The Free Synagogue, which has held services in Carnegie Hall during the past twenty-two years, is to have its own synagogue building, to cost $2,000,000, Joseph M. Levine, member of the Executive Council of the congregation, announced at Sunday’s services. The deed for a site occupying 30,000 square feet, on Sixty-fourth and Sixty-fifth Streets, purchased at a cost of about $1,000,000, was presented to Dr. Stephen S. Wise, rabbi of the congregation, on the occasion of his fifty-fifth birthday.
Dr. Wise said that the cost of the new site was already covered by funds, but that a further $1,000,000 would be needed for the building. He said that it was hoped to obtain $500,000 before June 1, and the balance before the end of the year. Dr. Wise further expressed the hope that the construction of the Synagogue would be completed in time for the celebration marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Synagogue, April 1907.
Outlining the plans for the new synagogue, Dr. Wise said an auditorium would be erected covering about three stories and seating more than 2,000 people; over the auditorium there will be several stories to provide facilities for the Religious School Department, provision to be made for about 1,000 children, the Social Service Department, the synagogue administration offices; the men’s club; the women’s organization; the Child Adoption Committee, including a temporary Child Shelter. Within a few days a committee will be organized to secure the three-quarters of a million needed to make possible the early erection of the building.
Announcement was further made that the Free Synagogue will transfer to the Jewish Institute of Religion its (Continued on Page 4)
present house on West 68th Street, near Central Park,which was erected six years ago at a cost of about $600,000. The Institute will also take over from the synagogue the seven houses immediately adjoining, to the east and west of the Synagogue House. Dr. Wise expressed his thanks to the officers and members of the congregation for making possible the new synagogue building.
A dinner in honor of Dr. Wise on the occasion of his fifty-fifth birthday was given Saturday night by Dr. George A. Kohut. On Sunday he was the guest at the Founders’ Day luncheon.
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.
