Bialystoker the Beautiful, Shteiblach Row and East Broadway: A Walking Tour

Spend some time with the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy and see where immigrants went to shul, and how a new generation is carrying on these traditions. Your guide has spent his entire life on the Lower East Side, and will give you an “insiders” perspective.

We will start our walking tour at the Bialystoker Synagogue a magnificently renovated former Methodist church believed to be a stop on the Underground Railroad. It is a rare treasure, and one of the few synagogues surviving worldwide that has hand-painted mazaales – signs of the zodiac – historically seen in Ashkenazic synagogues throughout the world, and is now the largest active congregation on the Lower East Side. In 2016, Bialystoker was awarded 1 of 10 of America’s most Beautiful, Inspiring, and Unique Synagogues by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Learn why there is a lobster painted on the ceiling.

Discuss Beth Hamedrash Hagadol – once home to the first and largest Russian Jewish Orthodox congregation in the United States, as well as the only Chief Rabbi of America. Walk the streets of Historic East Broadway where sites to be viewed and discussed will include: The Educational Alliance, Henry Street Settlement, Lillian Wald, The Forward Building, Seward Park, Straus Square and more.

A portion of the proceeds of this tour are returned to the site.

THIS TOUR LASTS APPROXIMATELY 3 HOURS AND WE TOUR RAIN OR SHINE.

In order to enable you to hear the guide, we will be using an app for smartphones. Bring earphones for your cell.

The price of this tour is $28 for Adults, $26 for Seniors, and $25 for students, and tickets are an additional $3 PP if purchased the day of the tour, pending availability.