The Pike Street Synagogue was created in 1904 by Alfred E. Badt for the Congregation Sons of Israel Kalwari. This is one of the rare surviving synagogue buildings in the Lower East Side today. Around the early and mid-1900s, the Lower East Side served as an ethnic enclave for the Jewish immigrant community. The Pike Street Synagogue was one of the biggest synagogues, and one of the first synagogues built during the early 1900s. As time went by, the Jewish immigrant community became assimilated with American culture and began moving out of the Lower East Side. By the 1970s, the formerly known Pike Street Synagogue became vacant and vandalized as antisemitism rose in America. In 1994, a rich Taiwanese real estate owner bought the entire building and remodeled it into what it is today.
Today, the Pike Street synagogue has been split up into three different sections. At the ground level, underneath the stairs, lies a small 99 cent store. The 99 cent store is rented out by the owner of the building. On the second floor is the Sung Tak Buddhist Association, which was a generous donation to the Buddhist community by the Taiwanese real estate owner who bought the property. The third and final floor is used as commercial apartments which the owner rents out.
Here’s what the interior of the 99 cent store looks like. Although it’s a fairly small store, everything is so closely packed together that it still manages to hold many household items. (Click on the pictures to enlarge them!)
This is the first thing you would see as soon as you walk into the temple. There are many Buddhas lined up along the wall, as well as other symbolic objects such as flowers and fruits.
As you walk past the main entrance, you come across entire interior of the temple. The color red is predominant in most of the furniture because it’s a symbol for good fortune in Chinese culture. The little red cushions are for the Buddhists to kneel on while praying to Buddha. The skies on the roofs help create a relaxed and meditative environment for worship.
Here’s Brian and Dima outside of the temple with David, one of the volunteers we met. David was working all morning burning “gold paper” in the furnace as a sort of ritual in Buddhist culture. (Photograph taken by Sami)
After visiting the temple, David recommended that we check out the Vesak Buddha’s 2555th Birthday at the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. The picture above is of the main stage, where there were four little Buddhas lined up for people to wash as a part of his birthday celebration.
This is a view of the audience from the stage. Monks and other Buddhists from all over New York City came together to partake in this ceremony.
