Houses of Worship

It's Palm Sunday and people are celebrating Christ's entry into Jerusalem.  Many in the East Village are walking around with their palm branches.

This is the 6th Street Community Synagogue, between 2nd and 1st Avenues.  From 1857 to 1940 it was The St. Mark's Evangelical Lutheran Church, and served the residents of what was known as "Kleindeutschland", little Germany.  On 6/15/1904 the church congregation went on an outing.  They boarded the General Slocum ship and proceeded to sail up the East River.  Near Hell Gate the ship caught fire.  1021 of 1350 passengers, mostly woman and children, were lost.  Until 9/11 it was the single worse fire in New York History.  The survivors of the congregation moved to Yorkville and Astoria.
Today, the synagogue's spiritual leader is Rabbi Greg Wall, also known as "the Jazz Rabbi".  He has performed around the world, and at the same time has built a congregation that appears to be thriving.

This was Congregation Adas Yisroel Anshe Meseritz Synagogue on East 6th Street between 1st Ave and Avenue A.  It has been slated for demolition many times, but the Historical Preservation Society keeps fighting to preserve it.  It is the only still standing "tenement Synagogue".  They were called that because the buildings fit with the size of local tenements and their members for the most part lived in those tenements .  It opened in 1892 and served the Polish Orthodox Community.  When they moved out of the area the synagogue fell on hard times.