Boston 2015--part 1: The Vilna Shul and History of Jews in Boston

I've been in Boston mostly since January 2nd, helping to take care of my two youngest grandsons, Eli now age 3.5 and Kai now (in may) 8 months old.    I have Wednesdays "off" and Thursday mornings so I've done some sightseeing, although it had been limited due to the snow and weather conditions.

One day in winter, I went into Boston and went to the Vilna Shul, the last intact immigrant-era synagogue in Boston.

To get there I walked by the Mass. State House and a few blocks up to get to the shul.  It was between snow storms, I believe, and you can see the snow (over 4' deep) around.

Capitol in Snow

Icicles hanging from condo building

Removing snow along walk to shul

Entry to Shul: In Yiddish:  Vilnar Congregation

Sing outside door of synagogue

Poor Eastern European Jewish immigrants started coming to Boston in large numbers starting in the 1880s after the assassination of the Czar,  They came with very little money--at most $50 in their pockets.  They settled in the North End and at one point there were as many Jews as Italians there.  It was a very diverse area with 23 ethnicities on 42 acres.  Most of Boston had segregated neighborhoods but this area did not.   The Jews gathered together in small groups to try to create mini-communities from their own shtetls.  Many settled in the poorer areas of the North and West Ends of Boston.  The Jews from the area in the rural areas around Vilna formed a landscmanchaft in 1893 and then gathered first in homes and then in  what was the African-American meeting house to pray originally.  As they grew in size to about 300 members, they bought the huge African American 12 St Baptist Church (with seating for up to 800) and used it as their synagogue.  This building was eventually bought by the city for $20,000 (through eminent domain),  and torn down for a school.

In 1919, first and second generation Jewish immigrants, mostly from Vilna, Lithuania built a synagogue in their new home, the Boston West End.  The members helped to build the synagogue and painted murals on the inside as was their custom in Europe.  The shul became the center for prayer, community and learning for more than 60 years.  Most of these people were poorer than other Jews in Boston.  The synagogue used to be filled for the High Holidays and Yiddish was spoken among the people.  At one point there were 53 small synagogues Boston, most  in this area for people from different areas of Europe. Many of these central ones closed as Jews moved from the tenements of the North and Wext ends to other Boston areas including Roxbury and also to the suburbs.

This synagogue has not been used for prayer since the mid 1980s when the last member was attacked while closing after sunset in 1985.  He had been getting local students to come in for a minyan for prayers for years, but after the attack, he  stopped as it had become too dangerous for him.  The building was closed for about ten years.  Birds got in and the inside was a mess.  The last member tried to sell the synagogue but since there were no other board members (he needed a total of 3), he could not.  The State then put it up for sale to similar organizations.  One synagogue wanted to get it to tear down for parking as a sign of the times.  The Boston Center for Jewish Heritage was created in the mid-1990s and in 1995, the shul was bought by the group for a nominal amount.  It has been restored (work continues) as a historical museum, with offices at the entry.  The sanctuary is open to the public and a history of the Jews in Boston is in the basement.  The organization has had reunions of past members and their descendants which have grown in popularity.

The current building is the final one of 3 used by the group and the first one that was built /remodeled for them and the cornerstone laid in late 1919. When the group moved from the Baptist church, they took the pews with them.  The sides of the pews were "altered" to remove the horizontal cross.

The ark was also brought from the Baptist church.

The synagogue is open Wednesdays--Fridays from 11 to 5 with guided tours at 1 and 3, and possibly Sundays from 1 to 5.  I was there a bit before 3 so got a private tour then, and it was wonderful!

First she began with a history of the West and North ends.  The whole area was marshy.  A prison and hospital had been built in the West End as no one else wanted to live there and it was best for "undesirables" including the sick.  The area was cheap and African Americans lived there mostly until the 1870s and prostitutes also inhabited the area.  It was one of the first areas in the US where Jews followed African Americans.

In 1798, the State House was moved to its current location and Beacon Hill became a white protestant neighborhood.    Back Bay was then planned in the mid-1800s and a filling in of the swampy area began.  More minorities moved into those areas.  The following map at the shul showed the expansion.  The area inside the black was the original land area.  The area outside of the black is what had been marshy swamp and was filled in.  Poorer people were pushed back into those areas to live.

This is what the sanctuary looks like now:

the original men's section--women's is off to the right

The Bimah (pulpit and ark)

Bimah close up

Torah Holder

To save money, many practical items were made, including a Torah holder from a beer barrel.

The Women's section

Close up of mural of Rachel's Tomb in women's section; notice the women members listed to the left

When the synagogue was being cleaned out, a restoration painter was brought it to figure out what color to paint the synagogue (to cover the dirt covered beige paint.  The painter figured out there were murals covered by that paint, and the board decided to try to "recover" those murals.  The pictures above and below are examples of the murals.  More work needs to be done when money is raised.

Newest example of murals

A partial list of men members, located near back of sanctuary

Close up of part of women members

Notice that sometimes the women are (correctly) listed as the daughter of a person/father ( בת ) but many are listed as the son of a father (בר ), such as Batya the son of Reb Moshe Nareg--5th line from the bottom and please excuse my poor transliteration of Yiddish.

Downstairs there were many boards with pictures of synagogues and areas where Jews lived as well as charts of the numbers in certain areas as certain times.

Example of poster and picture of Jews from the past in the Boston area

           

For more information on the Jewish culture center and the shul, please go to

http://www.vilnashul.org/about/our_history

An article of the descendants visiting the shul can be found at:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/12/01/vilna-shul-beacon-hill-home-for-jewish-emigres-decades-past-gathers-descendants/nJyZEizMQpo9BYD6WoBXJK/story.html