6. Moorish Exterior and Facade

Eldridge Street Synagogue-Museum at Eldridge Street-Tour-Lower East Side-Chinatown-NYC

The Eldridge Street Synagogue was built in 1886-87 as a house of worship for the Kahal Adas Yeshurun congregation. Designed by Roman Catholic tenement builders, Peter and Francis Herter, the building took one year and $91,907.61 to complete (or $2,234,140 in 2016 dollars when adjusted for inflation). Complimenting its intricate interior is its equally elaborate Moorish Revival exterior, which proudly displays the building’s ties to Jewish identity. Again, you’ll notice the Star of David featured on throughout the building: on its wooden doors, roof-line finials and terra-cotta bands.

Designers, who were commissioned to develop Jewish synagogues, were given quite a bit of aesthetic flexibility. That’s because the only Jewish law regarding synagogue architecture was that the sanctuary should be oriented in the direction of Jerusalem. Other than the Moorish style, the Eldridge Street Synagogue also features a Gothic rose window and Romanesque masonry. In addition, the Museum at Eldridge Street suspects that the architects might have designed the building with consideration to numerical symbolism. For instance, the five keyhole windows below the Rose Window could symbolize the five books of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), and the 1o tablets on the rooftop have been said to relate back to the 10 Commandments.