Rare Find: New Shaarai Thora Synagogue, Worcester, MA

While processing Rabbi William A. Rosenthall’s extensive collection of postcards, Processing Archivist Amy Lazarus came across a postcard with a photograph of a synagogue in her hometown of Worcester, MA. Being unfamiliar with the synagogue, Amy talked to her family and researched online to find out more about the synagogue, its history, and its significance for the Jewish community of Worcester. Below, Amy shares what she discovered.

Recently, I had the pleasure of experiencing firsthand the value of Rabbi Rosenthall’s impressive postcard collection. While processing, I came across an image of a synagogue in my hometown of Worcester, MA. Not recognizing the building, labeled New Shaarai Thora Synagogue I asked my father if he knew where the synagogue was located.

My father informed me the photograph might be a rare image, as that particular synagogue had been badly damaged due to an arson-related fire and had long been out of use as a synagogue. He then shared a surprising story: my great grandfather had actually been one of the one of the early congregants of the synagogue!

This, of course, prompted me to begin researching the synagogue to learn more. And soon the value of the Rosenthall Collection became even more apparent.

I found that the synagogue had actually been Worcester’s first Modern Orthodox synagogue and a significant part of the city’s Jewish history. Unfortunately, the building had been remodeled and converted to condominiums after the fire. While the building still stands, I could find no pictures of it prior to this conversion online.

While I could easily locate another building in use today as the Shaarai Torah Synagogue in Worcester, I could find no photograph of the building on the postcard in the Rosenthall collection.

Eventually, I learned that the synagogue I did keep finding was a second Shaarai Torah synagogue that was opened on the west side of the city. This became known as Shaarai Torah West, with the original synagogue known as Shaarai Torah East. Shaarai Torah West became an independent congregation in 1964, and Shaarai Torah East continued to operate until it was the last remaining synagogue on the East side of the city.

The synagogue on the postcard was Shaarai Torah East, the first of the two buildings, which opened its doors in 1906. The synagogue served the community of Worcester for an entire century, until the devastating fire forced it to close its doors as the last synagogue on the east side. Despite its role as a prominent synagogue in the history of Worcester’s Jewish community, today its only online presence is a lone Wikipedia article which features the remodeled building as condominiums.

It appeared I was holding one of what may be only a few photos of the Shaarai Torah east prior to remodeling. If not for Rabbi Rosenthall’s collection, the ability to easily see the original Shaarai Torah synagogue, Worcester’s very last east side synagogue, might have been lost.

This experience served incredibly well to demonstrate just how valuable the collection will be to researchers and to preserving the history of Jewish communities all over the world.

Processing Postcards

After completing an inventory of the William A. Rosenthall Judaica Collection, Processing Archivist Amy Lazarus began work on the first major series of the collection–Rabbi Rosenthall’s incredibly diverse collection of Judaica postcards.

As a meticulous collector, Rabbi Rosenthall organized the majority of his postcards into portfolios by subject group. He organized synagogue and Jewish cemetery postcards by geographical location, as well as creating portfolios of Yiddish Rosh Hashanah postcards, biblical scenes, Jewish life cycle events, rabbis, Yiddish authors, and art by Jewish artists, just to name a few!

The rehousing of these portfolio into archival-quality storage, as well as scanning and metadata creation for these portfolios, is an ongoing project on which our interns are working. Previously rehoused and digitized postcards are available here: William A. Rosenthall Judaica Collection – Postcards.

However, the collection also contains a large number of loose, uncategorized postcards with no apparent organizational scheme. We found these postcards in boxes large and small, envelopes, box lids, and even lockboxes!

Original boxes in which we found postcards from the Rosenthall Collection.

Original boxes in which we found postcards from the Rosenthall Judaica Collection.

Lockbox containing Rosenthall Judaica Collection postcards.

Lockbox containing Rosenthall Judaica Collection postcards.

The postcards need to be organized so that researchers can easily find specific items in which they are interested–for example, a Rosh Hashanah card showing a scene of the practices of Tashlikh or Kapparot, a postcard with a photograph of a synagogue in Nashville, Tennessee, or a postcard with a portrayal of a rabbi, such as Maimonaides. Amy is currently working to organize these boxes of postcards by topic–similar to how Rabbi Rosenthall organized his postcard portfolios–so that researchers will be able to go directly to the folder they need, instead of digging through boxes of material!

Processing Archivist Amy Lazarus organizing Rosh Hashanah postcards.

Processing Archivist Amy Lazarus organizing Rosh Hashanah postcards.

Rosh Hashanah postcards.

Rosh Hashanah postcards.

Please enjoy the following postcards, selected by Amy, which demonstrate the breadth of topics covered by this part of the collection!

Jewish cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee.

Jewish cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee.

Romantic Yiddish Rosh Hashanah card.

Romantic Yiddish Rosh Hashanah card.

Jerusalem

Jerusalem.

Jewish girls.

Jewish girls.

We anticipate completing the organization of postcards by year’s end, at which point the organizational structure of this series will be described in the finding aid for the William A. Rosenthall Judaica Collection. The postcards will also be rehoused in archival quality boxes to ensure their long-term preservation. Keep your eyes on this space for progress reports on the processing of the collection!