Come explore the world center of clothing manufacture, the historic 'Garment District' of New York City. Built by Jewish developers and architects in the 1920s, the area represents something unique to New York City--an entire neighborhood created for the benefit of a single industry--familiarly known as the 'rag trade', a business pioneered and dominated by Jewish New Yorkers.

Still the epicenter of American fashion, hemmed into 24 Blocks, the creation of the Garment District is one of the most important events in the history of American urban planning and politics, and one that has had enormous consequences for the shape of New York City today.

David E. Kaufman, your guide for this tour, was born and bred in Brooklyn, New York, and educated at the Bialik Hebrew Day School and the Yeshiva of Flatbush High School. He holds degrees from Columbia College, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and Brandeis University. A PhD in American Jewish History, he has taught at numerous colleges such as CUNY, Brown University, University of Massachusetts/Amherst, Hebrew Union College/Los Angeles and Hofstra University. In addition to numerous articles on the social, religious, and architectural history of the American synagogue, Dr. Kaufman has authored two books: Shul with a Pool: The Synagogue-Center in American Jewish History (Brandeis, 1999) and Jewhooing the Sixties: American Celebrity and Jewish Identity (Brandeis, 2012). David currently lives on the Upper West Side and is engaged in public education, researching, writing, and teaching the history of the New York Jewish community.