Ocean Parkway Jewish Center


Ocean Parkway Jewish Center is a historic synagogue at 550 Ocean Pkwy. in Kensington, Brooklyn, New York, New York. It was built between 1924 and 1926 and is a three-story plus basement and attic, stone clad Neoclassical style building. It has a two-story addition. The front facade features three round-arched entrances and the second and third stories are organized as a temple front.
It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
Chairman and Director: Allen Michaels
The synagogue was established following the 1924 merger of its predecessors, Congregation of Kensington, founded 1907, and the West Flatbush Jewish Center. The two synagogues, located about two blocks apart from each other had outgrown their spaces, and purchased seven lots on Ocean Parkway immediately within one month of joining forces. The building was completed in 1926, at a total cost of around $450,000. At the time, it was named, The Ocean Parkway Jewish Center of the First Congregation of Kensington Tiphereth Israel.
The Ocean Parkway Jewish Center was previously affiliated with Conservative Judaism under Rav Yakov Bosniak's leadership for nearly 30 years. His sermons during the 1940s informed congregants about the catastrophe of the Holocaust in Europe. The synagogue is presently Orthodox.