Walking Tour: Jewish Lower East Side

Stroll through the neighborhood’s 100-year-old history! A century ago, the Lower East Side saw unparalleled growth as waves of immigrants settled, prayed, played, worked, shopped, and attended school in this neighborhood as they built their new lives in a new land. Today, there are signs of the past hidden within the modern streets. See how many of these historic places have been transformed, repurposed, or restored.

Highlights:

Visit the Museum at Eldridge Street and see a fully restored magnificent 1887 synagogue

Stop at Straus Square and learn about its history and its significance during the heyday of Jewish immigration

Visit The Forward building and learn the role of this important Jewish newspaper and its Yiddish advice column A Bintel Brief

Stop by Seward Park, the first municipally-built free playground in the United States and designed especially for the neighborhood’s children, the first generation to grow up in such crowded conditions

Join a Museum at Eldridge Street expert guide to walk in the footsteps of these immigrants and tell their stories.

Image Credit: “A Group of Peddlers (The Ghetto),” color postcard, William A. Rosenthall Judaica Collection Postcards.