav of Frankfurt, U.S.A."
Ernst Bodenheimer, Jewish Observer
Pinchas Frankel, ou.org
Gershon Tannenbaum, jewishpress.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jeshurun, Khal Adath
Ashkenazi synagogues
German-Jewish culture in New York City
Orthodox synagogues in New York City
Synagogues in Manhattan
Washington Heights, Manhattan
People from Monsey, New York
Yekke