In New York circa 1900, Jewish identity was in the streets and in the air; one in four New Yorkers was Jewish, and formal religious affiliation felt unnecessary. Fifty years later, suburban Jews needed communal institutions – and today’s urban, multiculticultural Jews need them even more

Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, 1949. All over New York – downtown, uptown, Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn – stores closed for the High Holy Days, as the devout went off to services in shuls and temples of every size and denomination. But outside the synagogue walls, along the boulevards, many more Jewish men, women, and children promenaded, dressed in their holiday best, eager to see and be seen. Strolling through their Jewish city, these masses had nothing against religion per se; they just felt it was not for them. Of all the images typifying New York’s hustling, bustling Jewish community of Gotham, as New York City was affectionately nicknamed, this scene is perhaps the most enduring, still playing itself out on the upscale streets of Manhattan today.