Eldridge Street Synagogue

The Eldridge Street Synagogue stands as a bold statement of arrival for the thousands of Eastern European Jewish immigrants who poured into the Lower East Side during the late nineteenth century. Completed in eighteen eighty-seven, it was the first great house of worship in America built from the ground up by these new arrivals, who had previously been forced to adapt cramped storefronts or abandoned buildings for their religious services. The congregation designed this monumental space to prove that their community, despite the poverty often associated with their neighborhood, could create something as grand and permanent as the city's most prestigious churches.