Visit the Lower East Side’s most iconic synagogues on this NYC walking tour

There is, arguably, no better time to embark on a walking tour of the city than late summer when the air turns crisp but the sun still lingers. Pair that with a fascinating route and you’ve got yourself a perfect afternoon activity. Case in point: the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy’s “Synagogues of the Lower East Side Walking Tour,” scheduled for Sunday, August 31, from 3 to 5:30pm.

Licensed NYC tour guide, urban historian and Lower East Side native Bradley Shaw will lead the walk, taking participants to the historic Bialystoker Synagogue—the Orthodox shul on Willett Street first purchased in 1905—while sharing stories about “the shuls and shtiebels that once filled nearly every street a century ago,” according to the official description. For context, shtiebel is a Yiddish word for a small informal gathering place for Jewish prayer and study often associated with Hasidic communities. Think of them as intimate neighborhood synagogues.

“Though most of these former religious structures have been lost to time in a constantly changing neighborhood, some still exist today,” reads the walk’s description. “The great majority are no longer synagogues, but their architecture and stories still ‘echo’ through a neighborhood that once housed over a million and a half primarily impoverished Jewish immigrants.”

The program reflects the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy’s mission to support and preserve the neighborhood’s Jewish heritage. Founded in 1998, the nonprofit regularly organizes tours of “sacred sites, where you learn how past generations came here, lived and worshipped,” as the group explains.

Tickets for the tour cost $18 each and are available right here.