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Cover:
Kehila Kedosha Janina,
Manhattan
The synagogue of Kehila Kedosha Janina
(Sidney Daub, 1925-1927) sits mid-block on
Broome Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
It humbly houses a fascinating congregation, a
small, relatively unknown group of Greek
Jews. Oral tradition holds that Jews first
settled in Ioannina (Janina), Greece in the year
70 following the destruction of the Second
Temple. They were on a slave ship bound from
Jerusalem to Rome when a shipwreck landed them in Albania. The prisoners fled
and settled in Ioannina, developing a set of rites and traditions called Romaniote
that combined Greek and Hebrew customs. About 1,800 years later, Ioannian
Jews left their town, seeking economic opportunity in Constantinople, Athens,
Alexandria, Palestine, and New York. The Lower East Side congregation of
Kehila Kedosha Janina was founded in 1906, and the synagogue was built between
1925 and 1927. Today, Kehila Kedosha Janina is the only remaining Romaniote
Synagogue in the western hemisphere. In the early 1990s, Kehila Kedosha Janina
decided to share its history and heritage. The congregation developed a museum
with artifacts from the Romaniote heritage, including Romaniote costumes,
Jewish texts in Greek, amulets, and Torah decorations.
In order to maintain the synagogue center, the congregation has been working
with the Lower East Side Conservancy and the Sacred Sites Program to obtain
National Register listing and financial assistance. To date, Kehila Kedosha Janina
has received pledges for $60,000 in matching grants for restoration, $10,000 from
the New York Landmarks Conservancy’s Sacred Sites Program and $50,000 from
the New York State Environmental Protection Fund. These funds will help the
congregation repair the roof and facades. The congregation is currently working
to fundraise in order to claim the grants.
The Kehila Kedosha Janina museum is open from 11-4 on Sundays and by
appointment. The synagogue holds services each Saturday at 9 am and on all
holidays. For more information, call (212) 431-1619 and direct correspondence to
Cooper Station, P.O. Box 72, New York, New York 10276.
New York Landmarks Conservancy
Common Bond
141 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York 10010
Address Service Requested
Ken M. Lustbader
Please Route to Property
Committee, Clergy, Board of
Trustees, and Maintenance Staff
Common Bond 20 Volume 16, No. 2/Winter 2001 ⏐ www.nylandmarks.org
For additional information about
the New York Landmarks
Conservancy’s Sacred Sites Program,
or to subscribe to Common Bond,
call us at (800) 880-NYLC (6952) or
visit our website at nylandmarks.org.
Common Bond is funded by grants
from The Achelis Foundation, The
Barker Welfare Foundation, the
James A. Macdonald Foundation,
the Natural Heritage Trust, The
Norman and Rosita Winston
Foundation, contributions from the
Friends of Sacred Sites, and
donations from readers.
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