Welcome to the Forward’s coverage of the Lower East Side, a neighborhood in Manhattan that was a center of Jewish immigrant culture in the 20th century.
Lower East Side
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Food Schav Returns to Greenmarkets This Spring
One sure sign of spring in my Brooklyn neighborhood is the first sighting of the Mr. Softee truck. A hundred years ago, Jewish residents of the Lower East Side knew it was spring by the appearance of sorrel, or schav in Yiddish, on the neighborhood pushcarts. While the pushcarts are gone, nowadays you can find…
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The Schmooze Orthodox Neighbors Angry Over Pornographic Exhibit on Lower East Side
While adolescent yeshiva students may not share their dissatisfaction, Orthodox Jewish neighbors of a Lower East Side art gallery have issued a chorus of complaints over a current exhibition involving pornographic images According to the New York Post, the Allegra LaViola Gallery’s new “Pornucopia” show “features a slew of sexy nude images of men and…
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The Schmooze Getting to the Bottom of Show Business
Crossposted From Under the Fig Tree Much has been written of late about the ways in which celebrated American musicals such as “Oklahoma” or “South Pacific” carry considerable Jewish freight. While most audiences come away humming rather than thinking, the American musical, many scholars suggest, is actually where American Jewish playwrights, lyricists, choreographers and designers…
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Food Jews and Chinese Food: A Christmas Story
Chinese food is the most prolific cuisine on the planet, and, aside from the Chinese themselves, no one loves it more than American Jews, according to Andrew Coe, author of “Chop Suey: A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States.” On Christmas, noodle, rice and savory dish consumption quite possibly peaks among Jews,…
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The Schmooze Slideshow: Jews of the Fillmore
With the opening of San Francisco’s Jewish Community High School of the Bay’s (JCHS) new building on Ellis Street in 2002, the city’s organized Jewish community finally returned to the Fillmore. Only local Jewish history buffs appreciated the significance; the neighborhood in which the school is situated — now called The Western Addition — was…
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The Schmooze A Window for the Ages on the Lower East Side
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was the Lower East Side’s Eldridge Street Synagogue — not the first time, and not the second time either. The synagogue, which was originally erected in 1887, has just announced the completion of a 24-year-long restoration process, with the installment of a 16-foot circular window, commissioned by…
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Life A Kinky Stroll Though the Old Neighborhood
Looking to put some kinkiness into your weekend? The kind that even your rabbi might (might!) approve? The group KinkyJews is hosting an afternoon stroll replete with “Jews, Sex, and Politics” this Sunday on New York’s Lower East Side. Back in April, The Forward reported on the kinkiest Seder (more S&M than bitter herbs) put…
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Life There Goes the Neighborhood: Streit’s Looks To Leave Lower East Side
The recent news that the Streit’s matzo factory is looking to move from its longtime Lower East Side home has received plenty of media attention. After all, it has been a constant presence on the Lower East Side for… Well, it’s not at all clear, from reading press coverage, exactly how long it’s been there….
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Fast Forward Why neo-Nazis marched in Ohio this weekend, and almost every weekend in the US
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Opinion The group behind Project 2025 has a plan to protect Jews. It will do the opposite.
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Opinion Just about every interpretation of Trump’s narrow election victory is wrong
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News Texas schools want to add Queen Esther to the curriculum. Here’s why Jews (and many Christians) are opposed.
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Fast Forward Rep. Ritchie Torres, outspoken pro-Israel advocate, is dropping hints that he could run for NY governor
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Fast Forward Ursula Haverbeck, infamous German Holocaust denier known as ‘Nazi grandma,’ dies at 96
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Fast Forward A Jewish museum in Tulsa held a funeral for remains of Holocaust victims it kept for years
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Sports Texas A&M’s Sam Salz cherishes his first taste of DI college football — and the opportunity to inspire fellow Orthodox Jews
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