Or Olam – The East Fifty-Fifth Street Synagogue

Or Olam – The East Fifty-Fifth Street Synagogue is a fully egalitarian Conservative congregation located at 308 East 55th Street in Manhattan’s Sutton Place/Midtown East neighborhood. Originally founded in 1906 as Chevra Bnei Leive, the congregation purchased its current building from a Baptist church in 1916 and affiliated with the Conservative Movement in 1966. The synagogue has long been known for its diversity, with congregants of Ashkenazi and Sephardi backgrounds, including members with roots in Israel, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, South Africa, and South America.

Or Olam offers a full range of religious life, including Shabbat evening and morning services, a daily morning and evening minyan, bar/bat mitzvah and lifecycle programs, and an active Women’s League chapter affiliated with the National Women’s League for Conservative Judaism. The synagogue is a member of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

The congregation describes its mission as being a premier synagogue for those seeking a warm, friendly, and intellectually and spiritually engaging expression of Judaism, with an emphasis on prayer, Torah study, and communal caring. It continues to embrace its historic diversity in background, demography, sexual orientation, and levels of Jewish knowledge among its members.