This synagogue at 58-60 Rivington Street was designed by architect Emery Roth and was dedicated in August 1904. It was built in the Moorish Revival style for Roumanian Congregation Adath Jeshurun of Jassy Synagogue and financed by the Universal Building and Construction Company, which included some members of the nearby Eldridge Street Synagogue. Unfortunately, just two years after opening the congregation fell on hard times and they were forced to vacate the building. In 1908, the new Polish Orthodox congregation Erste Warshauer (First Warsaw) moved in. This congregation attracted some big names for their services, including George and Ira Gershwin, Senator Jacob Javits, Samuel Goldwyn and George Burns. Like so many other Lower East Side synagogues, it was abandoned in 1974. But that wasn’t the end of its life. Photographer Hale Gurland purchased the building in 1979, built a penthouse on the roof and turned the building into apartments for artists. The facade of the building has remained true to its historic life as a place of worship, except for one artistic detail - Gurland installed a stylized camera shutter where the historic rose window once was.

Upon reaching New York, many Jewish immigrants settled on the Lower East Side, establishing new congregations and social aid societies specific to local communities of the old country. Small synagogues were so common that a stretch of East Broadway was known as “shtiebel row,” after the Yiddish term for a small space for prayer (in contrast to larger synagogues). Over time, Manhattan’s Jewish population shifted to other parts of the city, causing Lower East Side congregations to dwindle. Many synagogues were sold, shuttered, or abandoned, and some have since been demolished. Still, the neighborhood bears many traces of its once-vibrant Jewish life.