A walk to the past in the Lower East Side

by Aiyma Yerkin

The Lower East Side is one of the oldest neighborhoods of New York City. It has long been a working-class neighborhood and often a poor and ethnically diverse section of New York. Today it is largely a Puerto Rican and Dominican community.

The Lower East Side is perhaps best known as having once been a center of Jewish culture. It is especially remembered as a place of Jewish beginnings in contemporary American Jewish culture.

I liked visiting the Tenement Museum on Orchard street the most. The museum's exhibits including the restored apartments are said to depict the lives of immigrants who lived at 97 Orchard street between 1863 and 1935. The museum also has an extensive collection of historical archives and provides a variety of educational programs.

The movie we watched in the visitor's center told us the stories of immigrants from different countries. It showed their life in tenement apartments in the 19th and 20th centuries. Starting with how they arrived in New York, their way of life, their work, the difficulties they faced at that period of time, and ending with the successes in their lives, which they deserved. Their success is being able to find happiness living as citizens of the United States.

class: Explore NYC