Yesterday we received an email tip from Kevin Walter, asking: “Did anyone notice that Zelig Blumenthal’s store at 13 Essex Street has vanished without a trace? Signs are gone? Interior is completely empty. Another bit of the old, Jewish Lower East Side gone.” Today we dialed the phone number for the Judaica store, a fixture on the Lower East Side for close to 60 years. The man who answered said they’d moved to Brooklyn.
In December, we previewed our new series, “On Essex,” a monthly exploration of one of the Lower East Side’s most fascinating blocks. Throughout 2010, we’ll be bringing you multimedia stories reflecting the old and the new - audio interviews with the people who work and live on Essex between Grand and Canal, paired with the striking black and white photographs of A. Jesse Jiryu Davis. Today, we begin with Len Zerling of G&S Sporting Goods, ensconced at 43 Essex since 1937.
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