When Riverdale Temple Held Services at Christ Church

[David Klein]

In 1952, when Ben Riley’s Arrowhead Inn was demolished to make way for the Briar Oaks apartment buildings, the Riverdale Temple congregation needed a new temporary home while awaiting the completion of its permanent home at 246th and Independence Ave. Christ Church opened its doors in a gesture of interfaith cooperation. The New York Times covered it: “A long-term venture in interfaith goodwill and community brotherhood will begin on Friday in the Riverdale section of the West Bronx when a temporarily “dispossessed” Jewish congregation will start holding regular Friday services in the parish house of a near-by Protestant Episcopal Church.” https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1952/10/11/93581924.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0

[David Klein]

[David Klein]

If you have Rev. Tieck’s “Riverdale, Kingsbridge, Sputen Duyvil,” there’s an in-depth discussion of Riverdale Temple’s nomadic period on pages 172-174.

[kathy.valyi@gmail.com]

Tangential to this thread: there was a time when the clergy of all faiths/denominations of Riverdale worked together and sponsored an annual community inter-faith Thanksgiving service. The gathering, usually on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, rotated among houses of worship. Wouldn’t it be fantastic for Edgehill to host this sort of interfaith celebration of our national holiday and to revive the community spirit?

[Author]

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