Sutton Place Synagogue's members are proud of the rich, diverse and vibrant Conservative Jewish community we've built in the heart of midtown Manhattan. If you haven't visited us before, we welcome the chance to introduce you to our community.
Sutton Place Synagogue was founded more than 100 years ago, in 1901, as Congregation Orach Chayim (later Beth Hamidrash Hachhagadol Talmud Torah), but our roots extend back even before the dawn of the 20th century. That’s when a small Jewish population in the eastern portion of Manhattan’s Midtown area – a neighborhood populated mainly by people of German and Irish ancestry – banded together as a community in order to perpetuate the Jewish life they had left behind in traveling to America.
We’ve never been able to substantiate the rumor that the first quarters of the new synagogue they formed were in a loft above a pool hall, but suffice it to say that Sutton Place Synagogue has evolved from truly humble origins!
A handful of locations and expansions later, all in the Sutton Place area, the new Sutton Place Synagogue was officially opened on September 3, 1975 at 225 East 51st Street. We originally drew from United Nations families but now attract active members from throughout the city and its suburbs.
A common thread throughout our entire proud history is a sense of spiritual and cultural cohesiveness that has brought generations of New York’s Jewish population, regardless of background, together as a single, forward-looking community. It’s with that sense of pride and foresight that Sutton Place Synagogue continues to write its history, each and every day, with new generations of members building on the legacy of our previous generations.
