The fire that roared through Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on
Monday night not only upended an important religious body but
also badly damaged a milestone in the development of synagogue
architecture. The restrained neo-Classical design speaks of a
turning point in the early 1900s when Jews no longer felt bound
to incorporate Moorish elements in their places of worship as a
way of distinguishing them from Christian churches. As late as
1893, Arnold W. Brunner — probably the most influential
synagogue architect of his time — was still sprinkling Moorish
features like cusped arches through his design for Congregation
Shaaray Tefila, also known as the West End Synagogue, at 160
West 82nd Street. Within three years, however, Brunner abandoned
Eastern influences entirely in designing Congregation Shearith
Israel at Central Park West and 70th Street. Given the discovery
of Greco-Roman synagogue ruins in Galilee, Brunner argued that
neo-Classical design conferred the “sanction of antiquity” on
the modern synagogue.