The Lower east side: Immigration and Memory

Catalog description

For many, Manhattan's Lower East Side symbolizes the immigrant Jewish experience in America. Its image is highly romanticized: descriptions of everyday life and commerce as well as Jewish cultural and political life present the L.E.S. as a thriving center of authentic Jewish experience. The reality however was more complex. Most American Jews never lived in the Lower East Side and those who did found life there extremely difficult and challenging. This class will explore Jewish immigrant experience in the United States and trace the ways in which the L.E.S. has become part of the American collective memory.