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Built in 1826 as a Methodist Episcopal Church, the fieldstone building was acquired in 1905 to house a congregation from the Polish community of Bialystok. A recent two-year restoration has revealed an interior of glowing beauty, painted in bold colors, with Moorish motifs, biblical scenes, and the signs of the zodiac, which are found in some Jewish scriptures. As in all Orthodox synagogues, only men are allowed on the main floor; women are seated in the gallery upstairs.

A National Historic Landmark. This 1887 Moorish-style synagogue was the first house of worship built in the U.S. by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, from where 80 percent of American Jews come. As many as 1,000 people attended services here at the turn of the century. As congregants left the neighborhood, attendance waned, and the temple closed in the 1950s. Restoration is now underway and the synagogue has become a vibrant cultural center.

Guided tours inside a tenement building give an insight into the carefully researched lives of one of three families who lived here; a German-Jewish seamstress in 1874, an orthodox Jewish family from Lithuania in 1918, or a Sicilian Catholic family during the Depression in the 1930s.

Once the heart of hippiedom, this block still has a counter-culture feel and is headquarters for the East Village youth scene. Sidewalks are crowded until late into the night with patrons of funky, punky bars and shops selling music, books, T-shirts, vintage clothing, beads, posters, and black leather everything. The place to get pierced or tattooed.

The second-oldest church in New York stands on land where Peter Stuyvesant, governor of Dutch New York in the 1600s, had his private chapel. Stuyvesant is also buried here. In the 1960s it served as one of the city’s most politically committed congregations and continues to be on the avant-garde edge.

The museum has moved into a plush new facility that showcases a beguiling collection of Ukrainian costumes, lavishly embroidered peasant blouses, colorful sashes, fancy sheepskin and fur vests, wedding wreaths of yarn and ribbons. There are also ceramics, jewelry, and the intricately designed Ukrainian Easter eggs known as pysanky .