New York has always been a great place to enjoy a pint (or three). A rare class of the city’s taverns date to Prohibition days or earlier, and each carries decades of local history: from the Revolutionary War to the gay rights movement. Starting with the Old Town Bar on 18th Street, take a loop through downtown Manhattan, and pay a visit to the dives that have withstood the test of time.

"“E. 17th Street, north side, west from Third Avenue, to and across Irving Place. The low ornate structure at the right (No. 143 East) is now occupied by a Greek Orthodox Church. It was formerly Scheffel Hall, a German restaurant, owned and operated by one, William Allaire. 1938.” In 1928, the heirs of former proprietor William Allaire sold the Third Avenue beer hall to the German-American Athletic Club, while the 17th Street wing was acquired by the Greek Church of St. John the Baptist."

It’s no secret that New York is one of the Jewish capitals of the world. The city alone is home to 1.1 million Jews. That makes the city the largest Jewish community outside of Israel - larger than Tel Aviv and Jerusalem combined! The city's Jewish communities are not only multiple but diverse – they are Ashkenazic and Sephardic, Hasidic, and secular. The city owes this diversity to various waves of Jewish immigration over time, but did you know that Jewish geography today still in many ways reflects these immigration eras? Indeed, when and from where your Jewish ancestors immigrated may actually inform where you live in NYC today!

Beginning in the mid 19th century, Germans began steadily immigrating to the United States of America. By 1855, New York City had the third-highest population of Germans of any city in the world. As with many recent immigrants, New York's Germans banded together to form a neighborhood called Kleindeutschland or little Germany.