Tashlich on the Dock, Bialystoker Synagogue, 1932

American Jewry · New York, 1932

Tashlich on the Dock, Bialystoker Synagogue, 1932

Published September 11, 2026

A large crowd stands at the Bialystoker doorway, and a man in a tallis stands in the open door. Down at the river, men and women say tashlich on a packed two-level East River pier, 1932.

Universal Newspaper Newsreel (cinema newsreel), about 47 seconds.

The same dock, closer in. About 12 seconds.

A large crowd stands at a fieldstone doorway on Willett Street, and a man in a tallis stands in the open door. Down at the river, men and women pack a two-level pier, machzorim in hand.

The doorway is the Bialystoker Synagogue, still on that block (then Willett Street).

Bialystoker Synagogue
7 Bialystoker Place (Willett Street), Lower East Side, New York
40.71550, -73.98380

1932 newsreel: a large crowd and a man in a tallis at the Bialystoker doorway — Universal newsreel, 1932.

Bialystoker Synagogue doorways in 2009 — Bialystoker Synagogue. Benjamin Waldman, 2009.

Street View, the same doorway. Open in Google Maps.

The pier is the East River recreation pier at East Third Street, near Houston, a walk north of the shul.

1932 newsreel two-level pier next to a 1933 photograph of the East Third Street recreation pier — Left: Universal newsreel, 1932. Right: the East Third Street recreation pier from the river. P. L. Sperr, 10 June 1933 (NYPL).

The film and what followed

They shot it on 2 October 1932. Two days later it was in the theaters, titled “World’s Jewry Hail New Year, 5693, With Picturesque Ritual.”

Timeline

1905: Congregation Anshei Bialystok buys the fieldstone building on Willett Street.
1 Oct 1932 / 1 Tishrei 5693: First day of Rosh Hashanah, on Shabbos.
2 Oct 1932 / 2 Tishrei 5693: Tashlich on the East River.
4 Oct 1932: The newsreel reaches theaters.