Form of Service for the Dedication of the New Synagogue of the Portuguese Hebrew Congregation “Shearith Israel,” in West 19th Street, near Fifth Avenue.

(AMERICAN JUDAICA).

John M. Jackson

New York

1860

Hebrew and English on facing pages.

Singerman 1679.

Shearith Israel in the City of New York, North America’s oldest congregation, founded in 1654, built its first synagogue on Mill Street, below Wall Street, in 1730, and moved into its current home, on 70th Street and Central Park West, in 1897. In between, it built two new homes for itself in quick succession in order to keep pace with the rapid northward migration of Manhattan’s bourgeoisie. The Crosby Street Synagogue, between Broome Street and Spring Street, was consecrated in 1834, but just 26 years later, “SoHo” was history and the Spanish and Portuguese Jews’ Congregation was ready to move into a grand Palladian-style new building on 19th Street, just west of Fifth Avenue. The consecration whose order of service appears here took place on September 12th 1860, the 206th anniversary of the arrival of the first Jews to New Amsterdam. The dedication service comprised seven circuits of the Torah scrolls with accompanying Psalms, followed by a discourse by Rev. A. Fischell, Lecturer to the Congregation (soon to become America’s first Jewish army chaplain) and a consecration prayer from Rev. J. J. Lyons, Minister to the Congregation.