Walking Tour: Historic Jewish Harlem

A century ago, Manhattan's Lower East Side saw unparalleled growth as waves of immigrants settled, prayed, played, worked, shopped, and attended school as they built their new lives in a new land. To escape what soon became the most densely populated neighborhood on earth, many of the more well-off residents moved to the much more open landscape of Upper Manhattan, making Harlem the third-largest Jewish neighborhood in the world from 1870–1930 after the Lower East Side and Warsaw, Poland.

Join educator and urban historian Bradley Shaw on Wednesday, October 14th at 10:30am and explore this often-forgotten segment of Jewish history. See and hear stories about the many synagogues that still proliferate the area, many of which have become Baptist churches, and some of the famous personalities who were born and raised in the neighborhood.

Highlights:
- Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein's Institutional Synagogue, the "Shul with the Pool”
- A building that has hosted three different religious groups
- An original Jewish theater
- Churches housed in former synagogues that still retain their original Jewish markings
- The Commandment Keepers Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation

Other stops included will be Mount Morris Park, designed by world renowned designers Calvert Vaux and Frederick Law Olmsted, where many notable residents lived, including composer Richard Rodgers, and lyricists Oscar Hammerstein II and Lorenz Hart.

Meet Brad on Wednesday, October 14th at 10:30am at the corner of Frederick Douglass Boulevard and West 113th Street. This tour will end at Marcus Garvey Park. Tickets must be purchased in advance of arrival.

Ticket Price (Includes Museum Admission):
Adults $25
Seniors / Students $20
Children 5 and Under FREE
Cool Culture Pass / SNAP Benefits $5

REGISTER HERE

This Museum at Eldridge Street Walking Tour is only available to small groups (30 people max). This tour is available to both individual ticket holders and families.

About the Museum at Eldridge Street:
The Museum at Eldridge Street is housed in the Eldridge Street Synagogue, a magnificent National Historic Landmark that has been meticulously restored. Opened in 1887, the synagogue is the first great house of worship built in America by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Today, it is the only remaining marker of the great wave of Jewish migration to the Lower East Side that is open to a broad public who wishes to visit Jewish New York. Exhibits, tours, public programs, and education initiatives tell the story of Jewish immigrant life, explore architecture and historic preservation, inspire reflection on cultural continuity, and foster collaboration and exchange between people of all faiths, heritages, and interests.

Image Credit: Temple Ansche Chesed, now Mount Neboh Baptist Church, 1883 Adam Clayton Powell Jr Blvd, New York, NY. Matthew X. Kiernan (2016); Temple Ansche Chesed photograph, Wurts Bros. (New York, N.Y.), Accession number
X2010.7.1.1046, ca. 1910.