Religious, Spiritual sights in New York City
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A
Eldridge Street Synagogue
This landmarked house of worship, built in 1887, was once the center of Jewish life, before falling into squalor in the 1920s. Left to rot, it's only recently been reclaimed, and now shines with original splendor. Its onsite museum gives tours every half hour ($10; 10am to 5pm), with the last one departing at 4pm.
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B
Mahayana Buddhist Temple
The Mahayana Buddhist Temple holds one golden, 16ft-high Buddha, sitting on a lotus and edged with offerings of fresh oranges, apples and flowers. Mahayana is the largest Buddhist temple in Chinatown, and its facade, right near the frenzied vehicle entrance to the Manhattan Bridge, features two giant golden lions for protection; its interior is simple, with a wooden floor, red chairs and red paper lanterns – but all these are trumped by the magnificent Buddha, thought to be the largest in the city.
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C
General Theological Seminary
Founded in 1817, this is the oldest seminary of the Episcopal Church in America – as well as home to the Desmond Tutu Center, which hosts various peace and reconciliation conferences. The school, which sits in the midst of the beautiful Chelsea historic district, has been working hard lately to make sure it can preserve its best asset – the gardenlike campus snuggled in the middle its full block of buildings – even as Chelsea development sprouts up all around it. This peaceful haven is the perfect spot for finding respite, either before or after your neighborhood gallery crawl.
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D
Eastern States Buddhist Temple
The Eastern States Buddhist Temple is filled with hundreds of Buddhas.
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E
Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue and Museum
This small synagogue is home to an obscure branch of Judaism, the Romaniotes, whose ancestors were slaves sent to Rome by ship but rerouted to Greece by a storm. This is their only synagogue in the Western Hemisphere, and includes a small museum bearing artifacts like handpainted birth certificates, an art gallery, a Holocaust memorial for Greek Jews and costumes from Janina, the Romaniote capital of Greece. An upcoming renovation has plans for a Greek cafe, too.
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