synagogue tour nyc

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Our Mu seum   The Museum at Eldridge Street is housed in the historic Eldridge Street Synagogue. Built in 1887, it is an architectural marvel and a symbol of immigrant aspirations realized. The building is the first grand synagogue purpose-built by Eastern European Jewish immigrants in the United States, and was nearly lost to neglect before the Museum’s 20-year, $20 million restoration project returned the space to glory and public use.   Visitors are welcome to tour the National Historic Landmark and learn about its time as a cultural hotspot in the bustling Jewish Lower East Side, to its decades of decay, to its miraculous rebirth as a 21st-century Museum  in present day Chinatown . Public tours guided by our docents are available Sunday – Friday at 11AM and 2PM, with additional to urs on Sunday, Monday, and Friday  at 1PM and 3PM. 

Visitors may also tour the Museum on their own through a self-guide, available on the Bloomberg Connects app . 

Advance registration is strongly encouraged.

Hours & Admissions

Sunday - Friday: 10AM - 5PM

CLOSED: Saturday

Special Hours &  Closures

Mon, April 22 | CLOSE at 3PM | Erev Passover Tues, April 23 | CLOSED | Passover Wed, April 24 | CLOSED | Passover Monday, April 29 | CLOSED | Passover Tue, April 30 | CLOSED | Passover Wed, October 2 | CLOSE at 3PM | Erev Rosh Hashana Thur, October 3 | CLOSED | Rosh Hashana Fri, October 4 | CLOSED | Rosh Hashana Fri, October 11 | CLOSE at 3PM | Erev Yom Kippur Thurs, November 28 | CLOSED | Thanksgiving Fri, November 29 | CLOSED | Thanksgiving Tue, December 31 | CLOSE at 3PM | New Year's Eve Wed, January 1 | CLOSED | New Year's

Adults: $15 Students & Seniors: $10 Children 5 - 17: $8 ‘Pay What You Wish’ admission is offered Mondays & Fridays.

Please carefully review our C OVI D-19 Policies and Procedures before your visit.

The Museum at Eldridge Street offers free admission (with valid ID) to:

IDNYC cardholders

Children under 5

Federally disabled visitors, plus attendant

Active duty military personnel and their families, as a proud Blue Star Museum

SNAP benefits recipients with EBT card or WIC card, via  Museums for All  (valid for four visitors)

Cool Culture  families

Culture Pass (reserve ticket first through  culturepass.nyc )

Members of Museums Council of New York

Visitor Policies

Backpacks are not permitted inside the Museum and must be checked.

Luggage and wheeled bags are not permitted and cannot be checked.

​ All bags will be inspected upon arrival. We reserve the right to refuse items.

Personal transportation devices such as bikes, e-bikes, scooters, and skateboards are not permitted and cannot be checked.

Food and drink are not allowed inside the Museum.

Animals are not permitted in the Museum.

Photography Policy:  You are welcome to take photographs without the use of flash. We encourage visitors to take casual photographs for their own personal, non-commercial use. Personal photos of family and friends in casual clothes and not involving a special photographer or a tripod does not require special permission. However, if you are planning to take posed photographs of people, whether amateur or professional, an appointment is required.

Any photography of people where a separate photographer is present, or a tripod and other ancillary equipment is used to photograph people requires an appointment. This also includes posed photos of people in special event attire and photography related to any wedding, engagement, prom, graduation, maternity photos, ceremony, modeling, etc.

"Amazingly beautiful synagogue, a hidden gem in LES Chinatown. Pay what you wish on Monday & Friday. Friendly staff. Great digital guide with a lot of information. The architecture is a treasure. All the details are just so wonderful and full of rich history."

Christine C, Google Reviews

Transportation

M15 to Grand and Allen Streets Walk two blocks south on Allen Street. Turn right on Canal Street. Walk one block west on Canal Street and turn left on Eldridge Street. The Museum will be on your left. Two-minutes from bus stop)

M15 Select to Hester and Allen Streets Walk south on Allen Street. Turn right on Canal Street. Walk one block west on Canal Street and turn left on Eldridge Street. The Museum will be on your left. (Two-minutes from bus stop)

Bus service is subject to change. Visit the MTA for up-to-date service information.

F to East Broadway Exit at Rutgers Street and Canal. Walk four blocks west on Canal. Turn left on Eldridge Street. The Museum will be on your left. (Five-minute walk from station)

B or D to Grand Street Walk one block east on Grand Street to Eldridge Street. Turn right on Eldridge and walk south two and a half blocks. The Museum will be on your left. (Five-minute walk from station)

6, N, Q, R, J or Z to Canal Street Walk east on the north side of Canal Street. Continue past the entrance to the Manhattan Bridge. Turn right on Eldridge Street. The Museum will be on your left. (Ten-minute walk from station)

Subway service is subject to change. Visit the MTA for up-to-date service information.

Parking is available on the street or in the following garages:

Bridgeview Auto Center 26 Forsyth Street (between Canal and Division Streets) Open 8am – 11pm daily, hourly parking rates apply  

Champion Parking 2 Division Street (between Market Street and Bowery) Open 24 hours daily, hourly parking rates apply. Early Bird rates available.  

Imperial Parking 59-63 Allen Street (between Grand and Hester Streets) Open 24 hours daily, hourly parking rates apply.

School & Tour Buses

We recommend that buses drop off visitors in front of the synagogue and park afterward. There are two options for parking buses in the neighborhood:

Street Parking Bus parking may be available one block away from the Museum along the Manhattan Bridge on Forsyth Street between Canal and Division Streets. Buses can rest in any available parking spot. Per New York City regulations, drivers must remain in the bus with the engine turned off.

Please note that e-scooters and e-bikes are not permitted in the Museum and may not be stored anywhere in the Museum. Visitors may be denied entry if they wish to bring them in.

Accessibility

We welcome all visitors with disabilities and their caretakers to the Museum at Eldridge Street. Guests are welcome to request accommodations at least two weeks ahead of their planned visit by calling (212) 219-0302 x305 or emailing c [email protected] .

Building Access

All four levels of the Museum at Eldridge Street are fully accessible by ramp and elevator.

The stair-free entrance is on the north side of the building; visitors will enter at the gate indicating accessible entry and press the labeled doorbell to their right.

Public restrooms on the lower level include an accessible stall.  

Accommodations

The Museum offers complimentary admission for any personal care attendant accompanying a visitor. 

Self-Guide d Tours

Our digital Self-Guided tour, via Bloomberg Connects, is available in a variety of languages. We offer printed copies in English, Chinese, Spanish, Hebrew, French, Arabic, and Portuguese. We also offer our Self-Guides in braille versions and in English in large format. For assistance accessing one of these guides, please ask at the admissions desk upon your arrival to the Museum.

Assistive-Listening Devices 

The Museum offers assistive-listening devices on Docent-Led Tours, Walking Tours, and in-person lectures and other in-person programs at the Museum. For assistance, please contact us two weeks in advance of your visit.

Museum educators offer a range of guided visits for individuals and groups with special needs which must be booked at least two weeks in advance. For more information call (212) 219-0302 x305 or email [email protected] .

COVID-19 SAFETY MEASURES

Safety continues to be our top priority. Face masks are recommended for all visitors ages 2+, even if you are vaccinated. In keeping with public health recommendations, we strongly recommend COVID-19 vaccinations for our visitors.

For more information, visit our Covid Policies & Procedures page .

The Museum at Eldridge Street does not have a dining facility and does not allow eating inside the Museum.

Customizable Private Group Tours

Private tours allow your family, alumni, students, seniors, staff, or other groups to explore the Museum at Eldridge Street with a dedicated guide. These custom tours are tailored to your group's needs and interests. Looking for school programs? Visit our education page .

We recommend groups to book at least 2 weeks in advance. 

Virtual and on-site experiences are currently available.

HISTORY & CULTURE TOUR

Our most popular tour!

Explore the 1887 Eldridge Street Synagogue, the first great house of worship by Eastern European Jewish immigrants in the United States.

This magnificent National Historic Landmark has been lovingly restored and today is a touchstone of the Lower East Side immigrant experience. 

Timeframe: 45 - 60 minutes

JEWISH LOWER EAST SIDE WALKING TOUR

Once home to the largest Jewish population in the world, the Lower East Side still bears traces of life at the turn of the last century.

Your knowledgeable guide will lead you to old synagogues, Yiddish newspaper buildings, socialist hot spots and the best pickle shop in New York.

Combined building tour and outside walking tours are also available. Ask about our Lower East Side Food Tours too!

Timeframe: 60 - 90 minutes

• Testimonials

Israelowitz Publishing & Tours

Tour #3. synagogues of new york city.

Explore some of the most beautiful synagogues in the city on this four-hour bus tour. We have the option of visiting three synagogues such as Temple Emanu-El, Central Synagogue, the Bialystoker Synagogue, the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue, the Greek Romaniot Synagogue or the White Street Synagogue (Synagogue of the Arts). Not all synagogues are available for tours on the day of your trip. These congregations are all in Manhattan. We can cater to your wishes if possible. This is a bus tour.  

Tour Fee: Group tour for congregation or school–$500 per group. Fee does not include bus charter. Donations are required for some synagogues.

Contact Oscar Israelowitz at [email protected] or tel. (718) 619-3900

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10 Jewish sites to visit at Open House New York this weekend

( New York Jewish Week ) — If it’s October, it must be time for Open House New York Weekend, an annual event that gives New Yorkers access to hundreds of notable, unnoticed or usually inaccessible locations throughout the five boroughs.

Of course, for an event that, according to the OHNY web site, aims to “ to foster discovery and delight ” as well as “deepen the public’s understanding of how design can strengthen communities and improve quality of life,” it’s no surprise that a number of Jewish-related tours are included in the lineup. 

While many of the festival’s tours require advanced registration (which has closed, sorry!), fret not: Dozens of both noteworthy and off-the-beaten path sites are designated as “open access” — meaning you can simply show up, unannounced, at the allotted time.

If you’re looking for a taste — or even a full buffet — of Jewish sites featured in this weekend’s festival, look no further. From historic synagogues to in-depth looks at Jewish artists, here’s a roundup of Jewish-related sites that are open to the public this weekend.

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1. Central Park Naumburg Bandshell

Central Park, Manhattan

Saturday 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m .

Dating to 1923, the Naumburg Bandshell is the only Neoclassical structure within Central Park. The bandshell is the brainchild of merchant, banker and philanthropist Elkan Naumburg, who was born to a Jewish family in Bavaria and 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.

On Saturday, the bandshell’s backstage area of the will be open to the public; Central Park Conservancy guides will be available to share details on the fascinating history of the landmark structure.

2. Central Synagogue

652 Lexington Avenue

Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Under the leadership of Senior Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, Central Synagogue is home to a robust Reform Jewish congregation in Midtown East. Its imposing Moorish Revival building at the corner of East 55th Street is a New York City landmark: Built in 1872, it was designed by architect Henry Fernbach as a tribute to  Budapest’s Dohány Street Synagogue.

Both self-guided and docent-led tours will be available.

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Synagogue pews at the former Eldridge Street Synagogue. (Wikimedia Commons)

3. Eldridge Street Synagogue

12 Eldridge Street

Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

This Lower East Side landmark first opened in 1887 and is the first “great house of worship” opened by Eastern European Jewish immigrants in the U.S . Now home to the Museum at Eldridge Street, the building is “the only remaining marker of the great wave of Jewish migration to the Lower East Side that is open to a broad public.” Self-guided tours are available throughout the day.

4. Hannah Arendt’s Upper West Side Audio Tour

Upper West Side

Saturday and Sunday, all day

Promoted as an Open House New York event, this on-demand audio tour of Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt’s Upper West Side haunts is technically available any time, any day, via the Gesso app . Narrated by Arendt biographer Samantha Rose Hill, this self-guided audio tour gives New Yorkers a glimpse of the legendary intellectual’s life in the neighborhood , where she lived from 1941 until she died in 1975. It includes “the shabby first apartment where she landed almost penniless after fleeing Hitler’s Europe” as well as the “comfortable if indifferently decorated apartment” where she hosted legendary parties, writes New York Jewish Week’s editor Andrew Silow-Carroll.

5. Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation

526 LaGuardia Place

Saturday and Sunday, 11:00 a.m to 4:00 p.m

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 and studio in 1963. Now home to The Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation , the building is open to self-guided tours this weekend, which includes a gallery of Gross’s work on the first floor; a temporary exhibition, “Artists and Immigrants” on the second floor and, on the third floor, the family’s former’ living and dining space, which includes hundreds of of pieces from their extensive art collection.

Temple Emanu-El of New York is one of the largest synagogues in the world. (Wikipedia)

6. Temple Emanu-El

1 East 65th Street

Saturday, 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Founded in 1845, Temple Emanu-El is home to the oldest Reform Jewish congregation in the city. Its impressive limestone building — designed by Robert D. Kohn, Charles Butler and Clarence Stein — was completed in 1927 and is one of the largest synagogues in the world . The unique design “combines Byzantine and early Romanesque form with Moorish and Art Deco style,” according to the New York Landmarks Conservancy. (Listen to a podcast about its history here .)

On Saturday, visitors are invited to attend Shabbat services from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.; guided tours with a focus on the building’s mosaics by Hildreth Meière — a muralist associated with the Art Deco movement — will take place at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.

7. Tin Pan Alley: Birthplace of Popular Music

1185 Broadway

Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

The birthplace of “The Great American Songbook,” Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the concentration of music publishers and songwriters who worked on 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.

Five Tin Pan Alley buildings, built between 1839 and 1859, officially became New York City landmarks in 2019. Guided tours on Saturday, limited to 25 people, are first-come, first-served.

Bonus: If you’re not in the city this weekend, or you’re too lazy to get off the couch — hey, no judgment from us! — the following virtual tours are also available:

8. The Actors’ Temple

Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. to 12:45 p.m.

Located in Hell’s Kitchen, the non-denominational Actors’ Temple, also known as Congregation Ezrath Israel, was founded in 1917. In this 45-minute online tour, participants can virtually explore the congregation’s historic 1922 building at 339 West 47th St., which features stained glass windows and plaques “honoring many beloved show business luminaries of yesteryear, including Sophie Tucker, Jack Benny, Joe Franklin and the Friars Club.”

9. Guggenheim Museum: “Alex Katz: Gathering”

Saturday, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and Sunday, 11:00 a.m to 12:00 p.m.

In honor of OHNY Weekend, the Guggenheim is offering free live virtual tours of the new exhibit “Alex Katz: Gathering,” an 80-year retrospective of works by the Brooklyn-born Jewish artist that opens on Friday, Oct. 21.

A view of the front of the Tenement Museum. (Wikimedia Commons)

10. Tenement Museum

Sunday, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

A Lower East Side “living history” museum, the Tenement Museum recently began a long-planned renovation project to preserve its tenement at 97 Orchard St. This unique OHNY “hard hat” tour offers a virtual peek into the museum’s efforts to preserve, restore and relocate its historic exhibits.

The virtual tour is free, but the museum asks that participants register in advance here .

The 20th Annual Open House New York Weekend runs Friday, Oct. 21 through Sunday, Oct. 23. For more information click here . 

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5 Best Free Tours Of Synagogues And Churches In NYC

June 3, 2015 / 6:00 AM EDT / CBS New York

Get your worship on, or just see where others demonstrate their faith, at one of the free tours listed below of some of the city's most notable churches and synagogues. By Jessica Allen.

Located in Midtown, Central Synagogue serves a reformed Jewish community from all over. You can tour the gorgeous sanctuary on Wednesdays at 12:45, accompanied by a knowledgeable docent. Designed in 1872 by New York's first prominent Jewish architect, Henry Fernbach, it's the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the city. The exterior shows a Moorish influence in its domed towers, arches, and entrances, while the interior features an organ with two consoles and 4,345 pipes.

On Sundays at 12, you can wander about the Flushing Meeting House, the oldest house of worship in New York (check out the original wood ceiling and floorboards, dating to the 17th century). From here, Quakers in Queens ran an active outpost of the underground railroad, ferrying slaves through Long Island and New York City to freedom, in the 1800s, and Patrick Healy, the first African American to earn a PhD in the United States, is believed to have attended primary school at the Meeting House as well.

On Sundays after the morning service (usually about 12:15), you can tour the Riverside Church. Led by a volunteer guide, you'll visit the Nave, Christ Chapel, Chancel, and Gethsemane Chapel, as well as spend some time at the organ. No doubt you'll learn loads about the eminent people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela who've spoken here. Truly Gothic, the Riverside Church has a facade that was modeled after a 13-century cathedral in France. All told, Riverside stretches across two city blocks, welcoming all.

Probably the most famous church in the entire city, St. Patrick's Cathedral stands like a sentinel on Fifth Avenue, across the street from Rockefeller Center, as it has in all its neo-Gothic glory for going on 130 years. Masses have been held here for Babe Ruth, Andy Warhol, Vince Lombardi, and Joe DiMaggio, among many others. The free tours are generally held on Mondays and Fridays, but check the schedule for details . Pay particular attention to the Tiffany & Co. stained glass adorning the altar.

Created way back when the British occupied New York, St. Paul's Chapel (it dates to 1766) was where George Washington worshiped on his inauguration day. Located across the street from the World Trade Center, the chapel served as a rest and recovery area for workers, as well as a sanctuary, in the days following September 11. On Wednesdays at 1, there's a free concert of Bach's cantinas , while a free Neighborhood Movie Night (with popcorn and drinks) takes place on select Fridays. But the chapel is awe-inspiring anytime.

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Welcome to Brotherhood

A place to pray.  A place to learn.  A place to connect.

The Brotherhood Synagogue is an inclusive, egalitarian congregation in the Conservative Jewish tradition. We seek to meet the needs of American Jewry and to reach out to those of other faiths with the goal of friendship and understanding. All are invited to join us as we celebrate the values and traditions of our Jewish faith, striving for the ways of peace and righteousness. Our synagogue is located in downtown New York City, on Gramercy Park.

Highlighted Events

Brotherhood Film Series: Kaddish Thursday, May 2,  7:00 pm More details advance tickets  here

Special Musical Shabbat Friday, May 3, 6:30 pm More details  here

Downtown Jewish Life (DJL) Yom HaShoah Commemoration Monday, May 6,  7:00 pm More details and RSVP  here

Perspectives on Abortion: The Torah, Talmud and Constitution Tuesday, May 7,  7:00 pm More details and register  here

Meet the Sofer Sunday, May 19, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm Monday, May 20, 5:00 pm: - 7:00 pm Our scribe, Rabbi Zerach Greenfield, returns to fill in letters of our Torah with those who help to endow any part of the new scroll. Please sign up in advance here. A 15 minute presentation at the start of each visit will also take place (10:00 – 10:15 am on 5/19 and 5:00 – 5:15 pm on 5/20) Please see our brochure for more information.

Walk A Mile in My Kippah: 7th Grade Mitzvah Project Sunday, May 19,  12:00 pm More details and register  here

The Urgency of Self Care for Caregivers Sunday, May 19,  4:00  pm More details and register  here

Nursery School Tours are OPEN!

If you are interested in learning about our Nursery School,  our philosophy of education,  and our community, please reach out to Director, Merril Feinstein for an in-person tour and chat.  We offer two-day, three day, and five day programs for children 2-5 years. For the 2024-25 school year, children must be 2 years-old by September 1st. Brotherhood Nursery School Tours

Sat, April 27 2024 19 Nisan 5784

Shabbat Services Friday at 6:30 pm and Saturday at 9:30 am Join Brotherhood Shabbat services in person or from your computer, tablet, or phone! Zoom meeting ID: 225 253 5818   https://zoom.us/j/2252535818 Password for services can be found in the Weekly Email.   Closed captions available. You can also  Livestream  our services  We will be using the Sim Shalom prayer book . You can download PDF sections of the prayer book  here . Weekly Minyan: Tuesdays, 5:40 pm Find Maariv prayer book   here . Use Shabbat Services Zoom Link

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Eldridge Street Synagogue :: NYC

Eldridge Street Synagogue :: New York City :: 360° Virtual Tour

The Eldridge Street Synagogue was the first synagogue built in the United States by Eastern European Jews. It opened at 12 Eldridge Street in New York’s Lower East Side in 1887. When completed, the synagogue was reviewed in the local press, writers marveled at the imposing Moorish-style building, with its 70-foot-high vaulted ceiling, magnificent stained-glass rose windows, elaborate brass fixtures and hand-stenciled walls.

For fifty years, the Eldridge Street Synagogue flourished, but eventually, membership began to dwindle as members moved to other areas, immigration quotas limited the number of new arrivals, and the Great Depression affected the congregants’ fortunes. The exquisite main sanctuary was used less and less from the 1930s on. By the 1950s, with the rain leaking in and inner stairs unsound, the congregants cordoned off the sanctuary.

Without the resources needed to heat and maintain the sanctuary, they chose to worship downstairs in the smaller study hall. The main sanctuary remained empty for twenty-five years, from approximately 1955 to 1980. Currently, after extensive renovations, evening services are held in the study hall and daytime services in the main sanctuary.

On December 2, 2007, after 20 years of renovation work, overseen by the non-profit Museum at Eldridge Street , the synagogue reopened to the public. It continues to serve as an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, with regular weekly services on the Sabbath and Holidays, and is also the Museum at Eldridge Street offering informative tours that relate to American Jewish history, the history of the Lower East Side and immigration.

The effort to return the sanctuary to its Victorian splendor, while maintaining the idiosyncrasies of the original aesthetic and preserving patina of age, included plaster consolidation and replication of ornamental plaster elements, over-paint removal, conservation, in-painting replication of stenciling, wood finishing and decorative painting including: faux-woodgraining, marbleizing, and gilding by skilled craftsmen.

The Eldridge Street Synagogue was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996.

http://www.eldridgestreet.org

http://www.nyc-architecture.com/LES/LES010.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldridge_Street_Synagogue

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There’s a host of events to commemorate Passover. We’ll be celebrating with our youth, teens, and entire families during this special holiday that marks our freedom from slavery. Learn about the holiday, enjoy a seder or two, sample Israeli wines, and so much more. 

Spring Mah Hadash

Spring is here and with it comes long days and late sunsets. Let's come together for worship and events.

Natalie Barth

Members celebrate with us on May 16. 

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As a community we will find a way to navigate this hour of crisis.

Park Avenue Synagogue is directing our donations to UJAFNY Israel Emergency Fund .

In-Person Minyan

Prayer is needed more than ever, so help make a minyan. Join us in person at 87th Street on  Monday through Thursday at 5:45 pm  for thoughtful reflection and to help ensure that mourners may say kaddish.

Hear sermons, conversations, and select programs from Rabbi Cosgrove and the entire Park Avenue Synagogue clergy team to help round out your day. Listen to live recorded sessions and feel like you’re there at PAS! 

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Every 7th day. 52 weeks a year. since creation., kabbalat shabbat.

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Sat / 9:45 am / 87th Street and Online PAS CONNECT Livestream

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A Pre-Shabbat Conversation between Dr. Tal Becker and Rabbi Neil Zuckerman

Fri / May 3 / 5:00 pm / 87th St and Online

A senior fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem and legal adviser of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Becker represented Israel in its defense of allegations of genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Yom Hashoah Commemoration

Mon / May 6 / 87th St and Online 6:00 pm / Pre-Event Reception 7:00 pm / Commemoration PAS Clergy and Guest Scott Miller

To mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, join us for memorial prayers, music, participation by PAS teens, and remarks from our clergy. We will also hear from Scott Miller, co-author of Refuge Denied: The St. Louis Passengers and the Holocaust in dialogue with Rabbi Zuckerman.

Insights from Israel: National Holidays in Wartime

Thu / May 9 / 12:30 pm / Online Rabbis Michael Graetz and Tzvi Graetz, Naomi Graetz, and Michal Abramoff

As we experience Israel’s national holidays of Yom Hashoa, Yom Hazikaron, and Yom Ha’atzmaut during a time of active war, we will discuss how these days of memorial and celebration will be honored differently this year.  

Weekly Sermon

A Seder of Vigilance and Empathy

Six months after October 7, are you expecting seder guests with conflicted and conflicting views? Rabbi Cosgrove teaches that the Haggadah encompasses both vigilance and empathy, and he counsels that we owe it to our families to model how people with differing views can share a redemptive seder experience.

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ACROSS THE COUNTRY

Showcase for Antebellum Homes Displays Their Finery. But What About the History?

Each spring, Columbus, Miss., has opened its Civil War-era homes to visitors. Some say the event should reflect more the oppression behind the architecture, and how the city has changed since.

WHY WE’RE HERE

We’re exploring how America defines itself one place at a time. In Mississippi, a tradition of house tours is about more than architecture. It’s a window into how a city sees its past and its ambitions for the future.

By Rick Rojas

Photographs by Kate Medley

Reporting from Columbus, Miss.

Women in hoop dresses ushered visitors one April morning into the grand old house known as Riverview, showing off the hand-carved wooden chairs, oil paintings, tapestries and gilded mirrors brought from around the world to the estate in Mississippi.

The house stood as a testament to the prosperity that had flowed before the Civil War in Southern cities like Columbus, just over the border from Alabama, as fertile soil and the labor of enslaved workers built fortunes.

It was also a highlight of the longstanding tradition known as Pilgrimage. Every spring, the city’s finest antebellum homes are opened to the public for a few weeks, inviting people in to marvel at the craftsmanship and the opulence.

The event took its name from the belief among its organizers that Pilgrimage was just that — a journey to houses whose grandeur, scale and history represent something sacred for Mississippi and all of the South. Homeowners and docents often dress in period clothing to facilitate the time travel.

“We have a culture here that is something to be admired and respected,” said Dick Leike, the owner of Riverview. “This is a prime example of it.”

But these days, some in Columbus are finding it difficult to justify a trip to a gauzy version of the city’s past without accounting for the suffering, injustice and violence associated with the slave labor that built and ran these homes. That has led to competing ideas about the scope of Pilgrimage and the story it is supposed to tell.

A theatrical production staged by a local high school every year during the weekslong event now depicts the plights of enslaved African Americans and 19th-century immigrants who lived in Columbus. The local synagogue has been added to a church tour. Other events feature the region’s Choctaw and Chickasaw history.

“It seems like Pilgrimage only told one story, and that traditionally attracted a certain demographic — an older demographic, a more white demographic,” said Jace Ferraez, a 34-year-old lawyer who left Columbus after growing up there, moved back and is buying a historic home with his fiancé.

He and other like-minded residents, he said, “want to tell a fuller story.” The aim is to relay history with more breadth, but also showcase the city as it is now, encompassing its struggles, strengths and sense of possibility.

No interstate runs through Columbus, whose population of 23,000 is roughly one-third white and two-thirds Black. Poverty has been a persistent issue, as has persuading young people to choose to stay in Columbus.

Still, parts of the city are lively. Friendly City Books, an independent bookseller, opened downtown a few years ago and became a haven for its regulars. An arts center up the block displays the works of local artists like Ralph Null, a celebrated floral designer turned painter. Newcomers can easily get recruited to a perpetual circuit of cocktail gatherings.

“There’s a lot of things that can divide a community — economic status, race, the list goes on,” Mr. Ferraez said. But, he added, Pilgrimage could be more inclusive and reflect Columbus’s diversity and its aspirations. “It helps bring people together.”

The diverging ideas about Pilgrimage are just another variation of a familiar tension in the Deep South, where the past so rarely stays in the past. For some, the enduring consequences of systemic oppression are what keep them in history’s grip. For others, it is an abiding desire to hold onto what they consider a glorious legacy.

Four years ago, Mississippi abandoned the state flag that flew for 126 years with a Confederate battle emblem embedded in it, and the Confederate monument that had been perched for a century on the lawn of the Lowndes County Courthouse in Columbus was moved to a secluded cemetery in 2021.

But this month, Gov. Tate Reeves signed a proclamation designating April as Confederate Heritage Month, as he and his predecessors have done almost every year since 1993 . Many residents of the state still insist that reasons other than slavery drove the Civil War.

As Mr. Leike pointed out marble flooring on the porch, ornate molding in the parlors and stained glass made by Italian artists, he said that outsiders clung to stereotypes of the South as impoverished — financially, culturally and intellectually.

That was why he opened up Riverview for Pilgrimage. The house was an irrefutable rebuttal.

“You want the people to know we’re not just down here in shanties,” said Mr. Leike, a prominent figure in the real estate industry in the region.

The fact that Columbus still has scores of antebellum homes is a direct result of history. Few Southern cities can count that many, as most of theirs were destroyed in the war. But many in Columbus had been spared because the city was a hospital town treating Confederate and Union soldiers, residents said.

Pilgrimage began in Columbus around 1940 as a way to display and safeguard these homes. Over the years, the event has drawn tourists to Columbus and ticket sales have supported nonprofits behind the programs. The city, like others with their own take on Pilgrimage, followed Natchez, a city on the Mississippi River with an even larger roster of houses .

Tell Us About Where You Live

On a recent morning, Joe Beckett, a contractor who specializes in renovating antebellum homes, walked visitors through one that he worked on called Snowdoun, built in 1854.

He pointed out that Jefferson Davis had once delivered a speech from the front balcony — just one of the many prominent figures who had passed through, he said.

His face lit up, though, as he explained the surprises and challenges that he stumbled across in his work: the intricate setup of wooden pieces engineered to undergird a curved staircase, the painstaking process of mixing 19th-century compounds by hand to match an original paint color or the lamp that he was converting back to being powered by gas.

“Pretty cool, pretty cool,” Mr. Beckett said.

He wanted to share that passion with others.

No one involved in Pilgrimage had any interest in papering over the sins of slavery, he said, or overlook the contributions of enslaved people, either.

“We don’t get into a lot of the detail,” Mr. Beckett said, referring to mentions of slavery during Pilgrimage. “But we do recognize their input, their value and the services they provided to build these homes, to build our culture.”

Still, some of those trying to maintain the tradition are attempting a delicate balance, celebrating the houses — their splendor, their sophistication — without explicitly examining the injustices they also represent.

An impossible balance, others argue.

“The problem is that it is also a celebration and endorsement of slaveholding,” said Chuck Yarborough, a history teacher at the Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science, a public boarding school in Columbus that draws high-achieving students from across the state.

The answer, in his mind, is not selectively ignoring parts of the past. Instead, Mr. Yarborough said, Pilgrimage is an opportunity to lay it all out, recognizing “the completeness and the complexity.”

“I think it’s important for a community to have an honest view of itself,” he said.

“Tales From the Crypt,” a performance staged in a cemetery by students at Mr. Yarborough’s school for more than 30 years, is trying to do just that.

Mr. Yarborough’s students use historical documents, like newspaper articles or immigration records, to write and perform vignettes that flesh out people from the past, and shade in the context of the world they inhabited.

As dusk faded into night during one performance, the audience was guided from one torch-lit scene to another.

One student, Antanae Shelton, portrayed a free woman of color who explained how her status was a misnomer; her freedom was saddled with so many restrictions it was not really freedom at all.

Drew Dowdy played a Greek immigrant named Victor Corfeates who opened a confectionary in Columbus and, according to Mr. Dowdy, sought and found acceptance from his neighbors. “Sweetness ignores the borders between men,” he said.

The specter of a woman who lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries named Frances Saunders Billups Westmoreland embodied the city’s dilemma in determining how to regard its past, according to Brooke Anderson’s interpretation.

Ms. Westmoreland’s family had been a powerful one. She had grown up in one of those grand estates. Her grandfather had enslaved more than 200 people.

Once, those details had been markers of status and success. But pride had curdled into shame. Ms. Westmoreland, as channeled by Ms. Anderson, confessed that she had “overlooked the suffering and hardship my family contributed to.”

“I suppose I have an eternity to think about that,” the ghost said as she retreated into the darkness, her face buried in her hands.

Rick Rojas is the Atlanta bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of the South. More about Rick Rojas

Across the Country

We’re exploring how america defines itself one place at a time..

Georgia: Augusta National Golf Club has long forbidden cellphones for almost anyone  at its hallowed tournament, the Masters, but patrons delight in making free calls the old-school way via landlines.

Maine: In a rural area where a small Jewish population often needs grit, ingenuity and strong relationships to achieve its goals, a liberal arts college and a synagogue have long been closely tied .

Beaufort, N.C.: The Bodacious Belles, a locally famous group of rambunctious retirees, shows the difference a network of support can make in an aging America .

Minnesota: Saunas in the state, part of a tradition with roots in the 1800s, have been especially popular  since the pandemic as more people seek a communal experience.

Metairie, La.: A tire shop parking lot has become a popular destination for those craving a king cake, a Mardi Gras delicacy. The only problem: Which variety to choose ?

New England: Across New England, 700 towns once handed out ceremonial canes to their oldest residents. In some places, the honor endures  — for those willing to accept it, that is.