Synagogues - Historic Buildings of Connecticut

Agudas Achim Synagogue, Hebron (1940)

This past winter, Connecticut Explored magazine featured an article about the state’s rural synagogues. One of these is Agudas Achim (United Brethren) Synagogue, at 10 Church Street in Hebron, a brick Art Deco building. The congregation had been meeting in private homes for many years, but began planning to build a synagogue in the late 1930s. A leading member of Hebron’s Jewish community, Ira Charles Turshen, offered to design and build the new synagogue. In 1924, Turshen, who was born in the province of Minsk in Russia, had bought a grain business and store in Amston, a village in Hebron. When his grain mill burned down in 1927, he rebuilt it himself using brick. The new building featured his signature trademark, a circular window. In building Agudas Achim, Turshen wanted to construct a building which would last for generations. He was willing to make up the difference for cost overruns and used recycled bricks on the synagogue’s rear and side walls. Turshen made the Star of David stained glass window on the front facade himself. The synagogue was completed in 1940 and officially dedicated in the following year.

Agudas Achim Synagogue, Hartford (1928)

Agudas Achim is a Orthodox Jewish congregation founded in Hartford in 1887 by immigrants from Romania. Meeting at first in private homes, the Congregation moved to a building on Market Street around 1902 and then to a larger synagogue on Greenfield Street, constructed in 1928. Like the similar Beth Hamedrash Hagodol on Garden Street, Agudas Achim (1928) was designed by the firm of Berenson & Moses. Following the movement of Jews out of Hartford’s Upper Albany neighborhood, the Congregation constructed a new synagogue on North Main Street in West Hartford in 1968. The 1928 building has since been a Baptist Church and is now the Glory Chapel International Cathedral.

Chevry Lomday Mishnayes (1926)

Congregation Chevry Lomday Mishnayes was founded in Hartford by Orthodox Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe and Russia in 1918. Having no permanent home for their first seven years, the congregation built a shul in 1924-1926 on Bedford Street in Hartford’s Clay Arsenal neighborhood. The building‘s exterior has the same design as the many standard brick apartment buildings that were being constructed in Hartford at the time, but with adaptations for its use as a synagogue. In 1964, the congregation moved to a new shul at 191 Westbourne Parkway and in 1983 merged with Teferes Israel, which merged with Beth David Synagogue in West Hartford in 1993. The former shul on Bedford Street is now the Temple of Prayer and Worship for the House of God.

Beth Hamedrash Hagadol (1922)

Garden Street Synagogue, Garden Street, Hartford

The construction of Temple Beth Israel, on Charter Oak Avenue in Hartford in 1876, established a model for future urban synagogues in Connecticut. Influenced by the design of the Neue Synagoge on Oranienburger Straße (1859-1866) in Berlin, Germany and Temple Emanu-El (1868) at 43rd Street and 5th Avenue in New York, Temple Beth Israel has broad steps leading to a series of round arched doorways in a center section recessed between two projecting square towers. Other synagogues to follow this model include Congregation Tephereth Israel (1925) in New Britain and Beth Israel Synagogue (1925) in New Haven. Beth Hamedrash Hagadol, an Orthodox congregation organized on Hartford’s East Side by Eastern European immigrants in 1905, moved to the city’s North End in 1921. The following year, the congregation commissioned the Hartford architectural firm of Berenson & Moses to design a synagogue on Garden Street that was to be similar to Beth Israel in New Haven. The completed building, later known as the Garden Street Synagogue, was used by the congregation until 1962. Following the movement of Jews from the city to the suburbs, Beth Hamedrash Hagadol merged with Ateres Kneset Israel to form the United Synagogues of Greater Hartford, which moved to West Hartford in the 1960s. The Garden Street Synagogue’s Torah Ark, which remained in the building’s basement for two decades, was recently restored by the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford. The former Garden Street Synagogue is now The Greater Refuge Church of Christ.

Tephereth Israel Synagogue (1925)

Congregation Tephereth Israel in New Britain was formed in 1925 when orthodox Lithuanian immigrants withdrew from the conservative Temple B’nai Israel. The synagogue on Winter Street, which combines elements of the Romanesque and Colonial Revival styles, was built in 1925 to 1928 and was designed by Adolf Feinberg, an Austrian-born architect who arrived in the United States in 1921. Feinberg also designed Beth David Synagogue in West Hartford. Congregation Tephereth Israel, which today has a small membership, is undertaking a building repair program. For five decades, Rabbi Henry Okolica has been spiritual leader of the Orthodox synagogue, as well as serving as Jewish chaplain at Central Connecticut State University.

Charter Oak Cultural Center (1876)

Connecticut’s first synagogue was built for Congregation Beth Israel, on Charter Oak Avenue in Hartford in 1876. The congregation’s earlier home, a former Baptist church on Main Street, was being razed for the building of the Cheney Block. Departing from his usual Gothic style, the architect of Temple Beth Israel, George Keller, utilized the Romanesque Revival style in his design. In 1898, with the congregation growing, the building was enlarged and renovated. The the width of the nave was altered to match the towers and the interior was elaborately stenciled. In 1936, the congregation moved to a new building in West Hartford. Today, the original Temple Beth Israel has been restored and serves as the non-sectarian Charter Oak Cultural Center.

Temple Beth Israel, West Hartford (1936)

Congregation Beth Israel, Connecticut’s oldest Jewish congregation, was established in 1843. It is now one of the largest Reform congregations in the northeast. The first synagogue was built in Hartford in 1876 and is today the Charter Oak Cultural Center. In 1936, the congregation moved to a new building, on Farmington Avenue in West Hartford. Designed by Charles R. Greco, Temple Beth Israel was built in the Neo-Byzantine style and features a prominent Byzantine dome. The congregation received a West Hartford Historic Preservation Award in 2006 for the meticulous restoration of the synagogue.