Kletzker Brotherly Aid Association building, ca. 1978. The Kletzker Landsmannschaft, an aid organization for immigrants, was founded in 1892 by Jewish immigrants from Kletzk, Poland (near present-day Minsk, Belarus). The L-shaped building, which has an additonal entrance at 41 Canal Street, has since been a funeral home serving the Jewish, Italian, and Chinese communities of the Lower East Side.

Upon reaching New York, many Jewish immigrants settled on the Lower East Side, establishing new congregations and social aid societies specific to local communities of the old country. Small synagogues were so common that a stretch of East Broadway was known as “shtiebel row,” after the Yiddish term for a small space for prayer (in contrast to larger synagogues). Over time, Manhattan’s Jewish population shifted to other parts of the city, causing Lower East Side congregations to dwindle. Many synagogues were sold, shuttered, or abandoned, and some have since been demolished. Still, the neighborhood bears many traces of its once-vibrant Jewish life.