The Bialystoker Synagogue is at 7–11 Bialystoker Place, formerly Willett Street, between Grand and Broome Streets in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. It is an Orthodox Jewish synagogue.
The building with it’s Federal architecture was constructed in 1826 as the Willett Street Methodist Episcopal Church; the synagogue purchased the building in 1905.
The building is made of Manhattan schist from a quarry on nearby Pitt Street. As the synagogue is home to an Orthodox Jewish congregation, a balcony section was constructed to accommodate female congregants. In the corner of the women’s gallery there is a small hidden door in the wall that leads to a ladder going up to an attic, which is illuminated by two windows. When it was first opened, the building was a rest stop for the Underground Railroad movement; runaway slaves found sanctuary in this attic.
The Bialystoker Synagogue was first organized in 1865 on Manhattan’s Lower East Side as the Chevra Anshei Chesed of Bialystok, founded by a group of Jews who came from the town of Białystok, at that time located in the Russian Empire, but now in Poland. The congregation was begun in a building on Hester Street, it later moved to Orchard Street, and ultimately to its present location 7–11 Bialystoker Place on the Lower East Side.
During the Great Depression a decision was made to beautify the main sanctuary, to provide a sense of hope and inspiration to the community.
The synagogue was designated a New York City Landmark in 1966. It is one of only four early-19th century fieldstone religious buildings surviving from the late Federal period in Lower Manhattan, and is the oldest building used as a synagogue in New York City. It was added to National Register of Historic Places on April 26, 1972