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Jewish NYC

Jewish NYC is one of the communities that defines New York City. We are the world’s largest Jewish community outside Israel.

There are many Jewish communities in the Latin world. NYC’s first Jewish Community arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654. It is now Congregation Shearith Israel, a Sephardic (Spanish & Portuguese) community. We made New York an open city.

The Hasidic community in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn is one of New York’s iconic Jewish communities.

Jewish intellectuals played important roles in Christian and Islamic Spain, and the culture of NYC and the United States. Many New York Jewish traditions have become American traditions. We have made major contributions to Broadway and American theatre, film, music, television, science and academia.

Jewish Culture

  • Bagels
  • Hasid
  • Klezmer
  • Sephardi
  • Sleepaway Camp
  • Yiddish

NYC Jewish Restaurants

  • 2nd Avenue Deli
  • Barney Greengrass
  • Katz’s Delicatessen
  • Russ & Daughters
  • Veselka

NYC Jewish Festivals

  • Celebrate Israel Parade
  • Hannukah
  • New York Jewish Film Festival
  • Passover
  • Purim
  • Rosh Hashanah
  • Sukkot
  • Yom Kippur

Jewish New York City

  • 92nd Street Y *
  • Anne Frank Center
  • Bergdorf Goodman
  • B&H Photo Video
  • Center for Jewish History *
  • Congregation Shearith Israel
  • Diamond District
  • Guggenheim Museum
  • Jewish Children’s Museum
  • Jewish Museum
  • Marlene Meyerson JCC Manhattan *
  • Museum at Eldridge Street
  • Museum of Jewish Heritage
  • Shearith Israel
  • South Williamsburg
  • Temple Emanu-El
  • Tenement Museum

* Thank you for sponsoring New York Latin Culture Magazine!

Jewish nyc archive

January 2023

UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL
“Your Sexts Are Shit: Older Better Letters,” Rachel Mars’ one-woman show about great love letters from history; is at the Public Theater in NoHo, NYC; from January 11-15, 2023. From $41. 🇺🇸🏳️‍🌈

The 32nd New York Jewish Film Festival 2023, coproduced with the Jewish Museum, screens 29 Jewish films from around the world; at Film at Lincoln Center in the Walter Reade Theater; from January 12-23, 2023. 🇺🇸 🇬🇹 | 🇫🇷 🇮🇹 🇪🇸 | 🇿🇦 | 🇮🇱

“I am Not” (2022) by Tomer Heymann is a documentary about a boarding school student’s adoption in Guatemala, a false Asperger’s diagnosis, and a trip to his birth country. It screens at the 32nd New York Jewish Film Festival 2023 in the Walter Reade Theater at Film at Lincoln Center on Thursday, January 12, 2023 at 5:30pm. Director Q&A. In Hebrew, English and Spanish with subtitles. $15. 🇬🇹

UNDER THE RADAR FESTIVAL
“Otto Frank,” Roger Guenveur Smith’s meditation on Otto, the father of famed Holocaust diarist Anne Frank with live music by Marc Anthony Thompson; is at the Public Theater in NoHo, NYC; Thursday, January 12-22, 2023. From $41. 🇺🇸

The New York Jewish Film Festival centerpiece film is the world premiere of “Charlotte Salomon: Life and the Maiden” (2022) by Delphine Coulin & Muriel Coulin. Salomon was a prolific Berlin multimedia artist who was ahead of her time. She was murdered in Auschwitz at age 26. It screens in the Walter Reade Theater at Film at Lincoln Center on Wednesday, January 18, 2023 at 12pm & 6pm. The co-directors will do Q&A. In French with subtitles. From $15. 🇫🇷

The 32nd New York Jewish Film Festival 2023 closing film is “Alegría” (2021) by Violeta Salama. A single mom who disowns her Jewish heritage returns to the Spanish African enclave Melilla, for her niece’s Orthodox wedding. The comic drama about women breaking free from patriarchal traditions screens in the Walter Reade Theater at Film at Lincoln Center on January 22, 2023 at 2:30pm & 8:30pm. Director Q&As. In Spanish and Chelja with subtitles. $15. 🇪🇸

December 2022

Israeli American violin legend Itzhak Perlman and Friends; including Ukrainian pianist Emanuel Ax, French pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and the Juilliard String Quartet; play Leclair, Mozart and Chausson on Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium/Perlman stage on Wednesday, December 14, 2022 at 8pm. From $84. 🇮🇱🇫🇷

Celebrate Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of lights, at sundown, Sunday December 18 – Monday, December 26, 2022. 🕎

November 2022

Remember Kristallnacht, so it doesn’t happen again, on Wednesday, November 9, 2022.

DOC NYC 2022, America’s largest documentary film festival, is at IFC Center in Manhattan’s West Village, SVA Theatre and Cinépolis Chelsea, Wednesday, November 9-17, 2022. It continues online to November 27. 🇧🇷 🇨🇺 🇩🇴 🇨🇦 🇮🇹 ✡️ 🇻🇪 🇺🇸

The Israel Philharmonic, conducted by Lahav Shani with violin soloist Gil Shaham, plays Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev on the Carnegie Hall Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage on Monday, November 14, 2022 at 7pm. From $39. 🇮🇱

Standard Time with Michael Feinstein is “Ultimate Sinatra,” a night of the Italian American Pop singer’s hits in Carnegie Hall Zankel Hall on November 16, 2022 at 7:30pm. From $92. 🇮🇹

EDITOR’S PICK
Grammy-winning choir The Crossing, with Argentine French avant-garde cellist Maya Beiser, perform the multimedia New York Premiere of “Michael Gordon’s Travel Guide to Nicaragua.” Gordon is the founder of international music group Bang on the Can. This Carnegie Hall co-commission tells the story of his family’s journey from Poland to Nicaragua. It’s in Carnegie Hall Zankel Hall on Thursday, November 17, 2022 at 7:30pm. From $. ✡️ 🇦🇷 🇫🇷 🇳🇮

On Giving Tuesday, support the arts, in the modern tradition started by NYC’s own 92nd Street Y, on Tuesday, November 29, 2022.

October 2022

Israeli guitarist Yotam Silberstein tributes Brazilian composer Dominguinhos at Zinc Bar in Greenwich Village, on Tuesday, October 4, 2022 at 7 & 8:30pm. From $25. 🇮🇱🇧🇷

Celebrate Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement at sundown, Tuesday-Wednesday, October 4-5, 2022. ✡️

Celebrate Sukkot, the Jewish harvest festival at sundown, Sunday, October 9-16, 2022. ✡️

September 2022

Celebrate Rosh Hashanah, Jewish new year, at sundown, Sunday-Tuesday, September 25-27, 2022. ✡️

May 2022

The Celebrate Israel Parade marches down Fifth Avenue on May 22, 2022. celebrateisraelny.org 🇮🇱

April 2022

Celebrate Passover, the Jewish spring festival at sundown, Friday, April 15-22, 2022. ✡️

March 2022

The New York International Children’s Film Festival 2022 (NYICFF) screens Oscar-qualifying children’s films for a variety of ages at the SVA Theatre in Chelsea, Manhattan, Fri-Sun, March 4-19, 2022. From $17. 🇦🇷🇧🇷🇨🇦🇫🇷🇮🇱🇲🇽🇵🇸🇺🇬🇺🇸

Celebrate Purim and the courage of Jewish Persian Queen Esther on Wednesday-Thursday, March 16-17, 2022. 🇮🇷✡️

February 2022

Manhattan Theatre Club’s Prayer for the French Republic, David Cromer’s tale of a Jewish family trying to stay safe in World War II Paris, is on Stage I at New York City Center in Midtown, Manhattan on February 1-27. Extended to March 27. From $99. 🇫🇷✡️

Israeli contemporary dance company L-E-V performs “Chapter Three: The Brutal Journey of the Heart,” at the Joyce Theater in Chelsea, Tuesday-Sunday, February 22-27, 2022. From $26. 🇮🇱

January 2022

Afterlives: Recovering the Lost Stories of Looted Art is at the Jewish Museum in the Upper East Side to January 9, 2022. thejewishmuseum.org

The 31st New York Jewish Film Festival was hybrid at the Walter Reade Theater at Film at Lincoln Center Wed, Jan 12-25, 2022. $15. ✡️

Never forget Holocaust Remembrance Day, when Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated and the Shoah could no longer be denied, on Friday, January 27, 2022

November 2021

Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, is Sun, Nov 28 – Dec 6. 🕎

Remember Kristallnacht on Tue, Nov 9.

October 2021

The E/AB Editions Artists’ Book Fair is virtual Oct 18-31. FREE eabfair.org 🇧🇷🇨🇦🇫🇷🇮🇱🇮🇹🇲🇽

NYC’s First Jewish Community was Sephardic

Sephardic basically means Spanish Jewish. We are not necessarily Latin, but Spain’s Sephardic community helped recover Europe’s Greek heritage from the great Islamic libraries until the Spanish Inquisition of 1478.

New York’s first Jewish community, Shearith Israel, arrived in Dutch New Amsterdam in 1654 fleeing the Inquisition in Brazil. The Community’s official request to remain, made New Amsterdam and then New York, an open city forever after.

New York is the city with the world’s largest Jewish population. The first Jewish community to arrive in New Amsterdam in 1654 is still here. It’s the Sephardic community Shearith Israel. Sephardi are descendants of Spanish and Portuguese Jews who were expelled from Iberia in 1492.

The community’s struggle for acceptance is what made New York a city open to all who are willing to work and be governed. Probably more than anything else, this has been New York’s greatest blessing. New York is the city of work. We are the capital of the world because everyone is welcome here.

New York City’s notable Jewish institutions include the 92nd Street Y, JCC Manhattan, Center for Jewish History, Jewish Museum, Museum of Jewish Heritage, Museum at Eldridge Street.

The New York Jewish Film Festival at Film at Lincoln Center with the Jewish Museum, is New York City’s first film festival of the year. There’s also the New York Sephardic Jewish Film Festival and the Reelabilities Film Festival.

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