The Lower East Side: Home of Jewish Immigrants

From tenements and pushcarts, to condominiums and stockbrokers: the Lower East Side spans over a century of Jewish life in New York City. With an expert guide and a few hours, you can travel back in time to the streets your parents, grandparents, or great-grandparents walked as immigrants at the turn of the century.

Historical sites

• B'nai B'rith site - where the organization began.
• Chatham Square - the first U.S. Jewish cemetery.
• Forward Building - built for The Jewish Daily Forward (Forverts).
• Jarmulowsky Bank - on Orchard Street.
• Kletzker Brotherly Aid Association - a fraternal aid society for new immigrants.
• "Shteebel Row" - a street full of synagogues.
• Sixty Hester Street - an award-winning tenement design.
• Strauss Square

Institutions

• Educational Alliance - where generations of immigrants have learned.
• Eldridge Street Synagogue - recently restored.
• Henry Street Settlement
• Kehila Kedosha Janina (Greek) Synagogue - a Romaniote synagogue.
• Lower East Side Tenement Museum - see how immigrants lived.
• Seward Park Library
• University Settlement

Great food

• Guss' Pickles - pickles from the barrel.
• Kossar's Bialys - fresh hot bialys, pletzels, and bagels.
• Moishe's Bakery - a neighborhood bakery.
• Noah's Ark - the only kosher deli on the LES.
• Streit's Matzo Bakery - family-owned machine matzo bakery.

Visitor resources

• The Blue Moon Hotel - a boutique hotel in a historic tenement building.
• Lower East Side Business Improvement District

For information on our weekly public tour of the Lower East Side, click here.