Blogfinger

The First French Speaking Baptist Church. 412 Asbury Avenue. Paul Goldfinger photograph.  May, 2021.  Click to read the date carvings.

The building dates back to the 1940’s, but the First Haitian Baptist Church has been here since 1998.  According to ChurchFinder.com, there are over 40 churches in A.Park.

We have  learned from Ruth Fineberg  (see her comment) that a synagogue was at this location,: “The Sons of Israel.”   Subsequently that site was vacated, and the congregation moved to Ocean Township where it is now a Chabad synagogue.

We asked her to send us more information about Jewish themes in the  stained glass windows at the French church above.

Ruth says, “If you look carefully at the carvings in the front you will see the Hebrew date of 5709 and the corresponding Gregorian date of 1949, the year the building was built for Congregation Sons of Israel.”

She also finds some distinctly Jewish themes in those stained glass windows  (below)  including menorahs   (7 branch candle sticks,) scales of justice, and a Torah scroll. (Bible. )  But there are quite a few others.

If any of you want to see Ruth’s detailed analysis of the windows, let me know and I will forward that information.

The Jewish history in Monmouth County goes back to the 18th century.  Some of the earliest settlements of Jews were in Long Branch, Asbury Park, and Farmingdale.  The latter group were farmers, especially egg producers.

Many Monmouth County beach towns such as Bradley Beach, Belmar and Deal were known for substantial Jewish populations.

Photo by Leora Wenger. Click to enlarge and see if you can identify a few Jewish themes.