The Museum at Eldridge Street presents exhibits, concerts, lectures, readings and other cultural and educational programs that explore American Jewish and Lower East Side history, immigrant culture, and preservation. See our calendar for upcoming events.
Gural-Rabinowitz Family History Center
Visitors explore first-generation Americans and investigate their families’ journey to America at the Gural-Rabinowitz Family History Center. The Center features interpretive and interactive media, artifacts, photographs, and library resources. Visitors to the Family History Center can also view Gates of Light, a 12-minute animated film by Rose Bond, which evokes a vision of the Eldridge Street Synagogue and its dynamic immigrant neighborhood from 1887 to the present.
Limud Discovery Center
Experience turn-of-the-century Lower East Side through two interactive tables in the Limud Discovery Center. The center uses digital technology and exhibits of artifacts to provide visitors with an understanding of neighborhood history and synagogue design and practice.
Lise and Jeffrey Wilks Gallery
Overlooking the main sanctuary, the Lise and Jeffrey Wilks Gallery hosts rotating exhibits and site-specific art installations. The Gallery’s inaugural exhibit, Glorious Again, tells the story of the landmark restoration through text, photographs, artifacts and video interviews with artisans.
Academic Angles Lecture Series
Leading scholars of American Jewish history use the Eldridge Street Synagogue as a springboard to speak about the adaptation and contributions of immigrants in America. Lectures focus on migration, encounters, practice, and preservation.
Illuminations Architecture Series
The newly restored Eldridge Street Synagogue provides a setting for discussion and debate on the intersection of architecture, art, history and preservation. Lectures, workshops and our “Preservation Detectives” series for families provide a window onto the preservation process and the ways in which history and memory can be incorporated into architecture.
Egg Rolls & Egg Creams Festival
The Museum at Eldridge Street’s annual spring block party celebrates the two cultures - Chinese and Jewish - that make our Lower East Side block so unique. This all-day festival features storytelling, music and hands-on crafts and activities. Voted Best Block Party by the Village Voice!
Family History Workshops
In our Gural-Rabinowitz Family History Center, intimate workshops on family history, genealogy and memoir-writing help participants collect and preserve family stories as a legacy for future generations.
Garden Cafeteria Literary Series
Named for the famed Lower East Side eatery, Garden Cafeteria events feature writers whose work touches on themes still relevant at Eldridge Street: immigration, spiritual journeys, tension between cultural legacies and modern life, and the continuity of family and of faith.
Great Yiddish Writers Tribute
Our annual tribute, co-sponsored by the National Yiddish Book Center, celebrates the life and work of a major Yiddish writer through readings, talks and reminiscences. Tributes have focused on Sholom Aleichem, Sholem Asch and Itzik Manger.
Lost & Found Music Series
The Eldridge Street Synagogue was designed to highlight the voices of preeminent religious singers, or cantors. Lost and Found Music honors that legacy with concerts of Jewish music beloved by the Synagogue's turn-of-the-century parishioners, as well as other Yiddish musical forms that are at risk of disappearing. An annual festival highlights one musical instrument common to many, such as the accordion, fiddle or dulcimer, to build bridges across cultures.
©2008, Museum at Eldridge Street