+ Meseritz Ark One, Two, and Three

A delegation from our congregation recently returned from Poland. One of the main purposes of the journey was to visit the town of Meseritz, the home town where the Meseritz community of the Lower East Side came from a century ago. We were drawn to Meseritz to see if there were any connections between the Ark that we rescued last Spring form the closing Meseritz Shul on East 6th Street and the town in Poland from where it emerged.

The synagogue in Meseritz Poland was destroyed by the Nazi’s in 1943. But as luck would have it, there is a photograph of the Ark that was in that shul hanging on the wall in the florist shop on the main square.

As you can see in the images below, there are commonalities between the original Meseritz Ark One and Meseritz Ark Two which was built on the Lower East Side in 1904.

Meseritz One

Meseritz Two