Zoë Gleitsman Photography

Judaism has always been the side of my religious upbringing which feels closer to my heart and more aligned with how I view the world. My childhood apartment building shares its alleyway with a gorgeous grand synagogue that was built in 1849, and is the oldest surviving synagogue in New York City. The neighborhood I was raised in, the Lower East Side, is rich with Jewish history. Orchard St., at one time among the most bustling parts of the Lower East Side, still holds a lot of this history through original signage and the current existence of some of the Jewish businesses which opened in the late 1800s-early 1900s. I like to imagine these businesses in their heyday: the owners shouting out the deals of the day and congested pedestrian traffic among the pushcarts selling wares. Jewish life spilled out onto the street in those days, and I find myself seeking out the sights of this spillage as they exist today. I was born many decades after the height of Jewish culture in my neighborhood and it can be sometimes difficult to place myself into this deep history. Through these color analog images of stores on Orchard St., synagogues, and my younger sister, I attempt to piece together the remnants of the Jewish Lower East Side.