LESJC Visitor Center Opens Friday

Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy opens Visitor Center named for Kling & Niman Families, ancestors of donor Michael Pertain on Friday, May 6 at 11:00 AM

WHERE: 400 Grand Street (b/w Clinton and Suffolk; Subways: F M to Delancey; J Z to Essex)

ATTENDEES
Joel Kaplan, Esq. President, Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy
and Executive Director of the United Jewish Council of the East Side, Inc.
Laurie Tobias Cohen, Executive Director, Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy
Michael Pertain, Genealogist and donor
Sheldon Silver, New York State Speaker for the Assembly
Daniel Squadron, New York State Senator
Scott Stringer, Manhattan Borough President
Margaret Chin, City Council Member

SUMMARY

Jewish life is vibrant and growing in the Lower East Side!
To this end we are opening the LESJC Visitor Center

The new LESJC Visitor Center showcases the Jewish history of Lower Manhattan as well as the contemporary Jewish community of the Lower East Side, including its ongoing network of 15 active places of prayer, schools, ethnic restaurants, shops and other institutions of Jewish life. Since 1998, the Conservancy has raised $2,000,000 towards the preservation of several Lower East Side sacred sites and has assisted with the land marking of these sites. In addition, ongoing educational and cultural heritage touring programs have enabled The Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy to play a critical role as advocate for the maintenance of the traditional built fabric of this district as well as its distinct culture. Through its exhibits, the LESJC Kling & Niman Family Visitor Center will also enable visitors to learn about a unique immigrant family and genealogical methodology.

The Visitor Center will serve as an orientation, exhibition space and starting point for the popular walking tours of institutions and historic synagogues that the LESJC leads in the neighborhood.

Exhibit highlights include informative displays and videos about the history of the Lower East Side, the genealogy of the Kling and Niman families as examples of the neighborhood's role as a portal for immigrants arriving in the New World, maps, and accessible washroom facilities.

The renovation was completed with funds from private and public sources. The full visitor center name is the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy · Kling & Niman Family Visitor Center.

For more information about the Visitor Center and the Conservancy's schedule of walking tours, please visit www.nycjewishtours.org.

ABOUT THE LOWER EAST SIDE JEWISH CONSERVANCY

The Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy is an educational and cultural organization representing many Lower East Side synagogues, schools, and cultural institutions. The Conservancy was created with two initial goals: to support, enhance and activate the Lower East Side's community of living synagogues and other historic structures, and to raise public awareness of the Lower East Side's distinct cultural identity. The Kling & Niman Visitor Center at 400 Grand Street (Between Clinton & Suffolk Streets) is the starting point for many of the Conservancy's walking tours (Subways: F, M to Delancey; J, Z to Essex). Another walking tour visits historic synagogues of Jewish Harlem. Bus tours visit the Williamsburg/Greenpoint neighborhoods and the Borough Park/Brighton Beach neighborhoods of Brooklyn.

For more information about the Visitor Center and the Conservancy's schedule of walking and bus tours, please visit www.nycjewishtours.org or call (212) 374-4100.