What Once Was

or Lost Synagogues

This is a painting I finished in January and the subject is a former synagogue erected by the Congregation of Agudath Scholem in ca. 1913/1914 (5674). Since 1980 the building is home to the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church.

How do I choose my painting subjects, why this building?

When I moved to Jersey City ten years ago, I noticed after a while several former synagogues that have been transformed into different houses of worship. Those buildings make me think a lot about changes in a city, the history of this city, but also the history of my native home country, Germany.

Corner stone of the former Synagogue in Greenville on Bergen Ave

In Germany, very few Synagogues are left due to the Nazi regime, and the atrocities my home country has committed during the Holocaust. To this day police is stationed in front of every Jewish building of worship as well as in front of Jewish schools or museums.

Given this background, I probably notice synagogues more and it piqued my interest that a lot of those in Jersey City, are used by other religious communities. I wondered why, and what changes went through this community, the ever interesting topic of demographic changes in a city.

Another former Synagogue now a Baptist Church on Bramhall Ave

Considering that houses of worships are most often built with the help of the congregation members, by giving money, holding fundraising events and putting a lot of love and resources in those buildings, I am happy to see that they are being reused.

Former Temple now Church of Christ in Bergen.

A former Jewish Community Center that used to be around the corner from my house is gone for several decades. I have never seen it, and it was replaced with an elementary school. It looks like it was a stunning building and I read about a ball once being held there with 500 guests. I “stumbled” across it when I saw an old postcard at the Public Library which holds many vintage postcards of religious buildings throughout the City. These two postcards are the only ones though they have that depict a building that is connected to the Jewish community.

“(Jewish Community Center),” Jersey City Public Library Postcard Collection, accessed May 16, 2023, https://jcfplpostcards.omeka.net/items/show/329.

So much of this history is hidden, you have to look hard to find corner stones or signs to be remembered that there was once a very active Jewish Community throughout the city.

On the right - former Synagogue now a Mosque - Downtown

This city belonged to many people before us, and will belong to many people after us, and maybe this just means it doesn’t belong to us. It never belonged to any ONE group and never will belong to any ONE group.

And that, my friends, is basically what went through my mind when I painted the former synagogue.

Old buildings tell stories, you just have to listen!