Visiting History on the

BY JENNIE KAUFMAN

I , were streaming from Ellis Island into New York City’s Lower East Side. One block might house 2,000 newcomers. Pushcarts, shoppers, and children lled the streets with clamor.

Docent Barry Feldman tells the story to visitors sitting in the main sanctuary at the Museum at Eldridge Street, formerly the Eldridge Street Synagogue. e room is 70 feet from oor to vaulted ceiling, 74 feet long and 50 feet wide, with a grand balcony. Moorish arches rise over mahogany pews; stained-glass windows line the walls; Ti any-inspired oral shades accent the glowing brass xtures. A magni cent rose window overlooks it all.

In the tenements across Eldridge Street, eight or more people could be crammed into three small, dim rooms totaling 325 square feet.

“Imagine what it’s like to come from that into this,” Feldman says. “ Imagine what it’s like to worship here.”

e synagogue was built in 1887 for an eastern European congregation; by 1910, half a million Jews lived on the Lower East Side. But the population shi ed over the decades, the main sanctuary was closed, and the building deteriorated.

In 1989, the nonpro t Eldridge Street Project began restoration of the synagogue. Its completion was celebrated in December 2007.

“ e Holocaust severed ties to Europe,” Feldman says. For many American Jews, the Lower East Side is as far back as they go. “ is is what is considered to be home. is is what they come looking for.”

is a freelance writer living in Brooklyn, New York.

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