Community Board 3 Resolution

WHEREAS, the Bialystoker Center and Home was constructed between 1929 and 1931; and

WHEREAS, the building was designed in the Art Deco style with a golden brick façade and a unique arched entrance framed by twelve medallions representing the twelve tribes of Israel; and

WHEREAS, its architect Harry Hurwitt designed several other Lower East Side buildings, most of which have been demolished or obscured; and

WHEREAS, the Bialystoker Home is one of three tall buildings on East Broadway representing Lower East Side Jewish history, the other two being designated New York City Landmarks (the Jewish Forward Building and the Jarmulowski Bank); and

WHEREAS, the other significant institution established by Bialystoker Jews — the Bialystoker Synagogue — is a New York City Landmark; and

WHEREAS, the Biealystoker Center and Home housed the largest and most prominent of all the “landsmanschaftn” (mutual aid societies) on the Lower East Side; and

WHEREAS, the Bialystoker Home has closed and its residents have been placed elsewhere, leaving the building empty; and

WHEREAS, the building has been listed for sale as a development site; and

WHEREAS, the Bialystoker Center and Home is significant architecturally, historically, and culturally, so

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that Community Board 3 calls upon the Landmarks Preservation Commission to promptly calendar and designate the Bialystoker Home as a New York City Landmark.