Eldridge Street Project Exhibition at Christie's to Highlight Restoration of Landmark Synagogue.

NEW YORK -- The Eldridge Street Project today announced that it will mount a special exhibition at Christie's New York galleries at Rockefeller Center, 20 Rockefeller Plaza, highlighting the restoration of the Eldridge Street Synagogue, a National Historic Landmark. A high Victorian structure in neo-Moorish style, Eldridge Street was the first synagogue purposely built in the United States by East European immigrants, whose descendants comprise approximately 80 percent of today's American-Jewish population. The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will run from July 19th through August 5th, 2004.

Using photographs, textiles and objects, many brought out of storage for the first time in decades, the exhibition will highlight the life of Jewish immigrants on the Lower East Side, the ongoing restoration effort, and the continuing cultural life at the site.

Amy E. Waterman, Director of the Eldridge Street Project, noted that the exhibition at Christie's would display both secular and ritual objects highlighting the life of Eldridge Street's congregants on the Lower East Side.

Some artifacts reflect the religious freedom of the new country and the immigrants' willingness to adopt popular American symbols, such as a small greeting card for the Jewish New Year, which employs Yiddish captions and depicts both Uncle Sam and the Statue of Liberty. Seltzer bottles, also emblazoned in Yiddish, help to evoke the era of the institution's turn-of-the-century heyday.

A number of Yiddish signs from the turn of the last century advertise a variety of synagogue activities, including performances by the synagogue cantor and an honorary convocation for a new rabbi in Montreal, Canada, recently immigrated from Slonim in eastern Poland. The descriptive language in the signs employs Yiddishized American slang and the hyperbole typical of advertisements of the time.

Also included in the exhibition are several elaborately embroidered textiles that adorned torah scrolls, and the ark, or cabinet, that contained those scrolls. Many of these textiles have been in storage since the congregation ceased using the main sanctuary in the 1950s. Of particular note are two embroidered ark covers, one in red velvet showing signs of Art Nouveau influence, the other with a pale yellow brocade background, possibly for High Holiday use. These will be displayed alongside an illustration from the Century Magazine of 1892 depicting a cantor leading High Holiday services at the Synagogue.

Always mindful of decorum in their new country, the congregation employed decorative ceramic spittoons. Two of these will be displayed, as well as a minute book from the congregation's early years, inscribed in an elegant, antiquated Yiddish script.

Rounding out the exhibition will be photographs and documents illustrating phases of the Synagogue restoration, and video segments highlighting educational and cultural programs sponsored by the Eldridge Street Project, the non-sectarian cultural organization that serves as steward for the historic house of worship.

Eldridge Street Synagogue Christie's Exhibition Dates

The exhibition will be open from Monday, July 19th through Friday, July 23rd and again from Monday, July 25th through Thursday, August 5th, Exhibition hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. daily and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Sundays. Christie's New York is located at 20 Rockefeller Plaza at 49th Street.

History of the Eldridge Street Synagogue and its Restoration

The Eldridge Street Project, based on New York's Lower East Side, is preserving the magnificent Eldridge Street Synagogue as a site for historical reflection, aesthetic inspiration, and spiritual renewal.

The 1887 Synagogue was the first great house of worship built in America by Jews from Eastern Europe. It is the most significant remaining marker of the huge Jewish community that flourished on New York's Lower East Side from the 1850s to the 1940s. In recognition of the building's architectural magnificence and its role in the American immigrant story, the Eldridge Street Synagogue was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1996.

The Eldridge Street Project was founded by local residents, urban historians and preservationists, who joined together to rescue the building, then in a dire state of deterioration from neglect and water damage. Over the past decade the Eldridge Street Project rescued and stabilized the building; and installed new mechanical systems. Without the intervention of this non-sectarian, not-for-profit cultural organization, the Synagogue would no longer be standing.

Recently, the Project launched a Completion Campaign to secure the remaining capital funds need to restore and refurbish all of the exquisite interior finishes - decorative paint schemes, stained glass and Victorian lighting fixtures - and to establish an endowment that will support public programs and building maintenance into the future.

"Eldridge Street exemplifies the immigrant quest for religious freedom and economic advancement in America," noted Roberta Brandes Gratz, founder of the Eldridge Street Project and a noted writer on historic preservation. "The congregation included such luminaries as the scientist Jonas Salk, the actor Edward G. Robinson and the artist Ben Shahn. Eddie Cantor lived across the street and the Gershwin family lived at the end of the block. These immigrants were assimilated into American society so quickly that within a generation, many left the Lower East Side and by the 1930's, the Eldridge Street Synagogue began to dwindle."

"Because of this, much of the original fabric of the building has not been altered," Gratz noted. "Remarkably, most of the elaborate stained glass windows, extensive brass light fixtures and chandeliers, as well as intricately painted walls and columns remain intact, though damaged by water and neglect."

"As a result, we have a unique opportunity to restore this building and use it to interpret the lives, religion and culture of its congregants," said Gratz.

As this major restoration effort continues, the Eldridge Street Project has become a distinctive and thriving cultural institution. Taking advantage of the inspiring sanctuary space, with its Moorish ornament, vaulted 70-foot ceiling, and marvelous acoustics, the Project sponsors site-specific tours, lectures, concerts, readings, festivals, family events, art projects and other special events.

In this powerful and evocative setting, programs for adults, school children and families keep alive the memory of Jewish immigrant life at the turn of the last century, explore architecture and historic preservation, draw analogies between the Synagogue's immigrant founders and contemporary immigrants, inspire reflection on cultural continuity and change, and foster meaningful inter-group exchange.

About the Eldridge Street Project

The Eldridge Street Project, based on New York's Lower East Side, is preserving the magnificent Eldridge Street Synagogue, a National Historic Landmark. The 1887 Synagogue was the first great house of worship built in America by Jews from Eastern Europe. From it's opening, the Synagogue has been a symbol of the religious freedom and economic opportunity sought by so many immigrants to America. It is the most significant remaining marker of the huge Jewish community that flourished on New York's Lower East Side from the 1850s to the 1940s. More than 200,000 people of diverse cultural and religious backgrounds have visited the Eldridge Street Synagogue since the Eldridge Street Project opened its doors to the public.

For more information, please visit us at www.eldridgestreet.org.

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