Building the Upper East Side

So, how did a Holocaust survivor, a Syrian banking tycoon, and a local visionary build one of Manhattan's most important Torah communities? These are three of the most important Jews that built up the Upper East Side. First, Rabbi Arthur Schneier. Born in Vienna in the 1930s, Rabbi Schneier hid away in Budapest and survived the Holocaust. He came here, became a rabbi at Yeshiva University, and took over the Park East Synagogue in 1962. Rabbi Schneier channeled that survival and that love for Yiddishkeit into founding the Park East Day School and [music] becoming an international diplomat for religious freedom. Number two, Edmond J. Safra. You may have seen his name on a bunch of shuls throughout South America and Florida, but also here in the Upper East Side. Safra was a child of the Safra banking dynasty from Syria. He fled Beirut in the 1940s and [music] built a financial empire. He and his family established the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue on East 63rd [music] Street, giving a space for the Syrian and Sephardic Jewish community here in the Upper East Side to thrive. Number three, Ambassador David Cornstein. Of course, he was an extremely successful New York Jewish businessman, but also a former U.S. Ambassador to Hungary. This man built a billion-dollar jewelry empire from scratch, the true Jewish-American dream. This man quite literally helped support many, many organizations here in the Upper East Side, including the shul right behind me and the school that's in it. It's because of incredible leaders like these [music] that Jewish communities thrive today.