Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun (KJ or CKJ) is a Modern Orthodox synagogue, located on East 85th Street on the Upper East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan. The synagogue was founded in 1872. The synagogue is closely affiliated with the Ramaz School which shares a building with the lower school and is across the street from the middle school.
The name Ramaz derives from the initials of Rabbi Moses Zevulun Margolies (1851–1936), the grandfather of the school's founder, Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein (1902–1979). Rabbi Margolies served as the synangogue's rabbi from 1906 until his death in 1936. Lookstein had served as the congregation's assistant rabbi after receiving his semicha in 1926 from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University and had assumed many of the roles as congregational leader while his grandfather was ill for many years before his death, assuming the title of Senior rabbi after his grandfather's death in 1936. The current Senior Rabbi of the congregation, Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, is the son of Joseph Lookstein and was a member of the first class of six students at Ramaz when the school was established in 1937. Haskel Lookstein was installed as Assistant Rabbi on June 14, 1958, serving under his father, and became Senior rabbi after his father's death in 1979.
In December 2008 it was reported that the congregation lost $3.5 million in the Bernard Madoff scandal.
In July 2011, there was a four-alarm fire at the synagogue building on 85th Street; the fire, which started on the top floor and roof of the three-story building, caused the roof to collapse and further damaged the building's stability. No one was killed, but five firefighters of the 170 who responded were injured; due to ongoing renovations, the congregation had been worshiping elsewhere, and no Torahs were damaged. The cause of the fire is unknown.
Famous quotes containing the word congregation:
“Passing through here in 1795, Bishop Asbury commented, ‘The country improves in cultivation, wickedness, mills, and stills.’ Five years later, he held a meeting in the neighborhood and remarked that he thought most of the congregation had come to look at his wig.”
—Administration in the State of Sout, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)