The United Synagogue of Hoboken will mark the hundredth anniversary of the Star of Israel Synagogue at 115 Park Ave. this Sunday, May 17 with a day-long block party. More specifically, they’ll be celebrating the building’s rebirth and restoration as a house of worship and landmark for Hoboken Jews.
From the very outset, the temple fathers of Star of Israel knew that their stately shrine could not survive without the care and investment of a committed congregation.
“Do you want this house of worship to be a monument to the Judaism that is dead in your hearts and in your homes?” asked Rabbi M. M. Eichler of Temple Ohabei Shalom in Boston at the dedication of the Star of Israel Synagogue on May 16, 1915. “Are you going to pay the Almighty an annual visit during the fall, while your synagogue lies here all the year round, silent? If you will, then all this work has been done for nothing.”
By the 1970s, Rabbi Eichler’s worst nightmare had nearly come true. Dilapidated and open only once a year for the Jewish High Holidays, Star of Israel was nearly sold before some forward-thinking younger members put a halt to the move.
Changing demographics since the 1980s brought a growing number of Jews back to the mile-square city and to the United Synagogue, and by the early 2000s, the community was ready to embark on a massive restoration of its historic home.
“The sanctuary looks more or less the same as it did the day it was dedicated 100 years ago.”—Robert Scheinberg
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“In various cities throughout the United States, there were synagogues in this Eastern European style, many of which are no longer synagogues,” said Scheinberg. “This one is, and so it’s exciting to have such a young community in an old and historic building, and for kids to grow up here…and to think this is what a synagogue looks like.”
Open to immigrants of all kinds
In many ways, the Star of Israel Synagogue tells the story of Hoboken’s urban rise, fall, and recent resurgence. Opened in 1915, the synagogue catered to the surge of Eastern European Jews settling in Hoboken’s dense tenements around the turn of the century. Early minutes of temple services were written in Yiddish, and the façade’s dual onion domes evoked the great synagogues of Budapest and Vienna. “For as long as we know, Hoboken was a hospitable place for immigrants,” said Scheinberg.
Though not the first synagogue opened in Hoboken—that distinction goes to the Adas Emuno temple opened on Garden Street in 1883—Star of Israel was undoubtedly the grandest of its era. “It may be said that the Hebrews of Hoboken have at their disposal a hall that is second to none in the city,” noted The Hudson Observer in its coverage of the Star of Israel on May 15, 1915.
After peaking at 3,500 families in the late 1930s, Hoboken’s Jewish population entered a deep decline as urban decay pushed family after family to the suburbs. In 1948, the congregations of Star of Israel and its former offshoot, the Hoboken Jewish Center, consolidated to form the United Synagogue of Hoboken.
By 1970, the Star of Israel Synagogue was in disrepair, along with much of the city. “It’s somewhat miraculous that this building really still exists,” said Scheinberg. “We’re very grateful to some visionary people…who arrived in the community as young adults in the 1970s and encouraged the community to hold onto the building with the knowledge that this is a location that will be able to revive a congregation.”
Thanks to their efforts, and several rounds of intense renovation, young Jewish professionals among Hoboken’s waves of gentrification in the ’80s and ’90s had a place to worship and congregate.
Today, 320 households are members of the United Synagogue, plus many more who periodically attend services, take advantage of educational programs, or are otherwise involved.
Many changes since orthodox origins
While the United Synagogue’s festivities this weekend are meant in part to celebrate the traditions that have survived since of Star of Israel’s founding, Rabbi Scheinberg emphasized that his congregation differs in key ways from the Judaism of Hoboken’s past.
Star of Israel was founded as an Orthodox congregation, and for the first decades of its existence, men and women sat on different levels of the sanctuary during services.
By contrast, the current United Synagogue is a Conservative temple operating in the middle of the modern Jewish spectrum and does not segregate the sexes. In fact, the two rabbis preceding Scheinberg were both women.
Where the 1910s Star of Israel Synagogue was primarily focused on religious services, the modern synagogue offers a whole fleet of educational programs, from full-day preschool to adult education classes.
Still, Scheinberg admitted that the backbone of the synagogue remained fundamentally the same, and with good reason.
“We’re celebrating the same Jewish holidays,” he said, “we’re gathering in the same building, the sanctuary looks more or less the same as it did the day it was dedicated 100 years ago.”
Planned festivities
The celebration was to begin on Friday, May 15 with a musical service and presentations covering Star of Israel Synagogue’s early history and architectural value. On Saturday, May 16, the actual anniversary of Star of Israel’s dedication in 1915, the temple planned to hold Shabbat services led by students from its Learning Center beginning at 9:30 a.m., followed by a light brunch.
However, the main event was scheduled for Sunday, May 17, when Park Avenue between First and Second streets will be closed from 1 to 4 p.m. to host a block party designed to echo the kosher markets that once lined First Street.
The event will feature period games for children, stained glass crafts, face painting, a bouncy house, Israeli dancing, and mitzvoth opportunities. Visitors can buy tickets for Kosher food including hot dogs, hamburgers, and Jewish specialties like a pickle barrel.
At 4 p.m., Israeli singer-songwriter Paula Valstein will give a concert in the synagogue’s sanctuary. A former resident of Hoboken, Valstein was a finalist on “Kokhav Nolad,” Israel’s version of “American Idol.”
Tickets for Valstein’s show are $15 for members, $20 for adults, and $10 for those 18 and under and can be purchased online at www.hobokensynagogue.org/StarOfIsraelCentennial.php.
Guided tours of the Star of Israel Synagogue will also be available for free on Sunday.
Carlo Davis may be reached at cdavis@hudsonreporter.com.