In the United States, 1880 to 1924 marked an era of mass immigration. During this period, more than 25 million people, including more than 2.5 million Jews, came to the United States. Of those 2.5 million Jewish immigrants, nearly 85 percent from Eastern Europe settled in New York City; and approximately 75 percent of those settled initially on the Lower East Side. The neighborhood quickly became an essential enclave for these immigrants - a haven of Jewish culture, community, and religion in a new and otherwise unfamiliar land.

These were the immigrants that formed the congregation Beth Hamedrash, which later became Kahal Adath Jeshurun. After praying in a former church on Allen Street, the congregation began to build the Eldridge Street Synagogue in 1886. These immigrants saw the United States as a land of new opportunities and freedoms, including the ability to openly proclaim their Jewish beliefs and culture. The exuberance they felt in practicing this new right is obvious in the grand design at 12 Eldridge Street.

But immigration history has been one of great peaks and great valleys (a pattern that continues to the present day). And while 1880-1924 marked a great peak, it was quickly followed by a great valley. Just two decades after the city inscribed the words “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” on the base of the Statue of Liberty, the country enacted “the most stringent U.S. immigration policy up to that time.” On May 26th President Calvin Coolidge signed that bill – the Immigration Act of 1924.

What caused such an about-face? Essentially, the “peak” created the “valley,” as prejudiced white Americans perceived the influx of new races as a threat to their superiority and privilege in the country. Immigrants from countries such as Mexico, Japan, Eastern Europe, and Southern Europe were seen as “other,” and to the eyes of white Americans, suddenly whole neighborhoods, like the Lower East Side, were teaming with people who looked, talked, or lived differently than they did.

The years after Word War I saw increased interest in isolationism around the world, and growing fear of Communist ideology led to pervasive discrimination. The 1924 Act took this growing public sentiment and inscribed it into law, by creating “a quota…that limited immigration to two percent of any given nation’s residents already in the U.S. as of 1890.” A couple of years later in 1927, the 2-percent policy was changed to a cap of 150,000 immigrants annually. Both policies decreased annual immigration by more than half – from a rate of about 500,000 new immigrants annually between 1880 and 1924, to just 150,000 immigrants per year as of 1927.

These policies were a central contributing factor to the waning Jewish population of the Lower East Side that began in the 1930s. There was always turnover in the neighborhood, as immigrants who had initially settled in the Jewish community gained success and moved away. But before that immigration act of 1924, there were always new immigrants stepping off the boats and taking their place. When the stream of new immigration dried up, the Lower East Side's population began to decline year after year.

It was at this point that Kahal Adath Jeshurun saw diminishing membership, and from the 1930s on, the main sanctuary of the synagogue was used less and less. Without the resources needed to heat and maintain the massive space, the congregation chose to worship on the lower level in the intimate house of study, or Bes Medrash. Like many sites of Jewish life on the Lower East Side, the opulent sanctuary was left to deteriorate in disuse. Luckily, we know the rest of the story. Preservations rediscovered the magnificent sanctuary in the 1970s, completed an $18.5 million restoration in December 2007, and finally opened the Museum at Eldridge Street. Today, our stunning landmark allows modern visitors to learn about this essential piece of immigrant history, and the role places like the synagogue played offering sanctuary and community to new Americans. Many sites, however, were not so lucky. The Museum is proud to be among a few remaining places – like the Tenement Museum, Russ & Daughters, and the Pickle Guys – that represent that centuries-old Jewish New York culture.