Exploring Lower Manhattan

Exploring the Jewish immigrant experience in New York City

By Rochelle Eisenberg

Here I am, standing in a cramped tenement building on New York’s Lower East Side. Once home to the Levines, this tiny two-room apartment housed living quarters for a family of seven, as well as a garment “factory” which the father operated in the front room.

One can almost imagine the immigrants sewing on treadle-powered sewing machines, the pressers using the coal stove to heat the irons and the Levine matriarch trying to cook, clean and put her baby to sleep amid all this noise. I realize I should stop complaining about any lack of privacy in my own family.

As the tour guide speaks, it’s not hard to envision the difficulties of these immigrants’ lives; how much the family couldn’t wait for Shabbat, when the workers would leave and they could have the home to themselves, and to wonder if they ever regretted coming to the land they heard was “paved with gold.”

I’m spending a weekend with my family in New York City and I’ve opted to spend the time exclusively in Lower Manhattan, exploring my Jewish roots. It’s a trip I realize many of us, with our easy access to the City, often forgo, opting for a day trip to see a Broadway show, shop in the various neighborhoods or visit the American Girl Place and Nintendo World Store with our children.

The tour we’re on is “Piecing It Together” which tells the story of several Jewish families who lived in this tenement building at different periods, and who were employed by the garment industry. The building, at 97 Orchard Street, is part of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum.

The founders of the Tenement Museum discovered this building in 1988, when looking for office space. Once home to about 7,000 immigrants, the tenement had been condemned during the Depression, because the owner was unable to afford replacing the main wooden banister to adhere to new fire codes. The landlord kicked out the tenants and sealed the upper residential floors, while maintaining the street-level store fronts. The Lower East Side Tenement Museum restored the building and opened it to the public for tours in 1994.

Using archival materials, the nonprofit also managed to recreate actual histories of families who once resided at 97 Orchard. Following our visit to the Levine family’s home, we stop by the 1918 apartment of the Rogarshevsky family, Lithuanian Jews who also worked in the garment industry.

Although their tenement was slightly larger, and the Rogarshevsky’s now worked in the garment factories located outside the home, it continues to amaze us how dismal their lives must have been. Sleeping arrangements were such that three boys in the family slept with their heads on the one sofa and their feet on chairs. Two girls slept in a makeshift couch/crate bed, fit for one, in the parlor. My children cannot believe how these people could live in such cramped conditions.

When we exit the tenement building, we conclude the tour in the Rear Yard, which recently was restored. It’s 1869, and there is the outhouse where it once stood (indoor plumbing came to the building around 1905) and where mothers brought their laundry to wash, lugging heavy buckets of water up and down the narrow steps.

The Lower East Side Tenement Museum boasts a number of tenement tours on the early immigrant experience.

In addition to “Piecing It Together,” the Museum offers several highlights of early Jewish life in “Getting By,” which features the German-Jewish Gumpertz family, whose father disappeared during the Panic of 1873, and the “Confino Family Living History Program,” about a Sephardic Jewish family who fled the Ottoman Empire after the Balkan Wars.

Day 2

On the second day of our visit, we travel to Battery Park and take the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. Although we wait approximately 45 minutes to get through security even though we have reserved tickets, we are lucky. Those that didn’t reserve online are standing in a line that streams around Battery Park. Estimated time is close to two hours to get through. (You can also access the ferry from Liberty State Park in New Jersey.)

The first stop is Liberty Island and a visit to the Statue of Liberty. As we pull up, words cannot describe how impressive the statue is; how powerful the moment. It’s easy to imagine the hope that greeted the immigrants who came to our country. However, having seen the tenements the day before, one can only guess at how quickly those dreams were dashed.

Although we were not able to get tickets to go inside the statue — if you know you are going in advance, reserve these tickets early — do not miss the free tour led by the park rangers of the National Park Service. The tour includes historical information, as well as fascinating facts about how the statue was designed.

Artist Frederic-August Bartholdi designed the Statue and we learn how he used a technique called repousse, hammering the the copper on her exterior to only 3/32-of-an-inch thick. Meanwhile, Alexandre Gustave Eiffel — yes, that Eiffel — designed the interior skeletal framework. I never realized that although the statue appears to be static, it actually moves so that it can withstand the winds of New York Harbor.

Not only did our excellent park ranger reveal fascinating facts about the construction of the statue, but I also find the Jewish connections interesting. I already knew about Emma Lazarus’ role in writing the famous poem “The New Colossus” (the poem that features the line, “Give me your tired, your poor…,” which is inscribed on a plaque and placed inside the pedestal), I wasn’t aware of newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer’s role.

France paid for the statue. However, it was the United States’ responsibility to raise the money for a pedestal for it to stand. Lazarus’ poem was part of the fundraising efforts, but with fundraising going poorly, Pulitzer said that he would print the name of every person who donated money, no matter how large or small the donation, in his newspaper, The World. The drive was a success and enough money was raised to build the pedestal upon which the statue stands.

After the tour, we board the ferry and proceed to Ellis Island. It was here that the third class and steerage passengers would arrive, via ferry from New York harbor, to be processed.

Throngs of immigrants arrived at Ellis Island from 1892 to 1954. Here, they would wait in line for hours to be checked for physical and mental diseases, and questioned about their political views. Most would pass muster, but a small percentage would be sent back to the Old Country.

Standing in front of the magnificent building, restored in 1990 and opened as a museum, it is easy to see how intimidating the next hours would be. As we visit the museum, then tour the site with a guide, we learn about the hospital and about how the doctors evaluated the immigrants.

As these “greenhorns” entered the building and walked up the long staircase, doctors would watch them to see if they were short of breath, a possible sign of respiratory illness. They would watch them as they waited in line; they would question them and often receive unsatisfactory answers, simply because the foreigners did not understand English.

At the conclusion of our tour, we each receive a letter and are told what our fate might have been. We laugh as my family would probably have been sent home — although for different reasons. For example, my son, who receives an X in a circle, is deemed mentally deficient.

As we return to Manhattan, I realize what a magnificent weekend it has been, a chance to be grateful and a newfound respect for those who arrived on our shores, penniless and struggling under unbearable conditions, so that we might have a better life.

Traveling to Lower Manhattan? Jewish sites to explore:

Museum of Jewish Heritage
36 Battery Place
Currently, the Museum is offering a special exhibit: Project Mah Jong, a look at Jewish-American interest in this Chinese table game. The exhibit runs through December. Admission is charged. For information go to www.mjhnyc.org .

Museum at Eldridge Street
12 Eldridge Street
This museum is housed in the restored Eldridge Street Synagogue built in 1887. It is now a National Historic Landmark. The museum holds guided tours and walking tours. Admission is charged. Visit http://www.eldrdigestreet.org.

The Lower East Side Tenement Museum
108 Orchard
In addition to tours of 97 Orchard Street, the museum offers historical walking tours of the area. In late fall, the Tenement Museum expects to add a walking tour, “Flavors of the Lower East Side.” Although the details are still being confirmed, expect visits to Kosar’s Bialy’s and Yonah Schimmel Bakery, where knishes are made. Admission is charged. Visit http://www.tenement.org.

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
36 Battery Place
Ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, and tour the statue’s pedestal or crown. Admission charged, but tours are free. For information and to reserve tickets go to http://www.nps.org.

June 2010