REMEMBER: HARLEM’S HIDDEN RELIGIOUS HISTORY
Harlem Bespoke: Another post written in past celebrates the holiday season with uptown’s forgotten Jewish history. Did you know that Harlem was also uptown’s major Jewish neighborhood over a century ago? You can find clues from to this part of Harlem history by looking closely at some of the churches like Mt. Olivet Baptist on Lenox Avenue and 120th Street. The majestic Corinthian columns have a Star of David sculpted at the top detail and reveal that the historic site was once a former Jewish house of worship. Temple Israel was built back in 1907 but the neighborhood would dramatically change by a couple of decades later and everything was converted to the famous Baptist church by 1925 in the roaring twenties.