Our History
Since its founding in 1825, during the presidency of John Quincy Adams, B’nai Jeshurun has been a leading force in the New York Jewry, and has been closely involved in the civic and national communities. The 32 synagogue founders were a group of mostly Ashkenazi members of the Spanish-Portuguese Congregation Shearith Israel in Lower Manhattan. They wished to “promote the strict keeping of their faith,” to introduce “less formal worship with time set aside for explanations and instruction, without a permanent leader, and with no distinctions made among the members,” and to conduct services “according to German and Polish minhag.” The spirit that moved these founders was the spirit of the American Revolution: democracy, freedom, diversity, informality, and non-elitism.
The new congregation—the second in New York City and the ninth in the nation—began holding services in temporary facilities at 533 Pearl Street, and then moved northward, with the general trend of the city’s Jewish population, to Elm Street, Greene Street, 34th Street, Madison Avenue, and 64th Street, and then, in 1918, to its present home at 88th Street between Broadway and West End Avenue. The congregation flourished in its beautiful new home for more than 50 years under the leadership of Rabbi Israel Goldstein, who guided B’nai Jeshurun through a transformative period in American Jewish life. Seeking to balance a commitment to Jewish tradition with the demands of a rapidly modernizing America, Rabbi Goldstein strengthened BJ’s identity as a congregation rooted in learning, service, and public responsibility, and formally affiliated the synagogue with the Conservative movement.
During the 1930s and 1940s, Rabbi Goldstein used his pulpit and public voice to call attention to the mounting crisis in Europe, urging the United States government to admit political and religious refugees fleeing Nazi persecution and helping mobilize communal support through national Jewish relief organizations. His leadership extended far beyond BJ: he served as head of the New York Board of Rabbis, the Jewish National Fund of America, the Zionist Organization of America, and the American Jewish Congress, and helped found the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Through decades of change, Rabbi Goldstein positioned BJ as both a spiritual home for its congregants and a congregation deeply engaged with the civic, national, and global Jewish communities.
In 1951, Rabbi William Berkowitz began his tenure at BJ as Associate Rabbi, and in 1960 he succeeded Dr. Goldstein as Senior Rabbi. Amid the challenges of urban decline, Rabbi Berkowitz dedicated his efforts to ensuring that B’nai Jeshurun would remain a meaningful center of Jewish life on the Upper West Side. In 1952, he founded the Institute of Adult Jewish Studies and in 1962, he established the first Conservative Jewish day school in Manhattan. In 1960, Rabbi Berkowitz also founded the Dialogue Forum Series, which brought to BJ leading thinkers and public figures, including Ambassador Abba Eban, Dr. Viktor Frankl, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Senator Ted Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Nobel Laureates Isaac Bashevis Singer and Elie Wiesel, and Israeli Prime Ministers Menachem Begin, Shimon Peres, and Yitzhak Rabin. Together with Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, Rabbi Berkowitz also helped make BJ’s annual Purim concert a beloved and overflowing celebration.
Rabbi Berkowitz’s tenure as Senior Rabbi concluded in the early 1980s and the congregation entered a period of transition, until the arrival of Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer from Buenos Aires in 1985 began a remarkable era of renewal.
Setting up his “office” with a card table, a payphone, and a roll of quarters, Rabbi Meyer began attracting many people with his impassioned Judaism, blending social activism, spirited musical worship, and a vision of an open and inclusive community. The vision he articulated then remains the same: Congregation B’nai Jeshurun believes that a community synagogue that responds to the authentic questions of life, death, love, anxiety, longing, and the search for meaning can once again attract Jews—families and individuals—if it is willing to grapple with the great issues of life.
The following year, Rabbi J. Rolando Matalon, who had been a student of Marshall’s in Argentina, joined him in leading the congregation. Over time, Friday night services began to draw growing numbers of people, animated by meaningful prayer, joy, music, and dancing. Ari Priven, another student of Marshall’s from Argentina, came to BJ in 1989 as Hazzan. In 1995, following Rabbi Meyer’s death in 1993, Rabbi Marcelo Bronstein, yet another of his students, joined Rabbi Matalon in leading the congregation. In 2001, Rabbi Felicia Sol, who had been the Family and Youth Director and a Rabbinic Fellow, joined her teachers in their rabbinic partnership, becoming the congregation’s first woman rabbi. In June 2017, Rabbi Bronstein and his wife, Karina Zilberman, left New York to make their home in Costa Rica in “The Ecovilla,” a model for sustainable living. In June 2021, Rabbi Sol was appointed as a senior rabbi of the congregation, another first in the congregation’s history. In 2024, Rabbi Rebecca Weintraub joined BJ’s spiritual leadership. In 2026, Rabbi Matalon retired after more than four decades of transformative leadership and became Rabbi Emeritus. At that time, Rabbi Sol became Rosh Kehillah (head of community) and Rabbi Alex Braver joined BJ’s spiritual leadership, partnering with Rabbis Sol, Weintraub, and Hazzan Ari Priven to lead the congregation into its third century.
Under the leadership of the rabbis, hazzan, and numerous community leaders, a small, dying congregation with a proud history was transformed into a vibrant, inclusive, participatory community of over 1,950 households. The congregation’s vital history continues to be tied to its sacred space and to the visionary leadership of its leaders, with many new chapters to be written.
