Astoria Center of Israel

Astoria Center of Israel
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location	27-35 Crescent Street, Astoria, New York
Coordinates
Area	less than one acre
Built	1925
Architect	Louis Allen Abramson
Architectural style	Classical Revival
NRHP Reference #	09000833
Added to NRHP	October 16, 2009

The Astoria Center of Israel (1925–26) is a historic synagogue located in the Astoria, Queens neighborhood of New York City, listed on both the New York State and the National Registers of Historic Places.

Design

The Astoria Center was designed by architect Louis Allen Abramson as one of the earliest synagogues in Queens. The building features a brick façade, two-stories tall, and five-bays wide. The trim is cast-stone, and features double-height Ionic piers flanking round-arched windows. The piers support an entablature and are topped by a balustrade. Its round-arched entrance is topped with a cartouche within which is inscribed a Star of David.

Among the synagogue’s features is a set of murals by French artist Louis Pierre Rigal added a few years after the building was completed.

History

According to the Center's website, the “roots” of The Astoria Center of Israel can actually be traced back to Jewish congregation Mishkan Israel, begun sometime in the 1880s, constructing a building in 1906. In 1921 that congregation built a "Talmud-Torach" center next to its first building, where education could "implant in our children a love and reverence for our noble tradition." That education building later became the home of the Astoria Center of Israel, with the original Mishkan Israel building later destroyed in a fire.

In 1926, efforts were begun to enlarge the building that housed the new Astoria Center of Israel, and by 1929 ACI "had become a fully operational 'Center' of Jewish life in Queens." It was added to the National and State Registers of Historic Places in 2009.

Rabbis

In 1926, Rabbi Joshua L. Goldberg became the Center's first rabbi. He had been drafted into the Russian Army during WWI, fleeing to the United States to enlist and serve with American forces in Europe before returning to New York to attend rabbinical school and become a rabbi. With the outbreak of WWII, Goldberg returned to the U.S. military, this time as a chaplain, as the first rabbi to serve with the U.S. Navy in WWII. In 1951, he was named rabbi emeritus of ACI.