The renovation of a historic synagogue on Manhattan’s Lower East Side was celebrated.
The Eldridge Street Synagogue was rededicated Sunday as a synagogue and a museum after a 20-year, $20 million renovation.
The synagogue was the first in New York to be built by Jews from Eastern Europe, in 1887. By the 1950s, when Jews had left the area, the congregation was so small that it met in the basement of the Moorish-style building, which is located in what is now Chinatown.
An Orthodox synagogue will continue to meet in the basement. The rest of the building will be home to a museum dedicated to the history of the Lower East Side and American Jewry.
