Congregation Tifereth Israel (Queens)

About

Congregation Tifereth Israel ("Splendor of Israel") is an Orthodox Jewish congregation and synagogue, located in the Corona section of Queens, in New York City, New York, in the United States. It was founded by Ashkenazi Jews who had moved to Queens from Manhattan's Lower East Side. Estée Lauder and her parents were early members.

The congregation constructed its synagogue building in 1911, a wooden Gothic Revival and Moorish Revival structure designed by Crescent L. Varrone, and modeled after the narrow tenement synagogues built on Manhattan's Lower East Side. The walls were later stuccoed. Neighborhood demographics changed, and most Jews moved away starting in the 1970s. By the 1990s, the remaining congregation was aged, and had difficulty paying for synagogue repairs and finding enough men for a prayer quorum.