Beth Yeshurun Synagogue

During Hurricane Harvey in August of 2017, the modernist Beth Yeshurun Synagogue in Houston, Texas flooded. The synagogue’s Barg Sanctuary suffered the most damage, accumulating up to four feet of standing water in its downward sloping east end. In response, the congregation began immediate remediation and restoration work. Ryan’s Historic Tax Credits team consulted on the $1.5 million in state historic tax credits that were utilized to help offset the unexpected rehabilitation costs.

Completed in 1962, the synagogue was designed by architects Eugene Werlin and Lenard Gabert, Sr. to meet the religious, educational, administrative, and social needs of the congregation’s more than 1,500 families. Currently, Beth Yeshurun is the oldest continually active conservative Jewish congregation in Texas. It is also the largest conservative Jewish congregation in the United States and the second largest in the world. Nationally prominent in the Jewish Conservative Movement, Beth Yeshurun was a leader in advancing women’s ritual rights and in 1954, established the then-only synagogue-affiliated-and-operated day school in the United States.