Celebrating Rosh Hashanah in the 1900s Lower East Side [PHOTOS]
Rivington St., Photo: Library of Congress
Sundown tonight marks the beginning of the Jewish new year with the holiday of Rosh Hashanah.
To celebrate, below is a small collection of photos, courtesy of the Library of Congress, illustrating how Jews of the early 1900s celebrated the holiest of days while living in the ghetto of the Lower East Side.
You’ll notice that two of the shots unearthed show prayer groups engaging in the tradition of Tashlich, in which sins are symbolically absolved by tossing bread crumbs into a moving body of water. In this case from the Brooklyn Bridge into the East River.
Recent Stories
Trees in East River Park Marked for ‘Demolition’
Over a thousand trees will be uprooted later this fall when the city commences its demolition and redevelopment of East River Park. Faux demolition flyers now dot the park to raise awareness of the impending arborcide for the controversial resiliency project. The bright-red bills announce trees as “marked for demolition by the mayor and City […]
Upside Pizza Heads to Little Italy, Replacing Pomodoro on Spring Street
Out with the old style, in with the new. Pomodoro Pizzeria, which shuttered at the outset of the pandemic, is to be replaced by the popular midtown slice shop, Upside Pizza. Founder Noam Grossman and partners Eli and Oren Halali (behind 2 Brothers and Taqueria Diana) together submitted an application to Community Board 2 for […]
Looking at the Luxury Conversion of the Former Bialystoker Nursing Home
Conversion of the former Bialystoker Nursing Home is well underway on East Broadway. Work commenced a year ago, but visible progress is now palpable. The landmark building – designated as such in 2013 – is encased in scaffolding, elevator shaft, and cranes, and windows busted out. In the near future, it will yield more luxury […]
Petisco Vegano to Close Tomorrow, Blaming ‘Difficult’ Landlord
Petisco Vegano, the reimagined iteration of Cafe Petisco, this week joins the rank of restaurant closures related to the coronavirus pandemic. Last day in business is tomorrow (October 20). Ownership took to Instagram Friday evening with a screed blaming the landlord for making it “extremely difficult for us to operate” since March. Apparently, there was […]
CB3 Committee Approves Grassroots Plan to Save Historic East River Park Buildings
An ambitious grassroots proposal to rehabilitate two endangered East River Park structures received backing from Community Board 3 last week. As previously reported, two Art Deco gems rooted in East River Park were recently deemed eligible for the State and National Registers of Historic Places by the New York State Historic Preservation Office. Both the […]
