Philadelphia's Lost Jewish Quarter

 Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe created a vibrant community from the 1880's through the 1920's the area between Spruce and Christian Street and 2nd and 6th was the Philadelphia equivalent of New York's famous Lower East Side. Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe created a vibrant community with its own Yiddish Theater, literary societies and newspapers, along with synagogues and banks, bath houses and delicatessens.

This walk begins at the front steps of Mother Bethel Church at 419 South 6th Street, with an introduction to early Jewish life in Philadelphia, and then continues to explore the rest of the “Jewish Quarter”, pointing out sites of former bathhouses, shuls, newspapers, theaters, stores, social service buildings, union halls, banks and hospitals, as well as the still-active Society Hill Synagogue and Congregation B'nai Abraham, and several businesses along Fabric Row. Hear about the dramatic Kosher butcher strike of 1911, the ongoing debate over the origin of the first hot-dog roll, and which short-lived local newspaper used to publish articles by Sholom Aleichem.