Tenement Museum: Sweatshop Worker Tour

Our high school group ventured to the historic Tenement Museum this past weekend. Our members researched the best route on Moovit to the museum and decided on the downtown 6 train to Bleecker Street and transferred to the F and got off at Delancey Street. It was a chilly day, so less time outside was preferable to the members in attendance. We decided to attend the sweatshop worker tour to learn more about two families who worked so hard to create a better life for their families in the U.S., specifically in NYC. We heard about the Levine family's garment workshop and the Rogarshevskys' Sabbath table at the turn of the 20th century, when the Lower East Side was the most densely populated place in the world. Our guide taught us about how immigrants balanced work, family and religion at a time of great change. The members asked great questions and were avid participants throughout the tour, representing Teenz In The City well! Following the tour, we discussed what we learned, what surprised us and what made us sad about seeing the living conditions. Our members exhibited maturity and were very thoughtful in their discussion. Though we had to wait for the F train for quite awhile on the way home, our discussion and also a musical performance in the subway helped pass the time!