Adas Israel Synagogue

This modest brick building is the oldest surviving synagogue in the capital, completed in the 1870s for one of the city's early Jewish congregations. Dedicated in the presence of President Ulysses S. Grant, it later served various uses before being saved from demolition and relocated to preserve it. Restored as a museum of local Jewish history, it interprets the immigrant communities and religious life of nineteenth-century Washington. Its simple Italianate design and small scale offer a contrast to the grand monuments elsewhere in the city.