Our Guides

Lori Weissman, unlike her husband Paul (another guide with the LESJC), is not from the LES, but is pleased to have married into the neighborhood and is happy to now call it home.

Growing up in Huntington Station on Long Island, Lori went to The State University of New York, College at Oswego. After graduation in 1979, she moved to Manhattan residing on the Upper East Side. For 9 years she was employed by Syntex Laboratories, as a pharmaceutical representative specializing in hospital sales. After the birth of her daughter, in 1992, Lori became a stay-at-home mom for 13 years. Except for 4 summers as the office manager at Camp Eagle Hill, where her daughter was a camper, her re-introduction to the work force occurred in 2003, when she became one of the original guides trained by historian Joyce Mendelsohn.

Thrilled with a new insight and knowledge of her adopted home, Lori loved giving tours, and was extremely proud of the rich history right at her doorstep. The Conservancy made her more than just a guide by hiring her as the Coordinator of Marketing in 2006, and in 2008 became the Director of Touring, and now serves as the Director of Operations.

Urban Historian and educator Bradley Shaw was born on the Lower East Side, has a BA in History and Education from Brooklyn College and is a licensed NYC tour guide. He shares with us his love of the neighborhood and passion for its history. He has been a docent, walking tour guide and manager at the Museum at Eldridge Street for more than four years, in addition to be a guide with the LESJC.

Barry Feldman's experiences as an educator, urban historian and museum educator have provided him with the professional skills to serve as a licensed New York City tour guide. He retired from a successful career as a school district administrator, having served as Deputy Superintendent of Schools in Brooklyn.

Barry created two Conservancy tours, O! Multitudes I and II, which trace the social history of housing on the Lower East Side from the late 18th century to the present.

His broad knowledge of immigrant and housing history and the history of the Lower East Side, his rich tour narrative and sense of humor make his tours informative and entertaining. His areas of specialization include the social history of housing, immigration, and Ellis Island, and the social history and ethnography of American Jews beginning with the colonial period. Mr. Feldman views cultural, social and religious institutions as interpretive texts of neighborhoods. He lives on the Upper East Side but is frequently downtown, walking the streets, keeping current on the many changes of the dynamic Lower East Side.

Since his arrival in New York in the 1980’s, Barry has been a huge lover of the Lower East Side. Having grown up in South Africa, he found the community of the LES to resemble the old Jewish areas of Johannesburg, and immediately took to spending a great deal of time exploring, connecting and preserving the unique "little" corner of this great Jewish city.

 Studying for a MA degree in American Jewish history at Brandeis University, Barry quickly became an avid fan of the history, culture and demography of the Jewish communal experience of the LES, and has for the last 10 years been thrilled to be a part of the LESJC as a local tour guide. He loves sharing the special and diverse character of the neighborhood with all the different age groups that join his tours, from young school kids and teenagers to older adults.

More recently Barry has also set up his own private company that offers customized tours of "Jewish New York”  throughout the rest of the city.

Holding a masters degree in History, specializing in history of the ancient world, Svetlana is a professional tour guide that has worked on three continents.

Growing up in Russia, she then emigrated to Israel where she worked as a licensed tour guide for 11 years. Fourteen years ago she came to the United States and is currently working as a docent at the Museum at Eldridge Street as well as a guide for the LESJC. She has great interest in all aspects of Jewish history, ancient and modern.

Svetlana's passion for Jewish history, art, music, cuisine is reflected in her tours. She is fluent in three languages (Russian, Hebrew and English).    

For the past seven years, Pessie has been giving tours for the Conservancy to groups from all over the world, from second graders all the way up to seniors, in private tours as small as 2 and in groups as large as one hundred - in Hebrew and English. 

Pessie says she has learnt a lot from the stories that the participants on her tours have shared, and she really loves sharing her own personal stories of growing up on the Lower East Side.  Some people come back to  reminisce, and then we talk about what it was like in their day and I tell them about my Mother's experiences of growing up here .                                                                                   "On my tours, I try to convey the struggles of the newcomers who came during the great wave of emigration starting in 1881.  I am their voice and I try my best to bring to life their hopes, struggles, and self sacrifice in a foreign land."

A true Urban Historian, with a voluminous knowledge of the area, Elissa recently earned her doctorate, writing a dissertation on the history of the Tenement Museum.  She is a big supporter and member of the Siempre Verde Community Garden on Stanton Street.  In addition, she has been very active with the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, and has helped initiate a public honoring of those who died in the fire with a Yahrtzeit Kiddush (remembrance prayer) at the Stanton Street Shul.

Elissa continues to be deeply concerned with preserving tangible evidence of the Jewish heritage of the Lower East Side through landmark designation.  Her scholarly, impassioned and persuasive testimony at public hearings at the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission, in support of landmark designation for the Bialystoker Home and Center and the Seward Park branch of the NYC Public Library, led to unanimous votes for landmarking to preserve and protect those historic buildings. In addition, she is a strong supporter of landmark designation for a Lower East Side Historic District.  She was also very active in the campaign to save the Mezericher Shul on 6th Street.

As a  Conservancy  guide, she imparts her wealth of knowledge to hundreds of people who have had the opportunity to take one of her tours, that truly take people off the 'beaten path' in their search for the authentic LES.   People leave her tours feeling like they now have a personal stake in the future of our iconic, historic neighborhood.

Because of her passion, in 2017, as a part of Lower East Side History Month, she won  an award as a local community hero.

Originally from South Orange, New Jersey, Susan Slater graduated from The University of Cincinnati majoring in Political Science and Russian History, and then moved back to Manhattan to earn a degree from Teachers College, Columbia University.

As an adult, Susan has lived in every neighborhood in Manhattan as well as in the borough of Brooklyn, where she raised her family in Park Slope.

During her time living in the East Village, some of her fondest memories were experiences shopping on the Lower East Side at Fine and Klein on Orchard Street for handbags and shoes (wholesale, naturally) and munching on pungent pickles straight from the wooden barrels at Guss’s Pickles at the original Essex Street Market.

After successful careers as a Teacher, HR Manager and Real Estate Broker, in addition to being a guide with The Conservancy, Susan volunteers as a docent at The Museum at Eldridge Street on The Lower East Side, and tutors reading in a public school in Harlem.

She is thrilled to return to the Lower East Side where she can share her love for the history, culture, and stories of this vibrant and ever-changing neighborhood as a tour guide for The LESJC..

As the 2nd generation born on the Lower East Side, the first 13 years of Paul’s life were spent at the Vladeck Houses, moving with his family to the Seward Park Housing Co-ops when they opened in 1960. After graduating from Queens College in 1969, he returned to The LES to teach at I.S. #56, the same junior high school that he attended. Paul also worked at DIAL-A-TEACHER (a NYC teacher “help” hotline) as well as a one-year stint as a mentor in a Harlem middle school. After 32 years teaching at #56, he retired and worked for Gruss Life Monument Funds, which furthers science & math education in Jewish Day Schools & Yeshivas.

At the end of the academic year 2009, Paul was happy to be retiring for good!

An excellent photographer whose work, showcases in black & white the LES of the late 70’s & early 80’s, he has exhibited at the Camera Club of New York, as well as winning a 1st place ribbon at the Brooklyn Heights outdoor art show. Hoping to get back to more photography as well as having his murder-mystery novel, “Prediction of Death” published is what keeps his days busy.

Paul is proud that his daughter is the 3rd generation born on the LES, now one of the hottest neighborhoods in Manhattan!

As one of the original guides trained by Joyce Mendelsohn, Paul really enjoys sharing his home area, which he loves, with visitors. He is married to Lori, the Director of Operations.