First things first: if you live in New York and want to impress out-of-town visitors, wander on down to a grimy stretch of Eldridge Street below Canal and ogle the neo-Gothic synagogue on the east side of the street. Said to be the first house of worship built by Eastern European Jews in the United States, the Eldridge Street Synagogue is a primer in Lower East Side social history as well as a architecture buff’s wet dream: a completely restored neo-Moorish interior with 70-foot vaulted ceilings, trompe l’oeil walls, stenciled detail work, a central chandelier with 75 bulbs, and 68 stained glass windows. And now, boundary-pushing contemporary artist Kiki Smith.
