On June 3, 1948, thirty people gathered at the now-demolished Brevoort Hotel on Eighth Street and Fifth Avenue to discuss the formation of a liberal Jewish congregation for Greenwich Village and the lower West Side neighborhoods. Together they incorporated The Village Temple, Congregation B’nai Israel on November 5, 1948. After growing to 300 members by 1949, the congregation started to use the sanctuary of Village Presbyterian Church at 143 West 13th Street. Then, on Saturday, September 14, 1957, the Village Temple opened its doors at 33 East 12th Street. This building had been provided to the congregation by members Lena and Samuel Kilberg, who previously operated a metal shop here. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

The International Workers Order (IWO) was located at 80 Fifth Avenue for its entire lifetime, from 1930 until 1954. This progressive mutual-benefit fraternal organization was a pioneering force in the U.S. labor movement. For a quarter of a century, the IWO fought relentlessly for racial equality, interracial solidarity, industrial unions, and social security programs that would protect working-class people.

The International Workers Order originated within the Jewish Workmen’s Circle, but split off from its parent organization shortly after its founding in 1930. Over the course of its lifetime, the IWO offered a vast array of resources to its members: low-cost health and life insurance, medical and dental clinics, foreign-language newspapers, cultural and educational activities, cemeteries, a summer camp, and so much more. The IWO’s leaders operated under the principle that there would be “No Jim Crow in the IWO,” and at its height, the consortium included 188,000 members from many political, ethnic, and racial backgrounds. The IWO supported fifteen language federations, and its largest was the Jewish People’s Fraternal Order.

International Workers Order emblem, 1930-1939 Congressman Vito Marcantonio of East Harlem served as the IWO’s vice president and the leader of its Garibaldi Society. A protégé of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, Marcantonio served as a critical link between the IWO and the federal government. He introduced legislation drafted by the IWO to implement workplace-safety laws and universal health care, and to bar discrimination against Jewish, Italian, and black individuals in war work. Within the IWO, Marcantonio supported civil rights campaigns such as the federal anti-lynching bill, the permanent Fair Employment Practices Committee, the integration of the armed forces, the elimination of Jim Crow segregation in public facilities, and the protection of black voting rights. The IWO’s Jewish People’s Fraternal Order also fought forcefully for the integration of the Army base recreational facilities. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

In 1893, Marx and Moses Ottinger, and Isidore and Max Korn, built the new headquarters and a store for the Appleton & Company publishers at 72 Fifth Avenue. Moses Ottinger's son, Albert Ottinger, would become the first Jewish major party candidate for Governor of New York in 1928, losing by less than 1% of the vote to Franklin Roosevelt. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

The American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief (later Near East Relief, now the Near East Foundation) was located at 70 Fifth Avenue. The Near East Foundation is the oldest nonsectarian international development non-governmental organization in the United States, and only the second humanitarian organization chartered by Congress.

Campaign poster for the American Committee for Relief in the Near East (now the Near East Foundation), 1918 During and after World War I, millions of Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks, and members of other ethnic and religious minorities in what was the Ottoman Empire were displaced or killed. Over a million and half people died from deportation, forced marches, starvation, and execution between 1915 and 1923. Throughout this horrific period, Henry Morgenthau, Sr., the American Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, reported with alarm the unfolding atrocities to the U.S. State Department. However, his concerns were largely ignored, and Secretary of State Robert Lansing suggested Morgenthau seek assistance from private entities instead. Morgenthau consequently worked with friends and colleagues to develop the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, founded in 1915. The Committee adopted the battle cry “remember the starving Armenians,” and proceeded to raise millions of dollars to support the people targeted in what is now known as the Armenian Genocide.

Henry Morgenthau, Sr., c. 1913 Morgenthau, who was one of the highest ranking Jewish Americans in the federal government, clearly drew comparisons between the treatment of Jews in Europe and of Armenians and other minorities in the Ottoman Empire. Of the unfolding Armenian Genocide he said: “I am confident that the whole history of the human race contains no such horrible episode as this. The great massacres and persecutions of the past seem almost insignificant when compared with the sufferings of the Armenian race in 1915…Perhaps the one event in history that most resembles the Armenian deportations was the expulsion of the Jews from Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella. According to Prescott 160,000 were uprooted from their homes and scattered broadcast over Africa and Europe. Yet all these previous persecutions seem almost trivial when we compare them with the sufferings of the Armenians, in which at least 600,000 people were destroyed and perhaps as many as 1,000,000.”

Campaign poster for the American Committee for Relief in the Near East (now the Near East Foundation), 1917-1919 Morgenthau was one of the first to call out the actions of the Ottomans as an attempt at the systematic elimination of a group of people under the guise of “relocation” or removal. The marches of Armenians from their homes “represented a new method of massacre,” Morgenthau said — a “campaign of race extermination”: “When the Turkish authorities gave the orders for these deportations, they were merely giving the death warrant to a whole race; they understood this well, and, in their conversations with me, they made no particular attempt to conceal the fact.” Morgenthau faced surprised resistance to his pleas for sparing the Armenians, based in part upon his being a Jew. Ottoman Interior Minister Talaat Pasha asked him: “Why are you so interested in the Armenians anyway? You are a Jew; these people are Christians. . . . Why can’t you let us do with these Christians as we please?” to which Morgenthau replied: “I am not here as a Jew, but as American ambassador. My country contains something like 97 million Christians and something less than three million Jews. So, at least in my ambassadorial capacity, I am 97% Christian. But after all, that is not the point. I do not appeal to you in the name of any race or religion, but merely as a human being…Our people will never forget these massacres.”

Campaign poster for the American Committee for Relief in the Near East (now the Near East Foundation), 1918 In fact, in spite of his protestations of representing the broader interests of the United States in his entreaties, the U.S. government, eager to show neutrality in the war, showed little interest in the issue, prompting Morgenthau to resign his post and pursue the cause of saving the Armenians and other minorities in the Ottoman Empire through the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, which he founded. And in fact, the Armenian genocide which Morgenthau worked so hard to bring to light and stop would of course not long after serve as inspiration for Hitler’s genocidal plans against the Jews and others. In 1939 as Hitler prepared to invade Poland, he assured his military commanders that they’d get away with it, saying “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” Morgenthau often served as a point of connection between the U.S. government and the concerns of Jewish Americans, including on the issue of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Like many Jews before World War II and the Holocaust, Morgenthau was not a supporter of the Zionist cause. But he was often the point person for conversations about these and other international issues of concern to Jewish Americans. The Near East Relief is credited with saving over a million lives, including 130,000 orphans. The Near East Relief Digital Museum commemorates America’s historic response to the Armenian Genocide by preserving, reconstructing, and sharing the rich history of the relief effort. This history is also showcased in the documentary film They Shall Not Perish. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

This loft building was designed in 1892 by the firm of Brunner & Tryon.

Arnold Brunner, 1899 Arnold Brunner was one of America’s earliest and most prominent Jewish architects, who also designed the landmarked Congregation Shearith Israel Synagogue on the Upper West Side (the oldest Jewish congregation in North America) and the Asser Levy Public Baths on East 23rd Street, as well as co-founding the Architectural League of New York. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Over the years, the four buildings that comprised the Albert Hotel hosted many of the most prominent names in American arts, literature, music, and radical politics. In 1948, members of the amateur photographer’s group the Photo League leased space in the basement of the hotel. Members at the time included Paul Strand, Sid Grossman, Walter Rosenblum, Arthur Leipzig, Nancy Newhall, Barbara Morgan, Ruth Orkin, and Berenice Abbott.

Photo by Berenice Abbott, 1935 The Photo League, which operated throughout the Depression, World War II, and Red Scare periods, emerged from the worker’s movement. The photographers who were part of this group used documentary photography to draw attention to issues of class, labor, and equity. The Photo League was also a gathering place for first-generation Jewish-Americans. In 1947, as McCarthyism rose in prominence, the League was blacklisted for its alleged connection to the Communist Party. Although a number of national figures including Ansel Adams, Beaumont and Nancy Newhall, and Paul Strand stood up in support of the organization, the League was forced to disband in 1951. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

In the early 20th century this building housed the Jewish Daily Freiheit, the Jewish communist paper, along with a host of other left-wing and communist organizations. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

In the late 19th century, 42 East 12th Street contained a boarding house run by United Hebrew Charities for Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in Russia and just arriving in New York. In 1892, the boarding house became the subject of considerable scrutiny and reproach when several of the recent arrivals were found to be carrying typhus, sparking a quarantine to prevent a further outbreak. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Igal Roodenko was a printer, anti-capitalist, socialist, and activist whose parents were Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. Roodenko grew up speaking both Yiddish and English, and was raised as a Zionist. According to the finding aid of the Igal Roodenko Papers, by the Second World War Roodenko said he had become "aware of the conflict between my pacifism and my Zionism, and then ceased being a nationalist."

Igal Roodenko Over the course of his life, Roodenko participated in a number of the most significant civil rights and social justice movements of the twentieth century, including the first Freedom Ride. During World War II, Roodenko was a conscientious objector, and served 20 months in federal prison. In 1950, Roodenko started his own press, which he maintained for about two decades. In 1957, his business was listed at 36 East 10th Street. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

810 Broadway was home of clothing manufacturer Herman Levy & Bros.

Congregation B’Nai Jeshurun at 257 West 88th Street Levy was President for ten years and trustee for thirty years of Congregation B’Nai Jeshurun, the second Jewish congregation established in NYC in 1825. Levy was also very actively involved with various Jewish charities in NYC, especially the Hebrew Orphan Asylum. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

The Progressive Zionist League and Hashomer Hatzair were formerly located here. The League was founded in 1946 by U.S. graduates of the Hashomer Hatzair, a Zionist youth movement established leading up to World War I. The League was envisioned as a public-private framework that would influence American opinion and the establishment of the Jewish state through the values of Hashomer Hatzair. After several organizational evolutions and mergers, the League is today known as Partners for Progressive Israel. PPI advocates for peace between Israel and its neighbors, an independent Palestinian state, and a more just and equitable society in Israel, particularly through the engagement of American Jews. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

Henry Roth (1906-1995) wrote his novel, Call it Sleep, in 1934, based on his own experience as a young Jewish immigrant child living on the Lower East Side. To this day, it is touted as a classic and one of the best depictions of the Jewish immigrant experience on the Lower East Side. It centers on a boy named David Schearl who came to America with his mother from Galicia (now part of the Ukraine), meeting up with his abusive father who had immigrated earlier. The story is told through David’s eyes, and winds through the troubled home life of the boy and the often brutal experiences of living on the Lower East Side during the early 20th century. English critic Walter Allen had this to say about the young protagonist: “David recreates, transmutes, the world he lives in not into any simple fantasy of make-believe…but with the desperate, compulsive imagination of a poet.”

"Call it Sleep" by Henry Roth Although the novel met with positive reviews at the time, it did not sell well, and both the book and Roth dropped into obscurity for the next few decades. A few critics continued to maintain its significance through those decades, and in 1960, a small publisher located at 59 Fourth Avenue, Pageant Books, Inc. (also a second hand book store of the same name and at the same location) re-published it, dramatically changing the fortunes for both Roth and the novel. Call it Sleep was then subsequently published in paperback by Avon in 1964, and in that same year New York Times book critic Irving Howe reviewed it and proclaimed it to be “one of the few genuinely distinguished novels written by a 20th century American.” It would go on to sell one million copies, and its re-publication and subsequent popularity would inspire Roth to write and publish again. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of this and other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

The church steeple sitting in front of NYU’s Founder’s Hall dormitory on East 12th Street was built in 1847 as part of the 12th Street Baptist Church. With the rapidly shifting currents of immigration sweeping through the Lower East Side in the mid-19th century, by 1854 the Baptist Church had ceded the structure to a new occupant, Temple Emanu-El, a small Jewish congregation that previously met on the second floor of a building at Grand and Clinton Streets. Emanu-El was the first Reform Jewish congregation in New York City, and among the many reforms first implemented at the 12th Street building was allowing men and women to sit together in the pews for the first time.

From these humble beginnings Temple Emanu-El moved to Fifth Avenue and 43rd Street in 1868, and in 1927 to its current location at Fifth Avenue and 65th Street – a massive, Romanesque Revival structure which is often referred to as the largest reform synagogue in the world, and by some as the largest synagogue in the world.

After Emanu-El left the building, it was taken over by St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church, which remained until 2005 when NYU bought the building. This made it one of the very few structures in New York City to serve what had been the city’s three major faiths – Protestantism, Judaism, and Catholicism. When St. Ann’s took over the site in 1870 they demolished all of the 1847 church except the steeple, replacing the nave with a spectacular new structure designed by architect Napoleon LeBrun (see interior images here. While that portion of the church was demolished in 2005 to make way for the NYU dorm, the steeple has been, since 1870, all that remains of the former Temple Emanu-El and the 12th Street Baptist Church. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of extant historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .

64-66 Fifth Avenue was the first home of the Martha Graham dance studio, where Anna Sokolow, often called “the rebellious spirit” of modern dance, had an enormous impact on the field and is credited with helping to bring modern dance to Mexico and Israel, practiced and worked.

Anna Sokolow was one of the most important creatives involved in the Workers Progress Administration (WPA). She was a dancer who used her talent, connection, and understanding of the movement for workers’ empowerment to connect to people involved in the labor movement, especially the Garment Workers Union. Sokolow was the daughter of Russian Jewish Immigrants and the Jewish community was among Sokolow’s first audiences. Russian Jewish culture remained a central inspiration throughout Sokolow’s career, in which she created pieces inspired by Orthodox Jewish wedding ceremonies, the Old Testament, and Emma Lazarus poems, and addressed issues like the Nazi persecution of Jews. Sokolow premiered multiple works at the 92nd Street Y as well as the Young Men’s Hebrew Association and directed synagogue services combining poetry and dance. She spent a good deal of time performing and teaching in Israel, where she worked closely with a Yemenite dance company. Click here to send a letter supporting landmark designation of other historic buildings south of Union Square. . . .