Mr. Sandler's class took a fantastic Jewish History field trip to the Lower East Side this past Wednesday! He shares the following summary:
One particularly exciting highlight was an intimate conversation with Sam Kirk, whose work celebrates historically underrepresented communities. She is currently painting a major women’s suffrage mural as part of a national public art initiative, honoring trailblazers including Jewish labor activists Clara Lemlich and Rose Schneiderman. With the mural still in the process of being completed, students had the rare opportunity to meet the artist, see her work in progress, and learn about the project firsthand!
Throughout the day, students explored the rich, complex, and diverse Jewish immigrant community that flourished during the Gilded Age and through World War I. We visited the historic Bialystoker, Greek, and Eldridge Street synagogues, learning about the different Jewish communities that called the neighborhood home.
At Henry Street Settlement, we discussed Progressive Era reformers like Lillian Wald, who pioneered public health nursing and social services. They also explored Jewish women’s leadership in the labor movement, including Clara Lemlich and the fight for better working conditions in the garment industry.
They discovered the vibrant world of Yiddish theater, the colorful history of Jewish gangsters like Bugsy Siegel, Dutch Schultz, and Meyer Lansky, and, of course, enjoyed legendary pastrami at Katz’s Delicatessen!
Most importantly, their visit to the Tenement Museum brought immigrant history to life through the stories of a Jewish family working in the garment industry and an Italian immigrant family struggling through the Great Depression.
It was a wonderful day connecting classroom history to the streets, buildings, and institutions that tell the story of immigrant New York!
