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Private Group Tours of Any Size

Private group tours of any size

Schedule a Private Customized Tour

Explore the past and present of New York’s Lower East Side:
The Cradle of American Jewish Immigration

For the past decade, The Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy (LESJC) has offered a unique touring experience in one of New York’s most historically vibrant neighborhoods. Listed below are our popular walking tours. Keep in mind that these walking tours are only possibilities. Would your group like to see specific sites on the Lower East Side? We encourage potential visitors to speak with our staff. They will arrange tours for diverse groups: families, synagogues, schools, religious or women's organizations. They will help you design a tour to reflect the interests and needs of your group. On LESJC tours, landmarks of the Lower East Side are showcased.

Tours are lead by LESJC guides who are professionally trained by author and historian Joyce Mendelsohn, a renowned expert on the history and culture of the Lower East Side. For more information on Joyce Mendelsohn, click here. Tours last approximately 2.5 to 3 hours.

Experience the Lower East Side your way. Celebrate a special occasion and enjoy a memorable day in New York. For more information, call (212) 374-4100, ext. 1 or 2. LESJC conducts tours Sunday through Friday rain or shine!

 

Price Structure — Private Tours

Groups under 15 people

$125 (1-8 people on weekdays)

$150 (1-8 people on weekends)

Each additional person:
$16 adults, $14 seniors, $12 students

Groups over 15 people

Per person charge only applies:
$16 adults, $14 seniors, $12 students

* If The Museum at Eldridge Street is added to a tour, there will be an additional charge of $3.00 per person.

 

Our Popular Private Tours

Many of our participants have enjoyed the following itineraries. We welcome your own selections from the many renowned sites of the Lower East Side.

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Tour #1: Bialystoker the Beautiful, Shteibl Row and Historic East Broadway

On this tour, you will visit a wide range of sites. From the spectacular Bialystoker Synagogue to a simple shteibl, Beth Hachasidim De Polen, you will see where immigrants went to shul, and how a new generation is carrying on these traditions.

 

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Tour #2: Crossing Delancey: Where Old Meets New

Enter two sacred sites that reveal the Lower East Side of the early 20th century and how it has evolved to reflect today’s changing culture north of Delancey Street.

 

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Private Tours are Great for Groups Large and Small

Private tours are great for groups large and small

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Tour #3: The Jewish Community of Colonial New York

Although many landmarks are gone, you will visit and discuss important sites of Jewish settlement during the Colonial era. In contrast to the Jews who came to America from Eastern Europe, the Jewish community of colonial New York was “exotic.” They came from Western Europe and were Sephardic. This represented the first Jewish immigration to America.

 

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Tour #4: Jewish Harlem

Let our guides lead you through the sites of Jewish religious life in the remarkable urban settlement of Harlem, once the second largest Jewish community in the United States.

 

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Tour #5: O! Multitudes! I: Three Centuries of Domestic Architecture on the Lower East Side

Starting in what is now Chinatown, this comprehensive architectural tour explores housing on the Lower East Side from the federal, pre-Civil War era to the mid-nineteenth century.

 

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NEW Tour #6: O! Multitudes! II: Three Centuries of Domestic Architecture on the Lower East Side

The Lower East Side is the iconic New York City immigrant neighborhood. For the past century and a half, immigrants have crowded its streets and tenements, and established cultural, social and religious institutions. On this tour, housing on the Lower East Side will continue to be explored.

 

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Friends gather to tour the Bialystoker

Friends gather to tour the Bialystoker

Tour #7: “Second Hand Rose:” A Journey down the Yiddish Rialto

Second Avenue is rich in cultural history. You’ll stroll down the historic street of the famed “Yiddish Rialto,” and explore the connections between what is now the East Village and the Lower East Side.

 

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Tour #8: Synagogues and Sites Renewed

With your knowledgeable guide, you will enter a restored tenement–style shul, and enjoy a stroll down a block teeming with history. Marvel at the Lower East Side’s rich history while appreciating the exciting changes taking place today.

 

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Tour #9: Bread and Roses: History of the Jewish Left on the Lower East Side

Your LESJC guides will lead you on a fascinating exploration. You’ll discuss the interrelationships among labor activism, leftist political thought, Yiddish culture/language, and Jewish tradition. You’ll listen, talk, debate, and sing!

 

Tour Details

 

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