People

The Buffalo region has been home to a wide range of individuals associated with local Jewish communities and Jewish networks from the 1820s through to the contemporary period as immigrants, citizens, residents and locals.

Institutions

Buffalo Jews have a rich history of forming both formal and informal institutions for religious, educational, political and social needs. From synagogues to organizations, and from coordinating agencies to groups and clubs, Jewish Buffalonians have seen a changing range of institutions supported by group endeavors and community philanthropy.

Neighborhoods

In living memory, the East Side and North Buffalo stand out as physically connected and interwoven religious and commercial centers of Jewish living. In contrast to these specific areas are the mini hubs identified with Jewish living and connected to a more dispersed idea of neighborhood. Separately, suburbia with its significant geographic spread, has redefined how a series of Jewish spaces come together with a mix of hubs, focal points and networks.

Themes

Some nice intro blah blah

Exhibitions

Special exhibitions, through a focus on particular individuals and subjects, delves into the personal stories that have animated Jewish lives. Each digital exploration reflects on the interplay between place, identities and changing times and the way in which American, Jewish and Buffalo historical experiences are deeply interwoven.

Resources

Materials that document Jewish Buffalo in all its diversity are found in books, articles, archives and museums, many of which are available locally or online. This section highlights some of these sources and will be updated regularly.

Hannah Haber Laufer

Hannah Haber Laufer, 1890s, courtesy of Susan Freed, Mollie Freed, Leonard J. Freed, Joan Karet and Linda Briks

Synagogues  /  Ahavas Achim

Congregation Ahavas Achim was incorporated in 1897 and known as the Fillmore Avenue Shul from 1912.

Overview

The Fillmore Avenue Shul was incorporated as Congregation Ahavas Achim in 1897.  In 1911, the congregation hired Buffalo society architect Henry Osgood Holland to design a synagogue near Broadway. John E. Brent, Buffalo’s first African American architect was employed by Holland to draft the plans. The resulting modern styled building located at 833 Fillmore Avenue became known as the Fillmore Avenue Shul.

Like many other synagogues, Ahavas Achim started in a family home – William and Hannah Laufer. In the early days most of the congregants were trades and businessman working and sometimes living in the vicinity. Family names included: Samuel Davis, Joseph Elster, Jacob Sarnofsky, Samuel Cohen Joseph Cohen and Morris Diamond. Solomon Yochelson (father to Dr. Samuel Yochelson) worked as a shochet (ritual slaughterer), as did Louis Silverstein (Leibish Zilberstein). Like many synagogues, Achavas Achim offered not just a place to daven and observe Shabath and Holidays, it was a social world unto itself. Like many shuls, it had a small religious school and a thriving a Men’s Club and Women’s Club (later known as the Brotherhood and Sisterhood) as well as a Young People’s group. The basement of the temple held many family functions including bar mitzvah celebrations. At Pine Ridge, the synagogue erected a striking entranceway to their cemetery.

Some of its later members were from the village of Nasielsk, outside of Warsaw, who came to Buffalo, NY in the 1920s. The name of the town in Yiddish was Nashelsk and landsleit (hometown) members were known as Nashelskers. As members of the Nashelsker community relocated to different cities, their regular reunions allowed family, and friends, to maintain ties to Buffalo. With the movement of the Jewish community away from the East Side, many synagogues closed or merged. Ahavas Achim and Anshe Lubavitz merged to form Ahavas Achim-Lubavitz in the 1940s. The new building for the merged congregation was erected at 345 Tacoma Avenue in North Buffalo in 1951 designed by Jack Kushin. The Anshe Lubavitz building on the East Side was demolished and the former Ahavas Achim building on the East Side became the home of successive church communities.

Documents

Locations

Architectural Information

Architect: Henry Osgood Holland

Draftsman: John E. Brent

 

Gallery

Ahavas Achim External 3

External photograph of former Ahavas Achim, created by Izon Productions-Don Dannecker, 2017. The image is reproduced with permission of the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies.

Ahavas Achim External 3

Ahavas Achim External 2

External photograph of former Ahavas Achim, created by Izon Productions-Don Dannecker, 2017. The image is reproduced with permission of the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies.

Ahavas Achim External 2

Ahavas Achim External 1

External photograph of former Ahavas Achim, created by Izon Productions-Don Dannecker, 2017. The image is reproduced with permission of the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies.

Ahavas Achim External 1

Hannah Haber Laufer

Hannah Haber Laufer, 1890s, courtesy of Susan Freed, Mollie Freed, Leonard J. Freed, Joan Karet and Linda Briks

Hannah Haber Laufer

Discover More Collections

For information about the Congregation

  • Selig Adler and Thomas E. Connolly, From Ararat to Suburbia: The History of the Jewish Community of Buffalo, Philadelphia, JPS: 1960.

Nashelsker community

Contribute to this Page

We are seeking internal and external photographs, documents, film, mementos and written recollections relating to Ahavas Achim and the Nashelsker community for digitization. If you have materials you’d like to make available for this purpose, please contact us.

Upload