A wonderful one-hour zoom presentation starting with America’s first congregation, the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue, organized in 1654 in New Amsterdam, and visiting the spectrum of neighborhoods throughout the city which had Jewish communities. These include: the Lower East Side, Upper East Side, Upper West Side, Jewish Harlem in Manhattan; the South Bronx, Grand Concourse and Riverdale in the Bronx; Jamaica, Forest Hills and Laurelton in Queens; Downtown, Borough Park, Crown Heights and Flatbush in Brooklyn; and Tompkinsville, Port Richmond, Willowbrook and Tottenville on Staten Island.

We will virtually visit some of the remarkable synagogues, including the Eldridge Street Synagogue, Temple Emanu-El, Shearith Israel, the Brooklyn Jewish Center, the Forest Hills Jewish Center, Shaare Zedek of Harlem, the Mount Eden Jewish Center, Adath Israel of the Bronx, Temple Israel of Staten Island, to name just a few. There is also a stop-over at Ellis Island where over twelve million immigrants entered this country between 1892 and 1954. If you ever lived or know someone who lived in New York City, this program will definitely hit home!

Your presenter for this talk is Oscar Israelowitz, an architect, author, and artist. Born in Brussels, Belgium, Oscar has degrees in geology and architecture, is a licensed architect in Israel, a licensed New York City Tour Guide, and has exhibited photographic shows at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Historical Society, the New York Transit Museum, and the Main Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library.