Park East Synagogue and Chabad of the Upper East Side Announce Historic New Chapter

by Moshe New – chabad.org

Manhattan’s storied Park East Synagogue and Chabad-Lubavitch of the Upper East Side, one of the city’s most active networks of Jewish institutions, announced today a new collaboration set to launch this Rosh Hashanah.

Rabbi Arthur Schneier, the world famous diplomat and Senior Rabbi of Park East—the longest-serving pulpit rabbi in New York history—will be joined by Rabbi Ben Tzion Krasnianski, longtime spiritual leader of Chabad of the Upper East Side, who will now also serve as Associate Rabbi of Park East Synagogue. Rabbi Yosef Wilhelm, who directs Chabad Young Professionals Upper East Side, will serve as Assistant Rabbi.

“This collaboration brings together two vibrant Jewish communities with a shared commitment to Torah, prayer, education, and acts of kindness,” Rabbi Schneier and the Synagogue’s president, Les Lieberman said in a note to the Park East congregation. “By working together, we will be able to expand the opportunities available to our members and create an even more dynamic and welcoming synagogue experience.”

The agreement, approved by the Park East Board of Trustees, will bring the bulk of Chabad of the Upper East Side’s extensive program network—including Chabad Young Professionals, Friendship Circle, Chabad Young Families, and the Upper East Side Kollel and Adult Education Center—into Park East’s historic building on East 67th Street.

Chabad’s mikvah and preschool will remain at its Schneerson Center for Jewish Life on East 77th Street.

136 Years on East 67th Street

Rabbis Arthur Schneier and Ben Tzion Krasnianski share a “lechayim,” toasting the joint venture.

Park East’s institutional footprint runs deep. Founded in 1890 as Congregation Zichron Ephraim, the synagogue has stood for 136 years as one of the oldest Orthodox congregations in Manhattan, its landmarked Moorish and Byzantine-style sanctuary on East 67th Street designated a New York City Landmark in 1980 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983.

Schneier’s 1962 ascension to that pulpit began in Vienna, where he was born in 1930 and experienced Kristallnacht in 1938. He survived the war hiding in Nazi-occupied Budapest, before eventually reaching the United States. A passionate voice in defense of Soviet Jewry and many other causes, Schneier was the first rabbi awarded the U.S. Presidential Citizens Medal, when President Bill Clinton hailed him for “devoting a lifetime to overcoming forces of hatred and intolerance.”

Rabbi Arthur Schneier

Under Rabbi Schneier, the Park East Synagogue became a stage on which world affairs and Jewish life intersected. Heads of state, ambassadors, and religious leaders from around the globe have visited or addressed the sanctuary over the decades.

The synagogue’s high profile recently made it a target of antisemitic demonstrations and protestors. While worshippers at other synagogues have also faced harassment, it was the incidents outside Park East that led to New York City implementing buffer laws outside of places of worship.

‘A Match Made in Heaven’

Rabbi Ben Tzion Krasnianski

Krasnianski and his wife, Chanie, arrived to the Upper East Side in the summer of 1991 with a blessing from the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, and a mandate that the couple says has guided them ever since: that no Jew be left behind.

What began as a single Chabad House has grown, over 35 years, into a network of some ten distinct branches.

The Chabad Israel Center caters to the Israeli expat community, and its Chabad Young Professionals created the demographic on the East Side, becoming home to a generation of young Jews navigating careers in the city. Friendship Circle opened its doors to children and adults with special needs and the volunteers who serve them. Chabad at Hunter College invigorates Jewish life on campus. Chabad Care brings Jewish comfort into the area’s many hospitals.

Chabad of the Upper East Side has a dedicated senior program, with Chabad Young Families and its active Hebrew School creating a pipeline for the next generation. The Upper East Side Kollel and Adult Education Center anchors serious Torah study for adults of every background.

The agreement will bring the bulk of Chabad of the Upper East Side’s extensive program network—including Chabad Young Professionals, Friendship Circle, Chabad Young Families, and the Upper East Side Kollel and Adult Education Center—into Park East’s historic building on East 67th Street.

The Jacques and Hanna Schwalbe Mikvah—among the most beautiful in the country—and a flourishing Chabad Preschool rounded out a campus built, quite literally, one need at a time.

“As things were needed, we responded,” Krasnianski said. The result is a network built to serve “every aspect of the community by caring, embracing, and ultimately, engaging” wherever a need was found.

It is that record that, in Krasnianski’s words, makes the collaboration “a match made in heaven.” Schneier and Krasnianski’s relationship long predates this announcement: Krasnianski has taught classes at Park East over the years, and in 2022, the synagogue hosted a celebration of the Rebbe’s 120th birthday, streamed on Chabad.org, at which Senator Joseph Lieberman spoke.

A participant takes a moment to wrap tefillin during Chabad of the Upper East Side’s Walk 4 Friendship event.

“Park East approached us to see if we could collaborate and work together so we could accomplish much more than we could accomplish individually,” Krasnianski said, describing the combined reach of the two institutions as a natural fit.

“At this critical juncture in Jewish New York history, this collaborative effort sends a powerful message that Jewish New York is here to stay,” Krasnianski said. “We will not rest until all 70,000 Jews on the Upper East Side hold their heads up high and actively express their Jewish pride on a daily basis, one mitzvah at a time.”