The Eldridge Street Synagogue is one of the oldest Synagogues in New York City, and arguably the most beautiful. It harbored Eastern European Jewish immigrants upon their arrival to America from 1887 to the early 1900s. The synagogue is located in Chinatown, which was once a bustling Jewish neighborhood centered around Hester Street. It was left in disarray for decades after Jewish immigration declined, but was then restored in a 20 million dollar project when it was found by an NYU professor.
The exterior of the Eldridge Street Synagogue hasn’t changed much since it was built, at least from the front. While the back has a new stained glass window, the facade has all the same beautiful Moorish features it had when it was built. While the synagogue itself hasn’t changed much, they neighborhood certainly has. A bustling Jewish population living in tenements has been replaced by the Chinatown that we all know and love. It can be hard to imagine a Jewish neighborhood when walking through Chinatown with a bubble tea. Fortunately, the Synagogue is still standing as a symbol of the Jewish neighborhood that once was and the tiny part of it that still lives on today.
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