How can the life of an immigrant child on the Lower East Side a hundred years ago be brought to life for school-children today? "A Day in the Life of an Immigrant Child," the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy's new interdisciplinary and interactive educational program, was designed so that third to sixth grade students can experience what growing up on the Lower East Side was like from 1880 to 1930.
 
The program was developed by two experienced educators: Rena Sichel Rosen and Joyce Mendelsohn.  Rena has been teaching children and adults about architecture and neighborhood history since 2001. She earned an M.S. in Historic Preservation from Columbia University. Most recently, she developed an architecture and preservation education program that is used in Upper West Side public schools serving more than 1,000 students annually.  Joyce, a former New York City Public School teacher, is an acclaimed historian and author of The Lower East Side Remembered & Revisited.
 
"This is the only educational program serving the Lower East Side that is focused on the neighborhood as a whole," Ms. Sichel Rosen commented. "Children who go through the program are introduced to historic preservation; they learn how to become young preservationists."
 
There are three components of "A Day in the Life of an Immigrant Child," the pre-visit, onsite tour, and post-visit. Before students come to the Lower East Side, their teachers will be provided with pre-visit materials. The centerpiece of the program is the Lower East Side touring experience. Students will visit sites central to the daily life of immigrant children during the peak years of immigration to the Lower East Side. After their visit, they will complete a culminating classroom project to apply the concepts they explored on the tour.
 
In this first year of the program, it is being offered to schools free of charge. Several schools in the metropolitan area have already experienced "A Day in the Life of an Immigrant Child."

 

"So far, we have hosted five classes from three schools, a total of 94 students," Ms. Sichel Rosen said. "The program provides teachers and students with a unique teaching and learning opportunity, and we would be glad to arrange classroom visits to schools."
 
Throughout the program, primary sources such as maps, historic photographs and other documents complement onsite learning. The program incorporates strategies to engage students with various learning styles, emphasizing inquiry and using all five senses. Designed to align with Learning Standards in the humanities, literacy, and math, it can be customized to meet specific curricular needs.
 
"I would appreciate any suggestions from our readers regarding schools that may be interested in the program," Ms. Sichel Rosen stated.  "'A Day in the Life of an Immigrant Child' deserves a wide audience."
 
The program is underwritten by a major grant from the United States Department of Education, and geared to coincide with the mandated study of immigration. The Conservancy is grateful to Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney for making this program possible.

Noshing on December 25th? Only in New York and only at the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy. For the past five years, many have enrolled in this unique three-hour tour which features an array of noshing (snacking in Yiddish) foods complemented by visits to several of the Lower East Side's renowned sacred sites.
 
What was on the noshing menu that day? The 5th Annual Noshing Tour Extravaganza began with a continental Lower East Side breakfast of bagels, bialys and pastries, then moved on to a classic Eastern European Kiddish of herring, arbis (chick peas), potatonick, schnapps (whiskey), dried fruit and halvah.
 
There were three historic sites that participants visited. They enjoyed the beautifully restored Congregation Chasam Sopher, New York City's oldest continuously operating active synagogue building, and the stunning interior of the Angel Orensanz Cultural Foundation, the oldest surviving structure built as a synagogue in New York City. They also visited another historic treasure, Congregation B'nai Jacob Ansche Brzezan (The Stanton Street Shul), one of the few remaining tenement-style synagogues.
 
"We are grateful to Congregation Chasam Sopher and The Stanton Street Shul for allowing the noshing tour to take place in their batti medrash," said Laurie Tobias Cohen, Executive Director of the LESJC.
 
"The Annual Noshing Tour Extravaganza is our most popular tour," she continued. "Participants enjoy getting the flavor of the Lower East Side by sampling noshing foods and seeing several of the Lower East Side's remarkable sacred sites."
 
"At the last noshing tour, there were more children than ever before," Ms. Tobias Cohen commented. "Grandparents who'd come on private tours leapt at the opportunity to bring their grandchildren on this tour."
 
"The noshing tour provides our participants with a complete experience. There are not only sights and sounds, but a diversity of palate pleasing tastes of this historically rich neighborhood," she concluded. 

The Conservancy's first Yiddish Theater Brunch, on Sunday, February 22nd, drew more than 50 people. Participants enjoyed selections from the New Yiddish Rep Company, and recaptured the glory of the Yiddish vaudeville stage in Mamaloshen (Yiddish).The event provided a rich and varied experience in nostalgia that was uplifting and fun.
 
Participants enjoyed a multifaceted three-hour program of vaudeville, music, comedy, Yiddish poetry and magic in the comfortable and spacious Community Synagogue on East 6th Street. The New Yiddish Rep Company is currently in residence at The Workmen's Circle on East 33rd Street. The program was in both Yiddish and English, and for those members of the audience who did not understand Yiddish, there were English supertitles projected on a screen.
 
"We thank the leadership of Community Synagogue for their hospitality in allowing us to have this event in their beautifully renovated social hall," said Laurie Tobias Cohen, Executive Director of the LESJC.
  
The New Yiddish Rep Company is led by a small but dedicated group of Yiddish theater professionals. Their performances range from "Yosl Rakover Speaks to G-d," which presents the final hours of a resistance fighter in the Warsaw ghetto, to "Vaudeville plus Yiddish Divided by Shane Baker."
 
Those who attended the Yiddish theater brunch were treated to the acting talents of Shane Baker. Using intonations and rhythms inherent in the Yiddish language, he demonstrated the vanishing art of Yiddish recitation.
 
"Shane Baker did much with little," observed Laurie Tobias Cohen, the Conservancy's Executive Director. "He selected people from the audience to help him perform feats of magic onstage."
 
Following the performance, Herb Latner, a senior officer of Community Synagogue, led the audience in singing Yiddish songs, accompanied by the pianist Lance Cruce. Mr. Latner performed as a child actor in the heyday of Yiddish theater on Second Avenue. He also recounted the history of Community Synagogue for the audience.
 
"We are not only grateful to Herb Latner but also to photographer Paul Margolis for taking photos of this first-time event for the Conservancy," Ms. Tobias Cohen said.
 
Further information on the New Yiddish Rep Company may be obtained by visiting their website at www.newyiddishrep.org.

 

LESJC'S DIVERSITY OF PROGRAMMING REFLECTS THE INTERESTS OF MANY JEWISH COMMUNITIES
By Laurie Tobias Cohen, Executive Director

 

When tour participants are led by Jai R. Zion, they experience the Lower East Side like they have never experienced it before. Jai is an artist and lay historian who brings his unique cultural insights to every tour.
 
"The Lower East Side is one of the most attractive, culturally diverse neighborhoods in America, if not the world," Mr. Zion said. "I love everything about this neighborhood, the architecture, the types of stores, the people, and the atmosphere."
 
With a keen interest in the Jewish history of the Lower East Side, he is currently co-authoring a book with his wife, Shuli Berger, another Conservancy tour guide. The book deals with the attempts by a Jewish developer to gentrify the Lower East Side in the early 1920s, a mortgage scandal, and the demise of new construction.
 
"In many ways, the historic nature of the Lower East Side benefited from this mortgage scandal," Mr. Zion commented. "The seven decade hiatus in new building construction on the Lower East Side preserved the historic aspect of the neighborhood."
 
"Even though many of the grand synagogues during the peak years of Jewish immigration to this country are no longer synagogues, their beautiful facades can still be seen all over the neighborhood," he explained. "Until recently, many of the shops on lower Orchard Street were still run by elderly Hasidim who stood on the sidewalk and literally pulled people into their stores. Walking into those stores was like stepping into another century."  
 
As he was growing up in Brooklyn, Jai himself "stepped into another century" whenever he listened to the nostalgic stories of his grandmother who had fond memories of the tenement where she grew up. Although she lived in crowded conditions in one tiny apartment with her extended family, she recalls that her life in the tenement was happy.
 
His grandmother's tenement experience had a profound effect on the way Jai leads tours. From her, he acquired a special understanding of tenement life. He always strives to paint a vivid picture of impoverishment tempered by his grandmother's evocative memories.
 
Jai also gained a unique perspective on tenement life from his more than eight years of serving as an Emergency Medical Technician for the New York City Fire Department on the Lower East Side. While treating patients who lived in tenements, he saw families still living as his grandmother lived. There were large, extended, multi-generational families crowded together in very small apartments.
 
Jai shares these insights into tenement life with the LESJC's tour participants. "The Lower East Side today is still a vibrant immigrant community, even though it is a hundred years later. I open the eyes of tour participants so they can see what life was like for the first wave of Jewish immigrants, by experiencing the neighborhood's current immigration and culture."
 
"We're not just learning the history of immigrant life, we're experiencing it together, the sights, the smells, the sounds, and the energy of this remarkable neighborhood," he continued. "The way it was then is actually quite similar to the way it is now."     
 
For Jai, tours are opportunities to entertain and educate. He brings a story-telling style and often includes anecdotes in describing the Lower East Side's historic importance. "While names, dates, and places are important, expressing and sharing the flavor of the neighborhood is equally important. The word 'history' contains the word 'story.' Events that happened should be enlivened and not merely narrated." 
 
Jai has served as an LESJC tour guide for the past six years. When he is not involved in tours, Jai is an artist who creates paintings, sculptures, mosaics, and unique hand-painted yarmulkes. 

THE FORWARD'S EDIFICE COMPLEX (Part I)
By Shulamith Z. Berger

 

Update of an article originally published
in the Pakn-treger, Winter 1998.

Shulamith Z. Berger presently serves as Curator of Special Collections at Yeshiva University's Mendel Gottesman Library. She holds an M.S. from Columbia University's School of Library Science and an M.S. in Jewish History from the Bernard Revel Graduate School of Yeshiva University. She does freelance writing and lecturing on a variety of topics in American Jewish history. Many of her articles and lectures are based on her collection of Yiddish advertisements. Shuli has a keen interest in the history and architecture of the Lower East Side and spent many years exploring the neighborhood before becoming a tour guide.