Our History
The area of New York City in and around “Far West” 34th Street has gone by many names: Hell’s Kitchen; Midtown West; Chelsea and Clinton; the Garment District; and now Hudson Yards. But whatever the appellation, one characteristic has remained. Our neighborhood has always embraced diversity: tenements of the late nineteenth century teemed with immigrant Jewish multitudes living free from centuries of Europe’s terrors; garment industry factories of the twentieth century offered new Americans a living and financial security; commuters from ever growing suburbs flowed into Penn Station or through the Lincoln Tunnel; and today, the growing High Line Park, the expanded Javits Center, a bold reimagined Penn Station and dozens of gleaming glass towers transform Far West 34th Street into a city within a city for hundreds of thousands of tourists, conventioneers, students and professionals from across the region and the world, offering unparalleled opportunities to dine, shop, live, learn and work right in the heart of town.
Throughout these shifts, our humble congregation has remained “Far West” 34th Street’s beloved, trusted center of spiritual respite and renewal, welcoming the multitudes of Jews calling Midtown Manhattan home for at least part of each day, six to seven days a week.
Founded in 1890, our first iteration, Congregation Beth Israel offered local resident merchants and garment workers a gathering center for worship, spiritual guidance, yahrzeit and burial support services. In 1915, the Congregation officially added the name West Side Jewish Center. Throughout the next fifty years, her congregants staunchly supported the founding of the State of Israel with assertive fundraising, Hebrew and Jewish education, political activism and Aliyah.
In 2016, our congregation has “rebranded” as the Hudson Yards Synagogue. We are here, now and forever, b’H, to continue our synagogue’s century-plus long mission as a Modern Orthodox house of worship, a spiritual home for lives steeped in Torah, Tefillah and Mitzvot for both individuals and families, serving the present and future Jewish diversity of the Hudson Yards neighborhood, and all of twenty-first century New York City.
Our Rabbis
1900-1912 Rabbi Goronowsky
1913-1916 Rabbi Glick
1917-1921 Rabbi Louis Shmulevitz
1921-1924 Rabbi Simcha Levy
1926-1937 Rabbi Dovid Yosef Schick
1940-1943 Rabbi Louis Ginsburg
1944-1946 Rabbi Abeles
1947-1948 Rabbi Spiegelman
1948-1952 Rabbi Henry Benn
1952-1953 Rabbi Norman Lamm
1954-1957 Rabbi Harold Gottesman
1957-1994 Rabbi Solomon Kahane
1996-1998 Rabbi Yosef Viner
1998-2005 Rabbi Richard Weiss
2005-Present Rabbi Jason Herman
Sun, April 20 2025
22 Nisan 5785
Today's Sefirah Count Is 7
היום שבעה ימים שהם שבוע אחד לעמר |
Today's Calendar
Pesach |
Yizkor |
Pesach Shacharit : 9:30am |
Havdalah : 8:24pm |
Tomorrow's Calendar
Shacharit : 6:45am |
Mincha : 1:40pm |
Friday Night
Candle Lighting : 7:27pm |
Mincha : 7:30pm |
Shabbat Day
Shacharit : 9:30am |
Mincha : 7:20pm |
Maariv : 8:31pm |
Havdalah : 8:31pm |
This week's Torah portion is Parshat Shmini
Shabbat, Apr 26 |
Candle Lighting
Friday, Apr 25, 7:27pm |
Havdalah
Sunday, Apr 20, 8:24pm |
Pesach & Yizkor
Sunday, Apr 20 |
Zmanim
Alot Hashachar | 4:42am |
Earliest Tallit | 5:17am |
Netz (Sunrise) | 6:10am |
Latest Shema | 9:32am |
Zman Tefillah | 10:40am |
Chatzot (Midday) | 12:55pm |
Mincha Gedola | 1:29pm |
Mincha Ketana | 4:52pm |
Plag HaMincha | 6:16pm |
Shkiah (Sunset) | 7:40pm |
Havdalah | 8:24pm |
Tzeit Hakochavim | 8:24pm |
More >> |
Since 1890 • Hudson Yards Synagogue • 347 West 34th Street • New York, NY 10001
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