The last services at Temple EmanuEl. Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street, before its demolition to make room for a sky-scraper, were held Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, marking an important date in the religious history of the Jewish community in New York City.
The work of demolishing the Temple. which has stood on Fifth Avenue for sixty years, will begin next week. The new Temple, which will serve the Congregations Emanu-El and beth-El will be the second largest house of worship in New York City. St. Patrick’s Cathedral ranks first. The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, when completed will suceed St. Patrick’s.
Many prominent New York Jews gathered at the last services in the old Temple, whose blackened walls rise in the midst of New York’s busiest industrial and commercial district. Many have expressed the desire to obtain stones of the structure which is to be demolished, to be kept as momentos.
In a sermon “Farewell to the Old Temple.” Dr. H. G. Enelow, newly elected President of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and one of the Rabbis of Temple Emanu-El, stated:
“To many of us this temple is almost a living personality, it seems like something with a soul. And yet it must pass away, this scene of our work for so many years. Let us pause for a moment of prayer for those who did so much here and obtained consolation here and who, still, cannot be here tonight. And while we pause in prayer let us pause also for thought, that we may realize and appreciate in the passing of our temple the transciency of the things of life.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
