Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
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Lower East Side Visitor Center, 261
Broome Street
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Map P4
•
212 226 9010
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Open 10am-4pm daily
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www.lower-
eastsideny.com
Bialystoker Synagogue
Built in 1826 as a Methodist
Episcopal Church, the fieldstone
building was acquired in 1905 to
house a congregation from the
Polish community of Bialystok.
A recent two-year restoration
has revealed an interior of
glowing beauty, painted in bold
colors, with Moorish motifs,
biblical scenes, and the signs of
the zodiac, which are found in
some Jewish scriptures. As in
all Orthodox synagogues, only
men are allowed on the main
floor; women are seated in the
gallery upstairs.
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7-11 Willett Street
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Map P6
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Open during Sat services, or by
appointment
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Free
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www.bialystoker.org
Street vendor's pushcart,Tenement Museum
Lower East Side
Tenement Museum
Guided tours inside a tenement
building give an insight into the
carefully researched lives of one
of three families who lived here;
a German-Jewish seamstress in
1874, an orthodox Jewish family
from Lithuania in 1918, or a
Sicilian Catholic family during the
Depression in the 1930s.
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90
Orchard St
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Map N5
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212 431 0233
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Tours: 1-4:30pm Tue-Fri, 11am-4:30pm
Sat-Sun (book ahead)
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Admission charge
Orchard Street
The heart of bargain shop-
ping, Orchard Street became a
street of shops in 1940, when
Mayor Fiorello La Guardia out-
lawed pushcarts in the city. Many
merchants still put some of their
wares on the sidewalk on Sundays
and lure customers with 20 to 30
percent off brand names. The
Lower East Side Visitor Center
offers free tours each Sunday
between April and December.
Eldridge Street Synagogue
A National Historic Landmark.
This 1887 Moorish-style syna-
gogue was the first house of
worship built in the U.S. by
Jewish immigrants from Eastern
Europe, from where 80 percent
of American Jews come. As
many as 1,000 people attended
services here at the turn of the
century. As congregants left the
Left
Art for sale,Orchard Street
Right
Stained glass,Eldridge Street Synagogue
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