Ramath Orah
Encyclopedia
Congregation Ramath Orah is an Orthodox
synagogue
located in Manhattan
's Upper West Side
, close to Columbia University
. It occupies a neo-Georgian building originally built in 1921 for the West Side Unitarian Church.
It is the synagogue portrayed in Ari L. Goldman
's book, A Year of Living Kaddish.
who demanded the Luxembourg must be “Judenrein” , and was given eleven days to complete the removal of the Jewish population of Luxembourg. Serebrenick managed to secure the exit of a further 250 Jews before he and his wife were driven out by the Gestapo. According to the New York Times, Serebrenick stayed, working to secure visas for more Jews, “until he was seized by the Gestapo and beaten unconscious.”
With the new century, Ramath Orah experienced a revival with a dynamic, young Rabbi Stephen Friedman.
The Columbia Spectator describes it as “very popular among Columbia students who want a spirited, liberal, Orthodox service."
’s book, Living a Year of Kaddish.
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism , is the approach to Judaism which adheres to the traditional interpretation and application of the laws and ethics of the Torah as legislated in the Talmudic texts by the Sanhedrin and subsequently developed and applied by the later authorities known as the Gaonim, Rishonim, and...
synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
located in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
's Upper West Side
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...
, close to Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
. It occupies a neo-Georgian building originally built in 1921 for the West Side Unitarian Church.
It is the synagogue portrayed in Ari L. Goldman
Ari L. Goldman
Ari L. Goldman is a Professor of Journalism at Columbia University and a former reporter for The New York Times.Goldman attended the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School on the Lower East Side of Manhattan...
's book, A Year of Living Kaddish.
History
The congregation was founded in 1942 by Rabbi Dr. Robert Serebrenik, his wife Mrs. Julia Serebrenik (née Herzog), and sixty-one other Jewish refugees form Luxembourg. Serebrenik, who was born in Vienna in 1902, had been Chief Rabbi of Luxembourg since 1929. About 1000 Jews fled into France at the time of the German invasion of Luxembourg, May 10, 1940. Luxembourg has approximately 4,000 Jewish residents at the beginning WWII, about half of whom had recently sought refuge there from Nazi countries. Rabbi and Mrs. Serebrenik stayed and organized a series of clandestine escapes of about 2,000 members of the Jewish population into southern, unoccupied France and elsewhere. On March 20, 1941, Serebrenik met in Berlin with Adolf EichmannAdolf Eichmann
Adolf Otto Eichmann was a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer and one of the major organizers of the Holocaust...
who demanded the Luxembourg must be “Judenrein” , and was given eleven days to complete the removal of the Jewish population of Luxembourg. Serebrenick managed to secure the exit of a further 250 Jews before he and his wife were driven out by the Gestapo. According to the New York Times, Serebrenick stayed, working to secure visas for more Jews, “until he was seized by the Gestapo and beaten unconscious.”
With the new century, Ramath Orah experienced a revival with a dynamic, young Rabbi Stephen Friedman.
The Columbia Spectator describes it as “very popular among Columbia students who want a spirited, liberal, Orthodox service."
Notable members
- Rabbi Saul BermanSaul BermanSaul J. Berman is a prominent American scholar and leading Modern Orthodox rabbi.As a rabbi, scholar, and educator he has made extensive contributions to the intensification of Jewish education for Jewish women on many levels, to the role of social ethics in synagogue life, and to the...
- Professor Paul S. AppelbaumPaul S. AppelbaumPaul Stuart Appelbaum is an American psychiatrist, and an expert on legal and ethical issues in medicine and psychiatry.-Biography:...
- Professor Esther Fuchs
- Professor Ari L. GoldmanAri L. GoldmanAri L. Goldman is a Professor of Journalism at Columbia University and a former reporter for The New York Times.Goldman attended the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School on the Lower East Side of Manhattan...
- Professor Louis HenkinLouis HenkinLouis Henkin , widely considered one of the most influential contemporary scholars of international law and the foreign policy of the United States, was a former president of the American Society of International Law and of the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy and University...
- Professor Adam Zachary NewtonAdam Zachary NewtonAdam Zachary Newton isChair of the Department of English at Yeshiva University and the former Jane and Rowland Blumberg Centennial Professor in English at the University of Texas at Austin....
- Rabbi Ismar SchorschIsmar SchorschIsmar Schorsch had been the son of hanoveranian Rabbi Emil Schorsch. They both experienced the so called "Reichskristallnacht" in a different manner. Dr. Ismar Schorsch became the sixth Chancellor of The Jewish Theological Seminary and is the Rabbi Herman Abramovitz Professor of Jewish history...
- Rabbi Joseph TelushkinJoseph TelushkinJoseph Telushkin is an American rabbi, lecturer, and author.-Biography:Telushkin attended the Yeshiva of Flatbush, was ordained at Yeshiva University, and studied Jewish history at Columbia University....
- Dean David SchizerDavid SchizerDavid M. Schizer was named the fourteenth Dean of Columbia Law School in 2004. He was appointed dean at the age of 35, making him the youngest dean in the school's history and one of the youngest deans of a top law school.One of the nation's leading experts in tax law, Schizer worked at Davis Polk...
Other
Ramath Orah is the synagogue described in Ari L. GoldmanAri L. Goldman
Ari L. Goldman is a Professor of Journalism at Columbia University and a former reporter for The New York Times.Goldman attended the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School on the Lower East Side of Manhattan...
’s book, Living a Year of Kaddish.