Lower East Side Jewish Heritage Walking Tour # 1

This tour features history and architecture along with some interesting pictures and stories that will help us understand some aspect of the 19th Century Jewish immigrant experience on the Lower East Side.

This Tour of the Lower East Side Features:

A walk through a part of the Lower East Side once known as the Yiddish Rialto and a look at some former Yiddish Theaters. We will stop by the home of Emma Goldman and the site of the Second Avenue Deli (a Lower East Side version of Growman's Chinese restaurant in Hollywood in that it uses it's side walk to commemorate its past.) We will continue down the Lower East Side to: Allen St., Eldridge St., Henry St., Norfolf St., Orchard St., Delancey St., Hester St., Rivington St., Clinton St., Broome St., East Houston and East Broadway. Each participant is given an itinerary with 22 stops that include 9 New York City landmarks and 6 National Landmarks. Each stop is fully discussed.

Some of Highlights Are:

  • A landmark movie theater that originally was the "Yiddish Arts Theater" Maurice Schwartz - Mr. Second Ave.
  • Another theater that at one time was one of the Yiddish Theaters of the Yiddish Rialto
  • The site of "Cafe Royal" also known as the "Yiddish Sardi's"
  • The Community Synagogue
  • Two landmark institutional buildings that survived from 1884
  • The Walkway of Yiddish Actors site of the original 2nd Ave. Deli
  • George and Ira Gershwin lived here as teenagers
  • Minimalist composer Philip Glass lived here 1957
  • Originally the "Hebrew Technical School" now a part of NYU
  • The Eldridge Street Synagogue (Eddie Cantor)
  • The Hebrew Actors Union and Actors Club Bldg.
  • The Labor Lyceum (forming the International Ladies Garment Workers Union)
  • Outdoor mural depicting the Jewish experience on the Lower East Side
  • Site of Shapiro’s Winery (Kosher) from 1899 to 2002
  • The "Forward Building"
  • originally: The Neighborhood Playhouse
  • A Mikveh since 1940
  • the Jarmulousky Bank founded by Sender Jarmulousky
  • The Educational Alliance the 1st settlement house in the U.S.
  • Katz Deli "Send a Salami to Your Son in the Army"
  • Bialystoker Synagogue (the oldest building in NY to currently house a synagogue)
  • The tenement building where Emma Goldman lived
  • A tenement style synagogue building no longer used as a synagogue
  • The original Henry Street Settlement Houses began as townhouses for well to do German Jewish immigrants
  • The oldest orthodox congregation continual housed in the same building in New York
  • The oldest building built as a Synagogue in New York (now an artist studio and gallery)
  • The second oldest synagogue in New York
  • Streit's Matzoh Factory
  • Congregation Bnai Jacob Anshe Brzezan (Sons of Jacob, People of Brzezan) a tenement style syngogue still in use
  • Pike St. Synagogue, now a Buddhist temple & apts.
  • Shearith Israel's first cemetery in New York, the oldest Jewish congregation in North America
  • 19th Century tenements, synagogues and institutional buildings still here on the Lower East Side and much more...

    • About Five Hours Long

    Meet at the Southeast Corner of E. 13 Street and Third Avenue
    Or
    at Chatham Square at the intersection of Bowery & East Broadway & Chatherine St.
    by the Kimlaw War Memorial, an arch with a pagoda style top

    Guided by Alfred Pommer, a college graduate, an informative native New Yorker and a Licensed New York City guide, with over 19 years experience researching, creating and leading walking tours in Manhattan's many diverse neighborhoods.
    Interested in a private walking tour ?
    Call: (212) 979-2388 for details www.nycwalk.com

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