JBC Features The Synagogues of New York’s Lower East Side

Posted on April 25th, 2013
by FUPress

The Synagogues of New York’s Lower East Side: A Retrospective and Contemporary View, Second Edition
Gerard R. Wolfe; Joseph Berger, fwd.

REVIEW by Carol Poll

The eminent architectural historian Gerald R. Wolfe captures early synagogue and community life on the Lower East Side and recent synagogue restoration efforts in his fascinating book The Synagogues of New York’s Lower East Side: A Retrospective and Contemporary View (Fordham University Press 2012, 232 Pages $29.95, ISBN: 978-0-8232-5000-4). The history of American Jews is very much entwined with the history of New York City’s Lower East Side. Four out of five Eastern European Jews can “trace their ‘roots’” to the Lower East Side. Close to 500,000 Jews came to the United States in the 1880s to be followed by another 1.5 million in the period between 1990 and 1924 and the majority settled on the Lower East Side. The passage of the National Origins Act in 1924, with its tiny quotas for Southern and Eastern Europe immigrants, put an end to large scale Jewish immigration. READ MORE

The Synagogues of New York’s Lower East Side: A Retrospective and Contemporary View, Second Edition Gerard R. Wolfe; Joseph Berger, fwd. REVIEW by Carol Poll The eminent architectural historian Gerald R. Wolfe captures early synagogue and community life on the … Full Story →

Aquatic Life Meets Urban Jungle

Posted on April 9th, 2013
by FUPress

Last month, a bottlenose dolphin was spotted in New York City’s East River at 96^th Street.

Yesterday, several dolphins were spotted in the Hudson River near Inwood Hill Park. They then headed up towards the George Washington Bridge.

Why are they here now? What does this say about our waterways? With so many dolphin sightings, could this be the new normal for this urban setting? Perhaps our waters here are not as polluted as we once thought…

In Heartbeats in the Muck: The History, Sea Life, and Environment of New York Harbor, Revised Edition, author John Waldman, talks about the incredibly rich and biologically diverse ecosystem that exists in New York Harbor and its surrounding waterways.

In the broadest sense life is the user of water and habitat, and thus life is the great indicator of water quality and habitat suitability and “how the harbor is doing.” And the news concerning life in the harbor is cause for optimism—I remain bullish. Sea turtles have been spotted in the Verrazano Narrows and the East River. A pair of bottle-nosed dolphins were seen near the Tappan Zee Bridge, and a “Florida” manatee swam up the East River. Harbor seals were sighted on Belmont Island and on Robbins Reef where they were common three hundred years ago; they’ve also been seen in Newark Bay, and in the Hudson near Hoboken, Yonkers, and Tarrytown, where they’ve bitten off the heads of shad caught in gill nets. READ MORE

The Hudson River and the NYC Watershed are healthy ecosystems teeming with life. Residents and visitors care for and help protect these ecosystems, which provide safe drinking water and abundant opportunities for swimming, fishing, boating and other recreational activities. Visit www.RiverKeeper.org to find out more.

John Waldman is Professor of Biology at Queens College, City University of New York. He is recipient of the New York Society Library Award in Natural History and the Norcross Wildlife Conservation Award and is an occasional contributor to the New York Times and other periodicals. He is also the author of Still the Same Hawk: Reflections on Nature and New York (Fordham University Press).

Related Links:
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Keep the Clean Water Act Strong

Beczak Environmental Education Center

My Neighborhood: Hudson River is Bob Walters’ Backyard

Last month, a bottlenose dolphin was spotted in New York City’s East River at 96th Street. Yesterday, several dolphins were spotted in the Hudson River near Inwood Hill Park. They then headed up towards the George Washington Bridge. Why are … Full Story →

REVIEW: The Jewish Week

Posted on January 22nd, 2013
by FUPress

1/20/13

The Tangled History of Shuls and Real Estate

By Sandee Brawarsky

Had it been two blocks south and a bit farther east, the 16th Street Synagogue would have been included in Gerard R. Wolfe’s excellent new edition of his classic work, “The Synagogues of New York’s Lower East Side: A Retrospective and Contemporary View” (Empire State Editions/Fordham University Press). That shul, formerly the Young Israel of Fifth Avenue, is being evicted from its building, after a long dispute with a developer.

Those interested in New York City’s building genealogy and the intertwining connections between real estate interests, immigrant history, shifting populations and synagogue life will find much of interest in Wolfe’s book, first published in 1978. He details the active synagogues (12) and the “lost” or endangered synagogues (24), and also includes a great chronological chart documenting shul mergers and breakaways in New York City, 1654 – 1875.

Wolfe, an architectural historian, unpeels layers of the past behind the congregations and their buildings. He pays careful attention to the special features of the buildings (the Bialystoker Synagogue, built as a church, may have been a station on the Underground Railroad, sheltering runaway slaves) and their architects (the Erste Warshawer Congregation, First Warsaw Congregation, now repurposed to art studios and residence, was designed by Emery Roth, known for designing the Sam Remo apartment house on Central Park West); and their struggles, some ongoing.

Sadly, in this edition, Congregation Beth Hamedrash Hagadol on Norfolk Street moved from the active synagogue to the endangered section, shortly before the book went to press. That shul ‘s sanctuary has magnificent wall paintings and carvings, along with a storied history of distinguished rabbis, most recently, the late Rabbi Ephraim Oshry, who had been the rabbi of the Kovno ghetto. A group including his son-in-law and leaders of the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy is trying to secure funding for restoration and renovation. READ MORE

1/20/13 The Tangled History of Shuls and Real Estate By Sandee Brawarsky Had it been two blocks south and a bit farther east, the 16th Street Synagogue would have been included in Gerard R. Wolfe’s excellent new edition of his … Full Story →

Civil Rights in New York City

Posted on January 21st, 2013
by FUPress

Today marks the anniversary of Civil Rights Leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday.

In 1967, King led the largest antiwar demonstration to date in New York City. More than 1,100 people marched with King from Central Park to U.N. headquarters to protest the Vietnam War.

He is remembered today in New York with a street named in his honor. Martin Luther King Junior Boulevard is an alternative name for Manhattan’s 125th Street. There is also a Martin Luther King, Jr. High School on Amsterdam Avenue and a Martin Luther King Triangle, a park space in Manhattan’s Mott Haven neighborhood (Austin Place and East 149th Street).

Since the 1960s, most U.S. history has been written as if the civil rights movement were primarily or entirely a Southern history. Civil Rights in New York City edited by Clarence Taylor joins a growing body of scholarship that demonstrates the importance of the Northern history of the movement. The contributors make clear that civil rights in New York City were contested in many ways, beginning long before the 1960s, and across many groups with a surprisingly wide range of political perspectives. Civil Rights in New York City provides a sample of the rich historical record of the fight for racial justice in the city that was home to the nation’s largest population of African-Americans in mid-twentieth century America.

Also of interest…

Red Tail Captured, Red Tail Free
Memoirs of a Tuskegee Airman and POW

For more information on Red Tails visit or www.Redtailsfilm.com.

Today marks the anniversary of Civil Rights Leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday. In 1967, King led the largest antiwar demonstration to date in New York City. More than 1,100 people marched with King from Central Park to U.N. … Full Story →

NYT Bookshelf: The Synagogues of New York’s Lower East Side

Posted on December 17th, 2012
by FUPress

by Sam Roberts

Gerard R. Wolfe, joined by the photographers Jo Renee Fine and Norman Borden, has completely overhauled “The Synagogues of New York’s Lower East Side” (Empire State Editions, $29.95), originally published in 1978. This volume, which is illustrated with black and white photographs and has a foreword by The Times’s Joseph Berger, uses historic houses of worship as a prism to explore immigrant life and culture.