This
morning I went to the Lower East Side / Chinatown
area again to a museum that I had read about. I went on a tour led by very well-informed elderly impeccably dressed
Jewish lady.
Between 1880 and 1920 2 ½ million Eastern
European Jews migrated to the NY, specifically the LES. In 1887 a Synagogue was
built in which the predominantly Orthodox community could worship. By the late 1940’s it closed because most of
the Jews had moved to Brooklyn and else where
, out of the crowded tenement area where migrants first lived when they
arrived. It fell into disrepair until the 1970’s ( I think) when it was
completely restored to its original state , with the exception of one large stained
glass window which was installed last year. It has a combination of Moorish, Gothic and
Romanesque architecture- sounds a mish-mash but I quite liked it. We started on the bottom floor where they had their weekday services and then looked at the
main floor and then the balcony area where
the women were relegated to.
There were photos and other bits of pieces about the past. Now only the bottom floor is used for all the
services, except on special days. Our guide talked about the reasons for
different of the Jewish practises. She herself belongs to a progressive Jewish community. They have
a female rabbi.
I went to
the Housingworks café for coffee and muffin again. There was a sign on the
tables that said the usual – No food from elsewhere, Don’t just sit using the internet at lunch
and also ‘ Please bus your table’ . I
had no idea at all. I asked. It means, ‘clear the rubbish off your table and
put it in the bin.’ How come? Apparently the people who empty the bins are
called ‘bus boys’ , why ? no-one could
tell me.
I wandered
rather aimlessly around Soho for a while and
then came back here and had a late lunch at a Japanese restaurant (cross 1
street).
This
afternoon I wandered around the rambles – another part of Central
Park and now I getting ready to go to the opera – Handel’s Guilio
Cesare
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