The Eldridge Street Synagogue was built in 1887 and was the first great house of worship built by Eastern European Jews in America. Its façade, and it’s entire existence, represents the aspirations and pride of the Eastern European Jewish immigrants. In their new land, they could honor their Jewish roots and worship openly in America, while also pursuing a new type of American life. And although society often placed strict rules on gender roles and behaviors, the promise of a new and more diverse life was as alluring for women as it was for men. The women of the Eldridge Street Synagogue made their mark on the congregation, the neighborhood, and the city, every chance they could.

Mikvehs are ritual baths used by Jewish women, and any traditional Jewish neighborhood would be home to several. Eldridge Street Synagogue congregant Gittel Natelson owned one herself at 5 Allen Street. She purchased the land in 1886 for $22,000 - the same year that the cornerstone was laid to start construction of the Eldridge Street Synagogue. She most likely bought this piece of land because of its close proximity to the synagogue. She was a savy businesswoman who advertised having one of the finest mikvehs in the neighborhood. Gittel is a good example of how Jewish women in America were assimilating - running businesses in their adopted country - while still observing traditional mitzvot (obligations one must observe in Judaism). Gittel's bath house is long gone by now, but this one on Grand Street is still in operation.

Straus Square (originally Rutgers square) at the South-West corner of Seward Park served as an important center of political activity for Jewish immigrants. Walking by at the turn of the century, visitors would surely have seen political activists gathered, crowding around activists (literally!) on soapboxes, yelling their messages to anyone willing to listen. Rutgers Square was a gathering point for labor strikes, including many strikes that took place in regard to shirtwaist factories. The location was perfect, because it was right across the street from the headquarters of the most widely read Jewish newspaper - the Jewish Daily Forward. Here, activists could be sure that their message would be heard and spread. Jewish women played a massive role in social and labor activism at this time. Straus Square, among many other public venues, would have been host to many fiery speeches by these activists. Clara Lemlich was a lifelong activist who led a massive 1909 strike of 20,000 labor workers; Rose Schneiderman was a Polish-born Lower East Side resident who fought against unsafe workplace conditions and in 1917 helped secure women's right to vote in New York; Emma Goldman was an staunch progressive from Russia who was staunchly progressive, defending homosexuality, women’s rights, and the rights of laborers. She was a writer and a renowned lecturer on anarchist philosophy, women's rights, and social issues, attracting crowds of thousands.

Reporters likely watched many Straus Square protests from the windows of the Jewish Daily Forward headquarters. The paper, first published in 1897, was a widely read Yiddish-language newspaper often espousing socialist and progressive beliefs. One of the most popular features of the newspaper was the advice column. In the days before Dear Abby and Ann Landers, readers would flip through the Forward to catch the Bintel Brief (or “Bundle of Letters”). The Forward was a lifeline for Jewish immigrants, especially the pages of Bintel Brief. Here, readers - many of them women - could get answers to burning questions about life, love, American customs, gender roles, and more. In these letters, you can read women struggling between the obligations of their religious traditions and the opportunities afforded them in their new home. "I ask you to decide whether a married woman has the right to go to school two evenings a week." one letter reads, "My husband thinks I have no right to do this." Another letter-writer struggles with waning feelings for a fiance, confiding "I’m suffering terribly because my feelings for him are changing." In this column women could seek answers as well as camaraderie.

Not all ladies of the Lower East Side were pious and demure. Like in many other city neighborhoods, prostitution was a reliable way for a woman to earn her own money. The dark streets below the Second Avenue El train, shown here at 2 Allen Street, was a famous location for sex work in the neighborhood. Among women working in the neighborhood, prostitutes often made the most money, earning between $20-30 per week, while garment workers made $6-12 per week, and schoolteachers and store clerks made under $10 per week (statistics c.1870). If a woman was not part of a brothel or house, she might use a handkerchief to advertise her profession. These ‘handkerchief girls’ would walk the streets and, if they saw a potential client, drop their handkerchief. If the man picked it up for her, it would mean that he was interested in her services.

The Educational Alliance settlement house began in 1889 as a partnership between the Aguilar Free Library Society, Hebrew Free Loan Association, and the Young Men’s Hebrew Association. The building at 197 E. Broadway was built in 1891. German Jews had arrived in America earlier and were already more assimilated than Eastern European Jews. They, therefore, wanted to help the ‘greenhorns’ adapt to life in America and set up many aid societies and settlement houses to facilitate assimilation and education. The Educational Alliance provided basic classes that helped Eastern European Jews learn about their new home in America, from language to customs. It also offered classes (in English!), had a rooftop garden, and even a theater. Educational Alliance's free or low-cost programs created new opportunities for immigrant women to pursue their own interests - perhaps for the first time in their lives. Art classes nurtured some of the most famous female minds. Louise Nevelson (born in 1899 in Russia) took sculpture classes at the Education Alliance in her forties. Later she became one of the most recognized female sculptors of the 20th century, creating often monochromatic shallow relief assemblages made of found objects. And artist Dina Melicov honed her craft at the Education Allliance, eventually becoming a large-scale sculptor, a member of the Sculptors Guild and the National Association of Women Artists.

The Henry Street Settlement is perhaps the best known and most effective of all the settlement houses, and it was founded by Lillian Wald in 1983. Lillian Wald was born into a German-Jewish family in Cincinnati, Ohio. She moved to NYC to attend nursing school in 1889 and was immediately struck by the immense need for good health care among immigrant families. Wald's vision for holistic, progressive care completely revolutionized public health. She taught home classes on nursing to poor immigrants and coined the term ‘public health nurse’. She started the visiting nurses program at Henry Street Settlement, which provided home care to immigrant families in need. She helped found Columbia University’s School of Nursing, created the first off-street playground right in the backyard of Henry Street Settlement, and introduced the idea of school lunches for children. And the organization is still a major provider in the neighborhood, offering programs including preschool, Meals on Wheels delivery, job-readiness training, mental health counseling, supportive housing, and theater performances. It's safe to say that the Lower East Side might look a lot different today if it weren't for Lillian Wald.