Tour With Us
Private Group Tours
Explore the past and present of New York’s Lower East Side, the cradle of American Jewish immigration, and other historic NYC Jewish neighborhoods.
Since our inception in 1998, The Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy (LESJC) has offered a unique touring experience in one of New York’s most historically vibrant neighborhoods. Listed below are our popular walking tours. Keep in mind that these walking tours are only possibilities. Would your group like to see specific sites on the Lower East Side? We encourage potential visitors to speak with our staff. They will arrange tours for diverse groups: families, synagogues, schools, religious or women's organizations. They will help you design a tour to reflect the interests and needs of your group. On LESJC tours, landmarks of the Lower East Side are showcased.
Tours are led by LESJC guides many of whom were professionally trained by author and historian Joyce Mendelsohn, a renowned expert on the history and culture of the Lower East Side. Tours last approximately 2.5 to 3 hours.
Experience the Lower East Side your way. Celebrate a special occasion and enjoy a memorable day in New York. For more information, call (212) 374-4100. LESJC conducts tours Sunday through Friday rain or shine!
Price Structure — Lower East Side Private Group Walking Tours
Groups under 30 people
$220 for the first 8 people
Over 8 people, each additional person is charged:
$24 per adult (age 21-64)
$22 per senior (age 65+)
$15 student (age under 21)
Groups over 30 people
There is just a per person charge:
$24 per adult (age 21-64)
$22 per senior (age 65+)
$15 student (age under 21)
Save $2 per person on groups of 50 or more!
* If The Museum at Eldridge Street is added to a tour, there will be an additional charge of $8.00 per adult or senior and $5.00 per student, payable directly to the Museum the day of the tour.
We also offer a 1 hour Bialystoker only non-walking tour. Price starts at $150 and depends on how many attending. Please call our office for more specific pricing information at (212) 374-4100.
Price Structure for Specialty Group Tours
(Jewish Harlem, Jewish Upper West Side, Jewish Upper East Side, ‘Kosher Nostra’, and Williamsburg) Tours last 2 1/2 to 3 hours
Groups under 12 people $325
Groups over 12, there is an additional $24 per person charge
**** We have the ability on all private tours (no matter which tour is given) to use a phone app which is free to download, that allows tour goers to hear the guide directly through the headphones on their cell phone. There is an additional charge of $1PP for this service. This is especially useful for larger groups.
Tour the magnificent Bialystoker Synagogue, built in 1826 as a Methodist Church, and believed to be a stop on the Underground Railroad, then visit a shteibl (one room house of prayer.)
Walk the street on historic East Broadway in this iconic neighborhood.
Once the second largest Jewish community in the United States, Harlem was home to more than 175,000 Jews. This tour visits the exteriors of grand synagogues, including the Ethiopian Hebrew Synagogue.
Enter sacred sites that reveal the Lower East Side of the early 20th century and how it has evolved to reflect today’s changing culture north of Delancey Street.
During the 1930’s a significant number of Jewish refugees escaping Europe moved to Manhattan’s Upper West Side to join an already diverse community. Bordered by Central Park on one side and Riverside Park on the other, this 2.5 square mile neighborhood is a 'powerhouse' of shuls, schools, and Jewish culture, and has some of the most outstanding 19th century row houses in New York City. It contains a wealth of history and architectural styles, exemplifying Beaux Arts, Art Noveau, and Art Deco
Williamsburg is the land of Chasidic Jews. In fact, it is the most important neighborhood of the Satmar community, as well as a number of other Chasidic groups. Come along on this interesting journey through an area of Brooklyn that is constantly changing
The Architecture of the Upper East Side evokes mini mansions and extravagant townhouses along the "Fifth Avenue Gold Coast." but it is the richly orneamented side street tenements that housed the working and middle class residents of the neighborhood.
Learn where leaders of the Jewish Underworld began their nefarious activities, and discuss questions of morality, power & assimilation.
Second Avenue is rich in cultural history. You’ll stroll down the historic street of the famed “Yiddish Rialto,” and explore the connections between what is now the East Village and the Lower East Side.
The Lower East Side is the iconic New York City immigrant neighborhood. For the past century and a half, immigrants have crowded its streets and tenements, and established cultural, social and religious institutions. On this tour, housing on the Lower East Side will continue to be explored.
Trace the origins of Jewish life in what was Colonial New Amsterdam.
Visit the oldest known Jewish Cemetery in New York City founded by America's first Jewish Congregation, and see graves of patriots of the American Revolution.
On this tour, we will discuss why sculptures adorn otherwise drab 19th century tenements, and how building ornamentation influenced residential architecture in this ever evolving immigrant enclave.