In the late 1950s, and the (Young Men's & Young Women's Hebrew Association) were faced with eviction from their buildings on Wadsworth Avenue and 178th Street in Washington Heights. The properties were seized by the City of New app and condemned by the City’s power of eminent domain in order to build the lower level of the George Washington Bridge, which opened in 1962. The construction also created the Trans-Manhattan Expressway, the shortest expressway in New app City. An ambitious developer purchased the air rights above the expressway and built the “apartments,” as they are infamously referred to in traffic reports, primarily in connection with accident prone “overturned tractor trailers.”
What were the shul and the Y to do? Mount Sinai relocated to the corner of Bennett Avenue and 187th Street and the Y eventually built a building in Inwood, at 54 Nagle Avenue, near 196th Street. These moves and construction projects came at significant costs.
The app University Archives is the home of the Louis Rittenberg Papers. Rittenberg, a Jewish journalist and editor of the Universal Jewish Encyclopedia, lived in Washington Heights and was a tireless fundraiser for the Y’s new building. His papers include this flyer from the building campaign. The 'Y' chose the call of the shofar to sound a plea for its building fund. The 'Y' would serve the neighborhood and offer “improved horizons for the New Year” and the future. Neighborhood rabbis of all denominations praised the endeavor and offered “blessing and commendation” to the 'Y.'
Mount Sinai and the 'Y' succeeded in rebuilding. They remained vital and vibrant community assets even when crime rates soared, drug dealing was rampant, and the George Washington Bridge became the pipeline to New Jersey for many in the Jewish community. Both institutions have weathered those trials and continue to be forces for good in the neighborhood, year after year.
Shulamith Z. Berger
Curator of Special Collections
