Greek Jewish Festival Goes Low Key with August Block Party
The Greek Jewish Festival returns next week for another outing. However, this time around, the shindig is more subdued. Instead pitched as a “block party” instead of the usual annual festival.
Founded by Kehila Kedosha Janina on Broome Street six years ago, the event celebrates the culture and traditions of the Greek Jewish community. Years past saw crowds in the thousands, eating, dancing, and gathering.
Like everything else during pandemic times, this year is different.
“While it won’t be as big as our usual festivals, we felt that it was important to bring together our community after being apart for so long,” synagogue director of community development Andrew Marcus tells us.
The block party is scheduled for Sunday, August 15, noon-4:00pm.
Kehila Kedosha Janina is the sole Romaniote synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. Romaniote Jews are a unique community of Greek-speaking Jews whose history dates back more than 2,300 years to the time of Alexander the Great. They are historically distinct from the Sephardic Jews, who settled in Greece after the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492. In the early twentieth century, there were many synagogues on the Lower East Side that served Ashkenazi Yiddish-speaking Jews, as well as Sephardic Spanish-speaking Jews. The Romaniotes, looking to preserve their unique traditions, customs, liturgy, and language, purchased 280 Broome Street, and the congregation opened its doors to worship at its current location in 1927.
Recent Stories
Demolition Begins at Fire-Stricken Dim Sum Palace Building in Chinatown
Demolition started this week at 6 Chatham Square, which, until this month, housed neighborhood favorite Dim Sum Palace. Early morning May 1, a fire in the kitchen spread throughout the building, triggering a five-alarm response from the fire department. All told, five firefighters were injured battling the inferno over several hours. And according to Red […]
Eldridge Street Development Sells for $19.24M
A major real estate deal to report on Eldridge Street. It took three years, but the eight-story mixed-use building at 165 Eldridge traded last week for $19.25 million. Just under the initial 2019 asking price of $21 million. Buyer of record is Meng Lee and Karim Elsayyad of FREO Management. The transaction is not yet […]
The ‘Barrier Reefs’ Coming to Clinton Street Bike Lane
The Department of Transportation has chosen a winner to decorate the traffic barrier protecting the Clinton Street bike line. The city agency awarded artist Alison Cynamon as part of the ongoing Barrier Beautification mural project. The concrete slab runs from Delancey Street to South Street; an 840-foot stretch with roughly 1,980 square-feet of canvas to […]
Redlining the LES: How Discriminatory Lending Policies Solidified Pre-Existing Inequalities
The following was written by Anna Sargeantson. All photos courtesy of Anna Sargeantson, except where otherwise noted. Home to dimly lit restaurants and bars frequented by NYU students and young professionals, the Lower East Side remains in many ways the epitome of New York City’s youthful heart. Under the surface, though, the neighborhood has historically […]
Ed Higgins Gets ‘Mail Art’ Retrospective at Van Der Plas Gallery on Orchard Street
Fresh off featuring his art in Ludlow Coffee Supply, the Van Der Plas Gallery of Orchard Street is now dedicating a full artist retrospective to the late Ed Higgins. Higgins, known as a pillar of the “Rivington School” movement in the 1980s Lower East Side, and for his unique “Mail Art,” died last December at […]
