Monthly Archives: November 2012

Last year, the acquisition of a 1911 issue of the Yiddish daily Forverts enriched our story of the Rogarshevsky family at 97 Orchard. As historian Tony Michels pointed out as a guest on our blog, the Forverts (or Forward), launched … Read more…

We typically associate Ellis Island with an abundance of people. From 1892 to 1954, millions of immigrants entered the United States through Ellis Island, in New York Harbor. Most of us, however, probably don’t associate Ellis Island with an abundance … Read more…

If you’ve been on one of our apartment tours before, you know that they’re hands-on to a degree; educators often pass around replicas of historic objects, or copies of historic newspaper clippings or census records related to the tour content. … Read more…

This Wednesday evening, we’ll welcome Marc Tracy, Ira Berkow, Joshua Cohen and Liel Leibovitz for a Tenement Talk on Jewish Jocks: An Unorthodox Hall of Fame. By coincidence, the talk falls on Sid Luckman Day, which celebrates the Brooklyn-born quarterback and … Read more…

Today, we’re thrilled to begin public preview tours of “Shop Life”—the first new exhibit at 97 Orchard Street since 2008! November 12 is a special date in our building’s history. Here’s an 1864 ad from the German newspaper, Staats Zeitung, produced … Read more…

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, after power finally returned to much of the Lower East Side last Friday night, the Museum and many neighborhood businesses that had been shuttered for days were able to re-open. Here on Orchard Street, as … Read more…

Happy Election Day! In 1920, Sarah Burinescu became the first woman living at 97 Orchard Street to vote for President. Sarah emigrated from Russia in 1893, and was naturalized in 1910. She was married to Jacob Burinescu, the only known resident … Read more…

Tours of 97 Orchard Street recreate immigrant life in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and explore many of the health, labor, and cultural issues that faced these immigrant families. But there are many topics that we don’t always have time … Read more…