Lower East Side Remembered

From last night's celebration at the Angel Orensanz Center of the book launch of the second edition of Joyce Mendelsohn's, The Lower East Side Remembered and Revisited: A History and Guide to a Legendary New York Neighborhood (Updated and Revised). From the Columbia University Press

The Lower East Side has been home to some of the city's most iconic restaurants, shopping venues, and architecture. The neighborhood has also welcomed generations of immigrants, from newly arrived Italians and Jews to today's Latino and Asian newcomers. This history has become somewhat obscured, however, as the Lower East Side can appear more hip than historic, with wealth and gentrification changing the character of the neighborhood. 

Chronicling these developments, along with the hidden gems that still speak of a vibrant immigrant identity, Joyce Mendelsohn provides a complete guide to the Lower East Side of then and now. After an extensive history that stretches back to Manhattan's first settlers, Mendelsohn offers 5 self-guided walking tours, including a new passage through the Bowery, that take the reader to more than 150 sites and highlight the dynamics of a community of contrasts: aged tenements nestled among luxury apartment towers abut historic churches and synagogues. With updated and revised maps, historical data, and an entirely new community to explore, Mendelsohn writes a brand-new chapter in an old New York story.

Speakers viewed in slide show above:

Joel Kaplan, President, Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy; Al Orensanz director of the Angel Orensanz Foundation; Holy Kaye and members of the Golombek family receiving a plaque commemorating Gene Golombek; Laurie Tobias Cohen, Executive Director of the Lower East Side Jewish Conservancy; and Joyce Mendelsohn