In the early 1900s, the Lower East Side’s 10th ward was a geographic, ethnic, and religious melting pot—some would say a simmering and “aromatic” stew. Russian and Eastern European Jews lived together with German, Polish, Irish, and Italian Catholics. There was also a thriving Chinatown. Read more about the Lower East Side and the people who lived and worked there at the turn of the last century in On the Shore (see NOVELS) and BEHIND THE STORY.
