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You can live in a former synagogue in the East Village for a cool $2.3M
(New York Jewish Week) — Anyone can pray in a synagogue. But have you ever fantasized about living in one?
Well, if you will it — and you happen to have $2.3 million handy — it is no dream: An East Village penthouse is on the market in a building that was constructed in 1908 as Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Anshe Ungarn (The Great House of Study of the People of Hungary).
The 1,600-square-foot renovated triplex at 242 East 7th St. boasts a wealth of amenities, including three exposures, a 400-square-foot private terrace, a master bedroom with an “Aspen lodge aesthetic” and an en-suite bathroom that appears to be the size of a studio apartment.
The unit is fully modern and does not have any original details — and according to listing agent Jason Lanyard of Douglas Elliman, that’s a good thing. “What I have found is that owners here [in NYC] love the provenance of a building, but they love that they don’t feel the provenance,” he told the New York Jewish Week.
The synagogue was in operation until the mid-1970s and was converted into a cooperative apartment in the mid-1980s. “Somehow when they made the conversion to a co-op, with the exception of the exterior of the building, they sort of scrubbed it of any Judaic content,” he said.
By contrast, the exterior of the building — which is located between Avenues C and D — boasts the name of the congregation in its original Hebrew lettering. The structure was designated a landmark in 2008 as “a fine example of an early 20th century Classical Revival style synagogue surviving on Manhattan’s Lower East Side,” according to New York City’s Historic Districts Council.
First established in the Lower East Side in 1883, the Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagadol Anshe Ungarn was one of the earliest Hungarian congregations in New York. After outgrowing several previous sites, in 1908 the congregation purchased a house on East 7th Street “and spent $10,000 rebuilding it with a brick and stone façade in the then popular Beaux Arts style,” according to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.
The synagogue was designed by architects Samuel Gross and Joseph Kleinberger of the firm Gross & Kleinberger. The pair designed many tenement buildings on the Lower East Side as well as larger apartment buildings in Upper Manhattan.
In designing the small building on East 7th Street, “the architects created a highly detailed façade that is more rich and varied than many Lower East Side synagogue buildings,” according to the society.
Approximately 100,000 Jews came to New York City from Hungary, as part of a wave of Jewish immigration between 1848 and 1914. “Like others coming from the expanded Austro-Hungarian Empire, the earliest immigrants tended to be more highly educated and left their homelands because of political dissent,” writes the Landmarks Preservation Society, “while those who came after 1880 tended to be laborers, artisans and trades people who came for economic gain.”
The congregation’s relative wealth is is reflected in the building’s design: The limestone facade “exhibits highly developed details and fine workmanship, expressive of the aspirations of the congregation, one of the luckier and more established ones which could afford to build a home of its own,” according to the Greenwich Village Preservation Society.
More than 100 years later, the now-residential, five-unit building stands as a testament to a different sort of wealth. Interest in the unit, said Lanyard, which originally was listed in September at $2.4 million, has been extremely high: “It was a sleeper until the day after Christmas,” he said. “It’s been crazy ever since.”
The city’s real estate market has been very busy these past few weeks, said Lanyard, who surmised that the triplex’s loft-style layout is a major source for its popularity among prospective buyers. “Lofts in the East Village are not common,” he said. “In many ways, it’s a synagogue that gave us a loft. It’s just so heartwarming.”
“How great it is that a converted synagogue thrives so much,” he added.
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The post You can live in a former synagogue in the East Village for a cool $2.3M appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Netflix Premieres Adult Animated Comedy Series About Jewish Family
A scene from “Long Story Short.” Photo: Screenshot
Netflix premiered on Friday an adult animated comedy series from “BoJack Horseman” creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg that follows a Jewish family over the course of several decades.
“Long Story Short” revolves around Naomi Schwartz (Lisa Edelstein), Elliot Cooper (Paul Reiser), and their three children – Avi (Ben Feldman), Shira (Abbi Jacobson), and Yoshi (Max Greenfield). The series jumps between time, and viewers follow the Schwooper siblings “from childhood to adulthood and back again, chronicling their triumphs, disappointments, joys, and compromises,” according to a synopsis provided by Netflix.
The extended cast includes Nicole Byer as Shira’s partner and Angelique Cabral. Dave Franco and Michaela Dietz are recurring guest stars. The first episode starts in 1996 and focuses on Avi bringing his girlfriend home to meet his family the same weekend as Yoshi’s bar mitzvah celebration. The episode also addresses Jewish-related topics such as the laws of kosher and the Holocaust.
“I think the show in some ways is about Jewish joy, and I think a lot of Jews will enjoy having a place for the Jews, and I think a lot of antisemites might learn a thing or two,” Bob-Waksberg told Variety on Monday at the show’s premiere at the Tudum Theater in Hollywood, California.
“Long Story Short” – which is Bob-Waksberg’s fourth animated show (“BoJack Horseman,” “Undone,” and “Tuca & Bertie”) and his third with Netflix – was renewed for a second season ahead of its season one premiere. The showrunner told The Hollywood Reporter that “Long Story Short” is “absolutely the most explicitly Jewish thing by a wide margin.”
The show is already facing antisemitic criticism.
“We’ve never not had antisemitism,” he told Variety. “The harassment is already there. I don’t think there’s a Jew in Hollywood, a public, a visible person that doesn’t get constantly harassed on Instagram all day long. An article came out this morning, it was a profile of the show, and I stupidly skimmed the first few comments and they were all … just nothing I want to repeat. But it’s just a buzzkill.”
“People are going to want to talk about the greater global geopolitical issues that are happening around this show, but this show is not about that,” he added.
“Long Story Short” is also from “Samurai Jack” creator Genndy Tartakovsky and “Rick and Morty” writer Matt Roller. Bob-Waksberg is an executive producer alongside Noel Bright and Steven A. Cohen. Corey Campodonico and Alex Bulkley are co-executive producers.
Watch the trailer for “Long Story Short” below.
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Iran, European Powers Agree to Resume Nuclear, Sanctions Talks Next Week
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks during a meeting with foreign ambassadors in Tehran, Iran, July 12, 2025. Photo: Hamid Forootan/Iranian Foreign Ministry/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi and his French, British, and German counterparts agreed on Friday to resume talks next week on nuclear and sanctions issues, Iranian state media reported.
The three major European powers have threatened to re-activate United Nations sanctions on Iran under a “snapback” mechanism if Tehran does not return to negotiations on a deal to curb its disputed uranium enrichment program.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul confirmed talks next week and warned Iran that sanctions would snap back into effect unless it reached a verifiable and durable deal to defuse concerns about its nuclear ambitions. He reiterated that time was very short and Iran needed to engage substantively.
Iranian state media said Araqchi and the British, French, and German foreign ministers agreed during a phone call for deputy foreign ministers to continue the talks on Tuesday.
During the call, Araqchi “emphasized the legal and moral incompetence of these countries to resort to the [snapback] mechanism, and warned of the consequences of such an action,” Iranian media reported.
The European trio, along with the US, contend that Iran is using the nuclear energy program to potentially develop weapons capability in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran says it seeks only civilian nuclear power.
The Islamic Republic suspended nuclear negotiations with the United States, which were aimed at curbing its accelerating enrichment program, after the US and Israel bombed its nuclear sites during a 12-day war in June.
Since then, inspectors for the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, have been unable to access Iran‘s nuclear installations, despite IAEA chief Rafael Grossi stating that inspections remain essential.
Iran and the three European powers last convened in Geneva on June 20, while the war was still raging, and there were few signs of progress.
Iran‘s state broadcaster said an Iranian delegation was due to travel to Vienna on Friday to meet with IAEA officials. It gave no further details.
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German Government Calls Recognition of Palestinian State ‘Counterproductive’
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends a joint press conference with Finnish Prime Minister in Turku, Finland, on May 27, 2025. Photo: Lehtikuva/Roni Rekomaa via REUTERS
A German government spokesman said on Friday that Berlin has no current plans to recognize a Palestinian state because that would undermine any efforts to reach a negotiated two-state solution with Israel.
“A negotiated two-state solution remains our goal, even if it seems a long way off today … The recognition of Palestine is more likely to come at the end of such a process, and such decisions would now be rather counterproductive,” the spokesperson said during a press conference.
Countries including Australia, United Kingdom, France, and Canada have recently said they would recognize a Palestinian state under different conditions.
Israel has responded that such recognition would be a “reward” for terrorism following the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of and massacre across southern Israel. During the ensuing war in Gaza, Hamas has embedded its weapons and military operation centers among civilian sites, a strategy that critics have decried as employing the use of “human shields” against Israel.