Or Olam

Or Olam -The East 55th Street Synagogue was originally founded as Chevra Bnei Leive, in 1906. Its founders financed the purchase of our current building at 308 East 55th Street from a Baptist church in 1916, at a time when East 55th Street was paved with cobblestones and horse carts still gathered at the public market beside the Queensboro Bridge. (Or Olam is the small building on the right of this 1932 photo; it was given a Deco-style granite facade in the 1970s.)

In 1966, responding to the changes in the community’s demographic profile, the congregation affiliated with the Conservative Movement. One year later, Reuven Siegel, z”l, a JTS graduate, was appointed its first full-time rabbi. Several members of his former Bronx Congregation joined the synagogue, and under the Rabbi Siegel's leadership, membership grew from sixty families to more than 150.