Religions of Harlem

Along 125th street proper are numerous jewelry shops that cater to the Harlem communities and the thousands of tourists that past through Harlem each year in search of “authentic” Harlem souvenirs.  The stores carry a variety of products ranging from gold to diamonds, chains to rings, and inexpensive to the costly.

One category that is displayed in many of these stores is that of religious iconography.  In nearly every jewelry shop, chains with crosses and Jesus’ face can be seen hanging in display cases next to other secular symbols like money signs, English letters, and the like.  According to one store manager, theses religious images are some of the best-selling products in the jewelry stores throughout Harlem’s shopping district.  He explained, however, that the crosses and chains were the most popular not for their relevance to Christian doctrine; rather, its because it is most popular in the hip-hop community at the present time.  As the store employee explained, “when [rapper] Lil’ Wayne['s albums] are selling, the crosses are selling.”  This phenomenon suggests that jewelry that is religious in appearance is purchased for its association with popular culture.

In many minds, Harlem is a romantic site of Black cultural innovation and a symbol of the African American community of the past, present, and future.  Many pieces of Harlem stands as a living memorial to the various people and events that helped shape Black culture in America.  Tucked away behind the historical sites, the churches, and the other institutions that constitute an idealized Black Harlem exist remnants of another Harlem that was once occupied mainly people of Eastern European Jewish decent.  Old Broadway Synagogue, named for its location on Old Broadway Ave and 125^th Street, represents the once thriving Jewish population of the early twentieth century and still functions as the only remaining mainstream synagogue in Harlem.  As a traditional Orthodox synagogue in a predominantly Black neighborhood, Old Broadway embodies Harlem’s past as a Jewish neighborhood, as well as its present – a multi-racial space that is complicated by its perception as a “Black” neighborhood.

The services I attended at Old Broadway Synagogue revealed much about the presence of Judaism in Harlem and its relation to Harlem as a racially and economically diverse space.   On one hand, the service resembled a typical, Ashkenazi Orthodox afternoon service that could be found in any synagogue of that same tradition.  This is important for understanding Old Broadway Synagogue as a relic of Harlem’s Jewish past and its ability to preserve a nearly forgotten tradition in Harlem.  In contrast, the fact that nearly a quarter of the attendees were of African American descent suggests that Old Broadway Synagogue has undergone a tremendous shift from a congregation made up of Jews of mainly Eastern European descent, to its present status as a multi-racial synagogue (Old Broadway Synagogue Website).   The synagogue boasts not only white Jewish congregants from the Upper West Side and Harlem, but also Black congregants that formerly attended the Commandment Keepers Synagogue and congregants of other racial and ethnic backgrounds.  In this sense, Old Broadway Synagogue fits the theoretical framework that treats Harlem as a place of diversity, rather than a strictly “Black” neighborhood.

Located on 14th East 109th street, the St. Edward the Martyr church has a history and influence that extends beyond Harlem. Emerging from what is called a “violent religious disagreement”, in 16th century Europe the English Church split from Rome’s Catholic majority and to create a Protestant sect of Christianity that would be more open to the public and encompassing of more liberal values. The offshoots of this breakaway was the Episcopal Diocese.

Today, the Anglican Communion is the largest religious community in the United States. They read from the Common Book of Prayer, and the New York branch is one of 30 major Episcopal national religious houses of worship. The Harlem branch was founded on the same principles that started the breakaway from the Roman church – to try to accomodate individual spiritual conscience and become a spiritual resource to as many people as possible. It is known for it’s large Latino constituency, (which begs the question as to why this isn’t in Spanish Harlem), LGBT advocacy, nonforprofit initiatives fundraising for relief funds for environmental catastrophe overseas (most recently it’s Haiti Relief Fund), and it’s recompensation for victims of slavery.

I talked to the secretary inside, who handed me a pamphlet that explained more about this unique initiative that seems to be so grounded in the cultural history of Harlem and of the history of religious conflict with blacks throughout the United States. The pamphlet read: “Reparations is the process to remember, repair, restore, reconcile, and make amends for wrongs that can never be singularly reducible to monetary terms. The process of reparations is “an historical reckoning involving acknowledgement that an offense against humanity was committed and that the victims have not received justice”. This quote was from the Executive Minister for Justice Ministry, form the United Church of Christ.

When I asked the woman why specifically the church, even on a national level, seemed to advocate for slavery reparations while showing a stronger affiliation with the Spanish population in Harlem, she replied, “Everyone has a history. Somewhere in their ancestry, someone has been enslaved for one reason or another”. She went on to tell me that their main purpose was to provide spiritual relief from the decades of oppression inflicted by slavery on a person’s conscience. Physically, however, St. Edwards works closely with the Yorkville Common Pantry, located right next door. She says that the church believes the greatest strife inflicted on a human being is hunger, and they work with Yorkville to provide a space with resources to alleviate that strife. While many churches in Harlem go beyond spiritual guidance as part of community outreach initiatives, few have direct affiliation with non-religious non-for-profit organizations in such close contact. The woman also added that many of the congregation’s constituents come directly to church from Yorkville for their  Sunday lunches.

Located on 106th and Park Ave, which also crosses over into Angelo Del Toro Place, you can find Church of the Good Neighbor in Spanish Harlem. Written in Spanish the banner welcomes newcomers to this Evangelist-Presbyterian church – the first merged church I have come across. While the sign for the church is large, it’s fairly easy to miss amidst the other community organizations that surround it. In the basement of Church of the Good Neighbor is the Manhattan Free School. The Manhattan Free School is an independent school for kids ages 5-18 (Kindergarten through high school, despite it’s small occupation) which is privately funded in part by Church of the Good Neighbor. The school is, as it’s website advertises, ”

In any educational setting, young people have the right:

• to decide individually how, when, what, where, and with whom they learn,
• to have an equal share in the decision-making as to how their organizations—in particular their schools—are run, and which rules and sanctions, if any, are necessary. We believe people are born curious and because of this we can trust in their desire to learn and their enormous capacity to make sense of the world on their own terms.”

These guidelines were established based off of the 2005 Democratic Education Conference – the school is fairly new and so has not had a high enrollment rate… yet. It’s philosophy encourages interaction with the natural world, and part of the “natural world” is spiritual. The Church of the Good Neighbor provides that spiritual education through their joint after-school programs with the school.

On the left of the church is a local Fire Department, and a medical center across the street. Whats more is next to the medical center is another Church, who has decorated common street signs (stop signs, orange cones, and bumpers) with the spray painted phrase, “Funeral this way”. When I asked a man at the corner Pizzeria, he said that the church across the street deals with Funeral requests from both congregations, since across the street is bigger and can accommodate more people, and also has a ramp (which Good Neighbor can’t have due to their garage being used by the Fire Dept.)

On 137th and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. is Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the oldest black church in the US, having been founded in 1796. In the 1800′s it was well known as “the freedom church”, as it became a safe haven for blacks who escaped slavery in the south and immigrated to the northeast, often without money or a plan to survive. Given it’s long history in helping those in need, it’s no wonder Mother AME Zion sports a sign that advertises the James L. Varick Community Center just down the street, and gives it’s office hours. When I went inside, I had the chance to talk to Lee Brown, a long-time member of the AME church and also a part-time secretary on week-days. Brown, who is in his 80′s and came to Harlem in 1955, told me that the Community Center works with a local drug abuse rehabilitation center on 145th and Broadway. He says the rehabilitation center reached out to Mother AME Zion when those looking for medical help began to seek spiritual guidance to accompany their physical withdrawals. Having been an addict himself in his early twenties (Brown does not specify of what), he says AME has been a huge support system for him.

Other interesting features of AME Zion is their weekly political activism meetings and their enourmous Wick’s organ, which was specially designed for the church. AME focuses not only on community outreach, but as a gathering place outside of Sunday services for artistic and intellectual engagement.

Lastly, I noticed that on the block where AME Zion is located, there were 4 different signs warning local kids not to play basketball in the neighborhood. When I asked Brown about this, he said he thinks it’s because a lot of the youth basketball teams in the neighborhood are formed by the teenagers who attend AME and talk about setting up games and practices when they meet for saturday services, and then later go over game plays on Sundays after Sunday services. He says sometimes they bring their balls with them to service because they plan to go play afterwards at a court, but recently it’d become a distraction in church.

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