Khal Adath Jeshurun
Khal Adath Jeshurun (KAJ) is an Orthodox German Jewish Ashkenazi congregation in the Washington Heights neighborhood, in the New York City borough of Manhattan. It has an affiliated synagogue in the heavily Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Monsey, New York. History The community is a direct continuation of the pre-Second World War Jewish community of Frankfurt am Main led by Samson Raphael Hirsch. Khal Adath Jeshurun bases its approach, and structure, on Hirsch's philosophy of Torah im Derech Eretz; it was re-established according to the protocol originally drawn in 1850, to which the congregation continues to adhere. The community is colloquially called "Breuer's" after Rabbi Joseph Breuer, founder of the American incarnation and its first Rabbi. He was a grandson of Samson Raphael Hirsch. Nusach Unlike most Ashkenazic synagogues in the United States, which follow the Eastern Ashkenazic (Poilisher) liturgical rite, KAJ follows the Western Ashkenazic rite, in its liturgical text, practices, and melodies. They use the Rödelheim Siddur Sfas Emes (see: Wolf Heidenheim), though the congregation's nusach varies in some places from Rödelheim. Full service community True to the "full-service community" as originally established in Frankfurt, the community includes a synagogue, an elementary school (located at 85 Bennett Avenue), various