Publication: New Book About NYC's Eldridge Street Synagogue

photo: Samuel D. Gruber. For more photos click here.


Publication: New Book About NYC's Eldridge Street Synagogue
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) A new book by my friend Dr. Annie Polland, the VP of Education at the Museum at Eldridge Street will be presented Sunday, December 7th at a book launch at the Museum (the Eldridge Street Synagogue), from 2-4 pm.

The book is Landmark of the Spirit: The Eldridge Street Synagogue and it is published by Yale University Press. Annie is an historian. Her Columbia University dissertation in history is The Sacredness of the Family: New York's Immigrant Jews and Their Religion,1890-1930. The new book is about history and community and the synagogue's position on New York's Lower East Side. Still, I expect there will also be some talk of architecture and historic preservation.

Besides being a "flagship" synagogue for Ashkenazi immigrant Jews in New York when it opened in in 1887, the Eldridge Street Project - the 20 year effort to restore the crumbling edifice - helped inspire an entire generation of historic preservation activists and architects across America and abroad.

Annie's book sounds like a great resource and Hanukah gift, too!