Just as churches were often converted into synagogues by newly arriving Jewish immigrants, the inverse happened as well. This synagogue was built by Kol Israel Ansche Poland in “eclectic Moorish-Romanesque-Gothic style” by the architectural team of Herter & Schneider. It cost $100,000 and was dedicated on September 19, 1892. It gave the congregation much needed space for their rapidly growing congregation. Unfortunately, prosperity was short-lived and the congregation had to sell the building to St. Barbara’s Greek Orthodox Church in 1926. In short order, St. Barbara’s, too, had financial trouble and the building was foreclosed in the late 20s. It sat vacant until 1934 when St. Barbara’s was able to reacquire the property. The church made some alterations, removing or altering the Gothic stained glass windows and adding cross iconography but otherwise left the facade as it was. St. Barbara’s still owns the property today.

The Greek Orthodox Church of St. John the Baptist, October 1930. Built for the Congregation Kol Israel Anshe Poland in 1892, the synagogue at 27 Forsyth Street (then nos. 20-22) was sold to the Greek Orthodox Church in 1926. Today, it is St. Barbara’s Greek Orthodox Church The building was designed by the firm Herter & Schneider, whose Francis William Herter had previously designed the nearby Eldridge Street Synagogue.

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.