Architect
The East Midwood Jewish Center building's architect is uncertain. The design is officially credited to the Building Committee and Irving Warshaw, the construction superintendent. The architect's name is not recorded in synagogue records, nor on the building's dedicatory plaque. The Center's National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nomination form, however, argues that the architect was Louis Abramson, based on visual evidence and one piece of written evidence.
Abramson was a leading architect of synagogue-centers at that time. He designed a number of New York examples, including the original synagogue-center, the Manhattan Jewish Center (1918), as well as the Brooklyn Jewish Center, the Flatbush Jewish Center, and the Ocean Parkway Jewish Center (all constructed in Brooklyn between 1920 and 1924). While the Flatbush Jewish Center has been completely remodeled, the Brooklyn and Ocean Parkway Jewish Centers are visually similar to the East Midwood Jewish Center, and the Brooklyn Jewish Center in particular has an identical layout. The written evidence consists of an entry in a souvenir journal commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Flatbush Jewish Center, stating that Abramson drew East Midwood's plans. The NRHP nomination form speculates that Abramson drew the basic plans for the East Midwood Center, and that the Building Committee completed them, in order to save money.
Alternatively, Maurice Courland's 1957 obituary claims the East Midwood Jewish Center as his work. Courland also designed a number of synagogues and New York landmarks, including Brooklyn's Magen David Synagogue.
Read more about this topic: East Midwood Jewish Center, Architecture
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