Fall is by far my favorite season in New York City — warm, sunshiny days followed by cooler nights; the excitement of back-to-school and the Jewish holidays and, perhaps best of all, Open House New York Weekend, an annual event that gives New Yorkers access to notable, little-known or usually inaccessible locations across the five boroughs.
This year, more than 300 sites are participating in the action-packed weekend, which will take place from Friday, Oct. 17 through Sunday, Oct. 19. Experiences run the gamut from kayak trips of New York’s waterways to behind-the-scenes municipal operations to historic house tours. Due to space or security concerns, some sites require advance tickets, while others are open for drop-in visits. (Ticketing for sites that require them opens on Friday, Oct. 3 at noon. Act fast, they go quickly!)
In our great and very Jewish city, there are of course several Jewish (and Jewish-adjacent) sites of interest that are participating in the festival. The options include inside old-school, multi-generational Jewish family businesses, landmarked synagogues, artists’ studios and more. Keep scrolling for 14 not-to-be-missed Jewish spaces that will be open to the public next month.
1. Allison Eden Studios
Bushwick, Brooklyn
Jewish artist and designer Allison Eden has been manufacturing creative custom tiles in New York City for more than 30 years. Her colorful mosaic tiles have been installed in all 50 states and various locations abroad; Eden also created a Star of David mosaic for a fundraiser for the Soroka Medical Center in Southern Israel.
The studio at 164 Cook St. will be open to the public on Saturday, Oct. 18 and Sunday, Oct. 19 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
2. Brooklyn Seltzer Museum
Cypress Hills, Brooklyn
Gettin’ fizzy with it! Located inside the last remaining seltzer factory in New York City — which has been owned and operated by the same Jewish family for four generations — the Brooklyn Seltzer Museum is dedicated to preserving the history of “Jewish champagne.” The OHNY event will include a combined tour of both the museum and the factory, which “celebrates the manufacturing of seltzer, the science of seltzer, and seltzer as a cultural force in New York City and the world beyond.”
The seltzer factory and museum (474 Hemlock St.) will be open for drop-in tours on Sunday, Oct. 19 from 12 p.m – 3 p.m.
3. Castle Garden Emigrant Depot: Before Ellis
Battery Park, Manhattan
Head all the way downtown to Battery Park’s Castle Clinton for a National Park Service-led tour of the nation’s first immigrant processing center, Castle Garden Emigrant Depot. In use from 1855 through 1890, before the opening of Ellis Island, Castle Garden welcomed some 8 million new Americans, including, toward the end of its era, many Jewish immigrants from the Pale of Settlement.
First-come, first-served tours will take place at 10 a.m., 12 p.m. and 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 18 and Sunday, Oct. 19 .
4. Congregation Ohab Zedek
Upper West Side, Manhattan
Originating on the Lower East Side, Congregation Ohab Zedek has been part of New York City for more than 150 years. The Modern Orthodox congregation moved into its current digs at 118 West 95th Street in 1926; the Moorish Revival-style building, known for its stained glass rose window and intricate stone carvings, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.
The synagogue will be open to the public on Sunday, Oct. 19 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with kid-friendly activities and short lectures on the building’s history from the congregation’s historian.
5. Derfner Judaica Museum: Fantastical Realities
Riverdale, Bronx
Located inside the Hebrew Home for the Aged in the Bronx, the Derfner Judaica Museum spotlights fine art and Jewish ceremonial objects, as well as incredible views of the Hudson River and the Palisades. The current exhibition, “Fantastical Realities: Sandra Caplan, Maya Ciarrocchi, and Ray Ciarrocchi,” spotlights the multidisciplinary works of two generations of the same family.
The museum at 5901 Palisade Ave. will be open on Sunday, Oct. 19 from 10:30 a.m. through 4:30 p.m., with a first-come, first-served tour by a curator at 1:30 p.m.
6. Garment District Art: New York Roots
Midtown, Manhattan
Located at the Garment District’s Golda Meir Square on Broadway between 39th and 40th streets — named, of course, for the former Israeli prime minister — Jewish artist Steve Tobin’s “New York Roots” is comprised of seven steel sculptures, some as tall as two stories, that invite viewers to “reflect on relationships, families and communities coming together for a shared purpose,” per a press release. The artist’s previous work includes “Matzoh House,” a 1996 sculpture made from 1,500 individual bronze castings of matzah.
The public artwork is open to the public 24/7; on Sunday, Oct. 19, Tobin will give an artist talk at 1 p.m.
7. Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography
East Village, Manhattan
Named for the famed Jewish typographer and graphic designer, the Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography at Cooper Union is “a repository of over 80,000 objects of graphic design and ephemera spanning 150 years,” made “an array of [Jewish] designers including Paula Scher, Herb Lubalin, Milton Glaser and many others,” per OHNY. Tour participants can expect “a hands-on presentation of a selection of objects that illustrate the magic that is New York City.”
The Herb Lubalin Study Center (41 Cooper Square) will be open on Saturday, Oct. 18 for one-hour ticketed tours at 10 a.m., 11:15 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
8. The Jacob K. Javits Center
Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan
This massive convention center at 429 11th Avenue, which opened in 1986, is named for Jacob Javits (1904-1986), a former senator, congressman and attorney general of New York who grew up in a Jewish family on the Lower East Side. Following a recent expansion, the center is now a whopping 3.4 million square feet, and is considered a pioneer in sustainable architecture, with nearly seven-acre green roof and a one-acre rooftop farm. Come Nov. 21, the Javits Center will welcome “The Big Shabbat,” an attempt to host the world’s largest Shabbat dinner.
Ticketed tours are available on Saturday, Oct. 18 at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.
9. Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum
Lower East Side, Manhattan
Here’s your chance to pay a visit to the only Greek Romaniote synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. Guided tours by synagogue members will provide the opportunity to learn about the 2,300-year history of Romaniote Jews and to tour the landmarked synagogue, built in 1927, which “has been carefully restored to near-original conditions.”
The synagogue at 280 Broome St. will be open for tours on Sunday, Oct. 18 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
10. M&S Schmalberg Flowers
Midtown, Manhattan
M&S Schmalberg is a Garment District-based artificial flower business that’s been owned and operated by the same Jewish family for nearly 110 years. Today, Adam Brand, a fourth-generation owner, makes faux flowers much in the same way his ancestors did when they first opened in 1916. “This is a rare opportunity to go behind the scenes of a fourth-generation, family-run business that has withstood the test of time — through world wars, changing trends, and the rise of overseas manufacturing,” according to OHNY.
The atelier at 242 West 36th St., 7th floor, will be open for drop-in tours on Friday, Oct. 17 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
11. Museum at Eldridge Street
Lower East Side, Manhattan
This unique Lower East Side museum is housed in the landmarked Eldridge Street Synagogue (12 Eldridge St.), which first opened in 1887 and is the first “great house of worship” opened by Eastern European Jewish immigrants in the U.S. Currently on view at the museum is “Lower East Side, 1975: Portrait of a Changing Jewish Neighborhood,” featuring photographs by Richard Mark Sakols.
The museum will be open on Sunday, Oct. 19 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. for drop-in guided and self-guided tours.
12. Naumburg Bandshell at Central Park
Central Park, Manhattan
Dating to 1923, the Naumburg Bandshell is the only Neoclassical structure within Central Park. Donated to the park by merchant, banker and philanthropist Elkan Naumburg — who was born to a Jewish family in Bavaria — Naumburg pioneered the idea of free classical music for all New Yorkers in 1905. The Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, “the world’s oldest continuous free outdoor classical concert series,” continue to this day. During OHNY Weekend only, “the back-house portion of the bandshell will be unlocked and open for exploration.”
First-come, first-served access to the bandshell will be available on Friday, Oct. 17 from 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
12. Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation
Greenwich Village, Manhattan
In 1963, famed Jewish American sculptor Chaim Gross — who was born in Galicia and immigrated to New York City in 1921 — and his wife, Renee, converted a Greenwich Village art storage warehouse into a residence. Now home to The Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation, the building boasts a first-floor gallery dedicated to Gross’ work, a second-floor exhibition space and, on the third floor, “see how the Gross family lived surrounded by their global, world-class art collection in their historic, salon-style installation of African, American, European, and Pre-Columbian collections.”
The Foundation (526 LaGuardia Place) will be open for drop-in visits from 11 a.m. through 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 18 and Sunday, Oct. 19.
13. Temple Emanu-El
Upper East Side, Manhattan
The oldest Reform synagogue in New York City, Temple Emanu-El (1 East 65th St.) is also one of the largest houses of worship in the world. Completed in 1927, the synagogue’s design “combines Byzantine and early Romanesque form with Moorish and Art Deco style,” according to the New York Landmarks Conservancy. Visitors will have the opportunity to admire the sanctuary’s “dazzling mosaics” by muralist Hildreth Meière, as well as its intricately painted ceiling, and towering stained glass windows. Also on view: an exhibition at the congregation’s on-site museum, “Emanu-El at 180,” which spotlights Jews of the Gilded Age.
The synagogue will be open on Sunday, Oct. 19 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., with guided tours at 1:30 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.
14. Tin Pan Alley, Birthplace of American Popular Music Project Walking Tour
Flatiron, Manhattan
The birthplace of “The Great American Songbook,” Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the music publishers and songwriters who worked on a busy stretch of West 28th St. between Fifth and Sixth Avenues from roughly 1885 to 1930. Many famous Jewish composers were a product of this era, including Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin and Yip Harburg.
Ticketed, guided tours of Tin Pan Alley are available on Sunday, Oct. 19 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
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