Explore New York’s Lower East Side in 1975 with a Virtual Verbal Description Tour

This tour of the Museum at Eldridge Street's current exhibition is designed for people who are blind or have low vision.

Fifty years ago, Richard Marc Sakols, a young student at the time, ventured down to the Lower East Side to explore the neighborhood where his grandmother was born with his Pentax SLR and the Jewish Communal Register. The archive of photos he took captured people, storefronts, synagogues, and everyday scenes, documenting the neighborhood at a pivotal moment when its once predominantly Jewish character was giving way to broader cultural diversity.

On Thursday, October 16th at 6pm ET, join the Museum's Deputy Director for Education and Accessibility, Scott Brevda, on Zoom for a special verbal description tour of selected works from this archive and current exhibition, Lower East Side, 1975: Portrait of a Changing Jewish Neighborhood, as we bring the images and the changing landscapes they depict to life.

Please see the Zoom link in your order confirmation email. This program is entirely virtual.

You can REGISTER HERE or by emailing access@eldridgestreet.org.

Access programs with the Museum at Eldridge Street are FREE of charge.

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This virtual access program is in conjunction with Lower East Side, 1975: Portrait of a Changing Jewish Neighborhood, an exhibition featuring the evocative photographs of Richard Marc Sakols. The exhibition is on view through Sunday, November 23, 2025.

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About the Presenter: Scott Brevda is the Deputy Director for Education and Accessibility at the Museum at Eldridge Street. As a historian, museum educator, and lifelong New Yorker, he loves to bring the history of his native city to life. In his current position, Scott plans and leads the Museum's Cultural After-School Adventure (CASA) program with local public school students and creates new educational content and programming. He was formerly a Senior Educator at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and holds a B.A. and M.A. in History from Fordham University.

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About the Museum at Eldridge Street: The Museum at Eldridge Street is housed in the Eldridge Street Synagogue, a magnificent National Historic Landmark that has been meticulously restored. Opened in 1887, the synagogue is the first great house of worship built in America by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. Today, it is the only remaining marker of the great wave of Jewish migration to the Lower East Side that is open to a broad public who wishes to visit Jewish New York. Exhibits, tours, public programs, and education initiatives tell the story of Jewish immigrant life, explore architecture and historic preservation, inspire reflection on cultural continuity, and foster collaboration and exchange between people of all faiths, heritages, and interests.

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Image Credit: "37 Eldridge Street." Photograph by Richard Marc Sakols (1975).

Image Description: A photograph from 1975, in landscape orientation, of the Cup & Saucer restaurant on the Lower East Side. It is set in a rundown tenement apartment building, painted in red and white, and surrounded by a few pedestrians and cars.

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The Museum at Eldridge Street’s access programs are made possible, in part, by the Laura B. Vogler Foundation and by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.