Museum at Eldridge Street

Museum at Eldridge Street Review

The exterior of this Orthodox synagogue, the first to be built by the many Eastern European Jews who settled in the Lower East Side in the late 19th century, is a striking mix of Romanesque, Gothic, and Moorish motifs. Inside is an exceptional hand-carved ark of mahogany and walnut, a sculptured wooden balcony, jewel-tone stained-glass windows, vibrantly painted and stenciled walls, and an enormous brass chandelier. The synagogue can be viewed as part of an hour-long tour, which begins at the small museum downstairs where interactive "touch tables" teach all ages about Eldridge Street and the Lower East Side. The crowning piece of the synagogue's decades-long restoration is a stained-glass window by artist Kiki Smith and architect Deborah Gans. Installed in 2010 to replace 1940s glass brick, the window weighs 6,000 pounds and has more than 1,200 pieces of glass.