Historic Jewish Harlem

Service Description

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 NY History Tours to 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.