Jewish Lower East Side - history tour

 The dichotomy of then and now! America is now in post-diaspora memory, like Greece, Germany, Spain et al. 

 Memorable Comments:

My Maternal grandparents immigrated to the Lower East Side from the Ukraine...in the early 1900's. They did not come married. They came as teenagers ( I think) and met here later on. They talked about coming here a few family members at a time. They could not afford the whole family to come at once. My Grandmother said she took a letter in her pocket from her Mother with her and cried leaving her Mother behind. One by one they all saved enough money to get the whole family here. My mother was born in her grandmothers' bed....by a midwife....and even though times were hard......the stories that were told to me .....they seemed happy. No one complained. They lived in a tenement and had very little. Both my grandparents worked in the garment district....( the union label) and always made money. Everyone had large families....and got together for the holidays. My Mother remembers always getting new shoes for Passover and having Seder at her grandmothers tiny apartment.....with folding chairs and extra little tables for everyone to sit and eat. There was no drama and to me.....seemed like a simpler and kinder time. My Mother passed away a few years ago and I am glad to have all these stories from her. Always pictures on the rooftop of buildings (?) Sleeping on the fire-escape for relief from the heat.....and always talking about the foods. Kasha varnishkas....stuffed derma. ....kugels.....knishes....brisket....chopped liver....wow....and I also love it all. I wish my mother was alive to see this.....she would have brought back many happy memories for sure. Looking forward to more of these.....thanks for the memories !!!!!

Fascinating stories! My great-grandmother was born on Delancey Street in 1891 to Litvak immigrants from Latvia, while my other great-grandparents, fresh off the boat from Austrian Galicia (now Zhytomyr, Ukraine) were living on Rivington Street just two blocks from where Economy Candy is now, decades before their children would meet each other and become my grandparents. Thanks for bringing this neighborhood and era back to life!

nteresting to note that LaGuardia was born to a Jewish mother who hailed from the prestigious Luzzatto family (RaMChal)

Thanks for putting this together- I enjoyed it from so many different angles. 1. I was in Rabbi Kundas sleep away camp and got to hear those albums so many times. (Was there really a trolley that went from Henry St. to East Broadway?) 2. My grandmother was born in the Lower East Side (her grandfather was sent from Europe decades earlier to be a Rabbi). 3. My other grandmother grew up in Minkazc and was at the wedding where the Rabbi made the plea to American Jewry. 4. For many years I worked in Manhattan and got to live in the Lower East Side- retracing the footsteps of my ancestors. 5. Al from the Pickle Guys is the best. You need to actually taste his pickles to appreciate them. Here’s one interesting thing you missed- Bugsy Siegel used to pray in the Bialystoker Synagogue and still has a memorial plaque there. An elderly congregant told over that he and his friends grew up really poor but on the way home from school they’d stop by a candy store on 6th St. and drool at the candies inside. Every so often this well dressed guy would bring them all in, tell them to pick what they wanted and pay for it. It was only after Bugsy was murdered that they realized who the sponsor was.