Tenement Tales and Ethnic Eats
Immerse Yourself in New York’s Lower East Side

By VICTOR BLOCK

Victoria Confino’s pretty face reveals her emotions as she recounts her family’s history and shows visitors around their tiny, three-room apartment. She explains that her Sephardic Jewish family migrated from Turkey to New York City, where her father found work as a pushcart peddler. Within three years, he saved enough money to open a small factory that produces underwear, where she works.
Seven people share the cramped space in a dimly lit tenement building in the Lower East Side. Victoria sleeps near the coal stove and keeps the fire going on cold nights, while crates covered by throw rugs serve as beds for her brothers.
Despite the hardships, the vivacious teenager smiles in delight as she describes the wonders of conveniences like gas lights and running water. “A lot of things in America are magic,” she exclaims.
Outside the narrow, six-story building at 97 Orchard Street, the year is 2009 and the place is now called the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. Inside, visitors are transported back to 1916, as Victoria—played by a costumed interpreter—describes life as it was.