AT 10 o’clock on a recent Thursday night, the corner of 53rd Street and 13th Avenue in the heart of Borough Park was bustling with traffic. In this neighborhood, an ultra-Orthodox stronghold for the past decade, a sea of religious Jews clad in traditional black and white garb scurried in every direction for late-night prayer, shopping or something to eat. This corner of Brooklyn never sleeps, or so it seems.

The main attraction is Congregation Shomrei Shabbos, a 24-hour synagogue where a service begins every 15 minutes. What started more than three-quarters of a century ago as a tiny congregation has grown into a mainstay of this community: transit hub, soup kitchen, community center, bookstore and prayer hall all in one.

The late-night traffic generated by the synagogue has spilled onto the streets, so much so that over the past few years a neighborhood has literally grown up around it. Restaurants and stores are open long past midnight. Peddlers vie for street space in the wee hours. Religious music streams from a small boombox. Men stop their cars in the middle of darkened streets to announce the birth of a child.

Even in a city renowned for the hours it keeps, the late-night liveliness here is remarkable.

“Some people here have begun to call this corner a mini-Times Square,” said Alexander Rapaport, a longtime resident of Borough Park who attends the synagogue.

Standing outside the synagogue one recent evening at 11:30, he pointed across the street to the neighborhood’s first large billboard, a bright green ad that arrived two months ago and hovers above this corner. It advertises a concert by the popular religious singer and entertainer Lipa Schmeltzer, outfitted in a fur hat, side locks and thick glasses.

Men coming home late from work, passing through on business or returning from a wedding know that at Shomrei Shabbos they will be guaranteed a minyan, a quorum of 10 men required by Jewish law for communal prayer, until 2 a.m. — a major benefit for observant Jews who pray together three times a day. Unofficial services continue through the night. Thanks to this nonstop traffic, much of it generated by the synagogue’s embrace of worshipers of various Orthodox groups, the building resembles nothing so much as a busy bus station, with people wandering in and out at all hours of the day and night.

Between 10 p.m. and midnight, the place is so crowded that it is hard to find space to sit or even stand. Men come at night to daven Maariv — recite the evening prayers — which can be done any time from sundown to sunrise. Religious men who work often miss the window of opportunity at synagogues where services are held only once an evening.

“Other shuls only have a minyan at certain times,” said Moshe Metzger, who has volunteered at Shomrei Shabbos for 35 years. “Here you can come whenever.”

Although the congregation has worshiped at this site for more than 80 years, it was not until the early 1970s that Mr. Metzger began to notice a need for more nighttime services for workers returning home late. “We added one minyan at a time until we got there,” he said. “It took a good 10 years until we became 24 hours.”

Every niche of the three-story synagogue is put to use. The walls are plastered with timetables for services and posters in Yiddish, and the basement serves as a food pantry and a hall for prayer and study. When the synagogue is too full, some men have been known to hold services in the brick-paneled lobby of the Astoria Federal Savings Bank across the street.

Hillel Moses, the synagogue’s beloved caretaker, has been known to daven Shakharit, the morning service, before he heads home around 5 a.m. after working the night shift. He keeps track of the prayer services and charity boxes and makes sure that a constant supply of food is available to provide sustenance, not only for worshipers but also for poor residents of the community who often drop by.

Thanks to all this activity, the once-inconspicuous synagogue is now a trigger for local nightlife.

“Real estate surrounding the synagogue is in high demand,” said Mendy Handler, owner of Cellular 4 Less, one of several local businesses that stay open past midnight to attract late-night synagogue-goers. His busiest hours are from 6 p.m. to midnight. “People can drop off their phones to be fixed while they are praying next door,” said Sol Oberlander, the store’s manager.

Other businesses have followed suit. Copy Corner stays open until midnight, as does Gal Paz, a music store. Sub Express, a kosher fast-food restaurant whose menu includes what is described as a unique “brisket egg roll,” keeps its doors open until 1 a.m.

Another popular outpost is Deli 52, which on Thursday nights serves two variations of cholent, a traditional Sabbath stew of beans, meat and barley, until 4 a.m. The late-night cholent attracts crowds of men, who often stay and schmooze until the morning hours, a somewhat controversial activity among the ultra-Orthodox, who pride themselves on not wasting time with idle chat.

And a 24-hour supermarket recently opened under the name Shomer Shabbos, a variation on the name of the synagogue just around the corner.

“I am competing with a big giant next door,” explained Herman Schwartz, the owner, referring to a wide-aisled supermarket named Super 13 nearby. “So I gave it a good name.”

(New York Times)