I once saw a wonderful book about the history of the Lower East Side in an acquaintance's home about 30 years ago.  As my mother was born there and my father lived there when he was growing up, I'd love to find it, but I have no idea what the title is. As I recall, it had both text and photos and was fairly specific about daily lifestyle and more.  Might anyone know what the name of the book might be?  
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Barbara Sloan
Conway, SC

There are several good ones.  A photo book about tenement life called How The Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis, World Of Our Fathers by Irving Howe, a comprehensive book about the Jewish immigrant experience, and At Home In America by Deborah Dash Moore about second generation Jews..

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Sam Lorber
Nashville, TN
researching LORBER GOODMAN RUDMAN HAUFT

You can search on Google for books on the Lower East Side. My father was born on Avenue C.

https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1ONGR_enUS955US955&sxsrf=AOaemvItM9CCk02aXZ65W-32nMCop7i1xA:1641301746916&q=Life+on+the+Lower+East+Side:+Photographs+by+Rebecca+Lepkoff,+1937-1950+Suzanne+Wasserman&stick=H4sIAAAAAAAAAEWQT2jTUBzHm851a7ZpmzkYPcizephFadMuWbNL17mCw27VtjCLQknSl7bLn5flxbUpCLKLiBfdYZ5UECYedhEvojjHbvYg6HBHmcIE8eBVhmx2pUmP3_f7fj-_3_v29wYHw-UwHRXUGGYsPXomnVlIZUEqmcuD3OxMCswl568k8_nkPJjOZK42CTKshiMiI5YE3BFsWWBVpknYIGG8TrNd2eY2Ce-xNa7qxrjNiJWKTL0jYrUyjksOPcZhe8IKFXlR7AhGMyuleJMYOmbTgiXKS0XZsmN0bZzRuotlWtNEx8uodCwer3S8UYNlWMsZ1ix1OaJhJ2sYnMzGHanHJW2p2CVzssXZJHaCw3rEIbERJTLRkGzvchFLBic4F9ZVRe5iGbPBMHZUtpjWZxXrB_HePeD79ffbcOC1e3Xj4y6x4SZ9aYQwVKwsVHgTlvKIypCelGZWTYsaCgyQ7XZpi4tNBECQHDp4OjM6cmv_506I8v5-sDFyt7B9368vyuuHs28K0dNkZyMri606dd-zvTWCuk4O5KCZR3OoVJUsapqaIr1zUBWggTMSdY4kLyNFgaJZRRo1Ehgm_WHReQgLCMk4eDLbvkMwi2Jsi3AHtWjx7Ze1T56Cf_Pe0dFXOTsVuBCiyL5ZnEYir_if3Amur5aNRGiY7M_zdaQh1fIXXj0-__nFfiJ41jv27zDx_eafhP_do1MufaVna7QHuMZc9M5u356nePAh5GptWdl8ue050U_4XJPuKaLhGnzeeyNdlSBAGjArEKRRDRogxWMT5KolOAmuVZCJygavVzAQLJCFAhRFHqShLiNJugjoVouXaI6JgNztBq9pECzwGEND5bWHHuI_5lmTyTIDAAA&sa=X


Allan Bass

Nothing beats the scope and evocative nature of Howe’s World of Our Fathers. With that said, Jeff Kisseloff’s You Must Remember This has a number of great oral interviews about Lower East Side life; Jenna Weissman Joselit’s The Wonders of America, looks at Jewish culture on the LES, and her Our Gang looks at the darker side: gangs, prostitution, arson, etc. as does Portnoy's Bad Rabbi; The LES Tenement Museum has a good publication, as well:  Epstein’s At the Edge of a Dream.  Sanders’ The Lower East Side Jews is a good history, and Hasia Diner’s Lower East Side Memories is a first rate academic history.

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Jeff Marx
Researching ANSPACHER, AUGAPHEL, AUGENBLICK, BREAKSTONE, BREGSTEIN, CARLEBACH, HIEGENLICH, KUBELSKY, MARX

Though this is an article, not a book, the LES folks here might find it interesting.  The article, The Old New York East Side, was by my great uncle, Louis S. Bieley, for the Jewish Spectator. He was an immigrant from Bogopol, Russia (now part of the city of Pervomaisk, Ukraine), and in the early 20th century he became a journalist for various Jewish (incl Yiddish) papers.  He tends to focus here on significant individuals, but also gives a nice flavor of the area.

I've attached a pdf of the text of the article, but unfortunately don't have the publication itself (I copied and transcribed it from a library).

(note: though he refers to it as the "East Side," it is the Lower East Side.)


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Rick Luftglass
Brooklyn, NY

Locations of interest.
Pcim (Myslenice county), Poland
Oswiecim, Poland
Andrychow, Poland
Gdow, Poland
Narajow (present-day Ukraine)
Namestovo (present-day Slovakia)
Bogopol (present-day Pervomaisk, Ukraine)

if you want a more in depth view, you might want to get 3 volumes of City of Promises, A History of the Jews of New York. 
or its abridged version: Jewish New York, the Remarkable Story of a City and a People

Otherwise "World of Our Fathers is still worth reading."


Jessica Schein
NY, NY

In perusing my own bookshelves, I found two books I didn't realize I had.  How We Lived, by Irving Howe and Kenneth Libo, A Documentary History of Immigrant Jews in America, 1880-1930. The second book is: A Living Lens, Photographs of Jewish Life from the Pages of The Forward, by Alana Newhouse. The photos span the 1890s through the 1990s. Apparently these books belonged to my parents.
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Barbara Sloan
Conway, SC

Thanks to all who responded.  I really appreciate your suggestions and hope I will find the book I remember among them.  My mother was born next door to the building that houses the Tenement Museum. My father had many addresses, partly because he was an orphan who moved among aunts/uncles. But when I asked him why there were so many addresses, his answer was "When we couldn't pay the rent, we moved." During the depression years that could have applied to many families. 
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Barbara Sloan
Conway, SC

I found Anzia Yezierska's novel, "Bread Givers" very enlightening about some aspects of the difficulty of living in the Lower East Side. Another good memoir that shows what the LES was like in the eyes of a teenager, try "Streets: A Memoir of the Lower East Side" by Bella Spewack (1995, Feminist Press). I think Streets has an air of accuracy because Spewack wrote it when she was 23 years old so her memories were fresh. Additionally, for many photos from Lewis Hine, Jacob Riis, and other photographers documenting the LES, see the book, "Portal to America: The Lower East Side 1870-1925, edited by Allon Schoener (1967, Holt, Rinehart, Winston).
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Alex Skolnick

Names Researched:
Hungary/Slovakia: RIGOCZ/RIGOTZ, KASTRINER, GLEICH, JAKUBOVICS/JACOBS
Poland: SKOLNICK, SHLIVKA, MARKOWITZ, KAZLOWITZ/KOSLOWITZ
Latvia: GLUSOK, REIDES
Russia/Belarus/Ukraine: PLOTNIK, ROSEMAN, CHOMALINSKY, CHUDACOFF, HANKIN, SINGER, TANNENBAUM