Student Report: Students Travel to Ellis Island and Lower East Side To Gain Insight into Earlier Generation of Immigrants

This year, the eighth grade has been exploring different religions. We have studied Christian denominations, Islam and, of course, Judaism. This includes how the people who practice these religions came to America.

So we decided that we wanted to go to Ellis Island, the gateway to America from 1892 to 1924. The majority of our ancestors went through there on their journey to America, along with people from many other faiths.

After massive amounts of planning by our teachers, Martha A. and Anna P., as well as Rabbi Warshaw, we got on the bus at 6 a.m., Sunday, March 16. Tired and moaning, we left the temple grounds, bound for New York Harbor.

From New Jersey, we took the ferry that would take us on our history lesson for the day. When one of our group members had a problem going through security and had to take a later boat, we got a small sense of what our own ancestors felt when they first came to these shores and had to leave friends and relatives behind.

Jeff Altman, our guide from Timeline Touring, took us through the Ellis Island Immigration Museum and gave us a view of Jewish history and of what took place when the island was used to receive immigrants.

In the first large room on the second floor, the Great Hall, we sat on several of the original benches that immigrants used while waiting to be processed. From that view, you could imagine the breadth of history that took place in the room. You could also appreciate the time it took to create the ceramic tiling on the floor, the woodwork on the balconies and the brickwork that coated the ceiling and walls like fish scales.

After our tour, we got a chance to look at the Immigration Wall of Honor. It is a long circular wall that documents some of the passengers and families that passed through Ellis Island.

After our tour of the museum, and a historical documentary, we got back on the ferry, and headed into Manhattan. We stopped to look at a round sculpture that was salvaged from the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. There, at the base of what was left of the multimetal piece, is an eternal flame, burning for the people who lost their lives that day.

After a five-minute bus ride, we wound up on the Lower East Side. There began a several-hour foot tour of the neighborhood once densely populated by Jews, and now inhabited by African Americans, Latinos and Asians.

In Chinatown, we visited a small Greek synagogue that has been in operation since the early 1900s. We got a quick history of the Greek Jews and learned how some of them came to New York. We also had the opportunity to look at the ark and the Torahs inside. The oldest one was about 300 years old, and is still used on High Holy Days.

Just looking at the ornate Torahs, in a place where history has lived for generations, was an amazing experience; just like the rest of our New York trip.

[By Faith Snyderman; from May 2008 Vine]