Last week, students in Mr. Sandler's Jewish History class visited Temple Emanu-El, one of New York City’s most significant Jewish institutions, for a guided tour led by the synagogue’s curator. We traced the congregation’s journey from its 1840s beginnings on the Lower East Side—founded by German Jewish immigrants—to its move uptown and the opening of its current landmark Fifth Avenue sanctuary in 1929.
Inside the soaring sanctuary, students learned how the architecture blends Romanesque and Moorish influences, with intricate mosaics, luminous stained-glass windows, and a dramatic bimah and lectern arrangement that contrasts sharply with the Orthodox synagogue we visited earlier in October. The curator also highlighted influential congregants such as Governor and Senator Herbert Lehman, former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and other figures who shaped New York civic life.
Upstairs, the exhibit marking the congregation’s 180th anniversary brought the Gilded Age world of uptown German Jewish elites vividly to life. Students viewed artifacts like the locket belonging to Isidor and Ida Straus—lost together on the Titanic—and portraits and documents related to famed financier Joseph Seligman, whose exclusion from Saratoga’s Grand Union Hotel in 1877 became one of the most notorious antisemitic incidents of 19th-century America. A sweeping family tree charted the intertwined networks of the Warburgs, Guggenheims, Schiffs, Loebs, and Seligman's, illustrating how leaders like Jacob Schiff operated at the level of J. P. Morgan in shaping railroads, immigration, philanthropy, and the rise of modern American capitalism.
It was an inspiring day of architecture, history, and reflection on how American Judaism has evolved—and continues to evolve—within New York City.
Many students capped the experience by listening to historian Jacob Shulman’s recent podcast on his new book, The Money Kings: The Epic Story of the Jewish Immigrants Who Transformed Wall Street and Shaped Modern America, which further explores the world of Seligman, Schiff, and the German-Jewish families who helped build the nation’s financial and civic landscape.
