This year’s Pesach begins when Shabbos ends, allowing for a longer Chol HaMoed during the week. For readers planning their own Pesach programs at home, here are the opportunities for tourism with little traveling involved.
We’ve emerged from a snowy winter into a spring that hasn’t yet allowed for family-friendly outdoor activities, unless one enjoys the cold wind and drizzle we’ve had since Purim. For readers staying at home, there are many warm attractions to see during the vacation in our city.
THEY’RE IN QUEENS
New York Hall of Science
47-01 111th Street, Corona
Complementing the model of the city at the nearby Queens Museum, the Hall of Science has CityWorks, an exhibit on the infrastructure that keeps New York going. Among the recent additions is Mathematica (Reimagined), which was updated to show how mathematical patterns appear in life and in built and natural systems. There are more than 450 permanent exhibits in total at the Hall of Science, including rockets from the early years of the space race that stand inside the center’s mini-golf course.
Queens Museum
New York City Building, Flushing Meadows-Corona Park
With our country approaching its 250th anniversary, Queens Museum has the exhibit About Us: The American Imaginary on the people and culture that shape America. The photographs date from the mid-19th century to 1979, mostly in albumen and vintage silver gelatin prints. It is on view through December 6, 2026.
The museum’s great panorama of the city, created for the 1964 New York World’s Fair, is an opportunity to impress out-of-town visitors by showing them the entire city in a massive miniature form without leaving Queens.
Godwin-Ternbach Museum
65-30 Kissena Blvd.
405 Klapper Hall, Queens College
For many residents of Kew Gardens Hills, the campus of Queens College is an ideal place for a stroll as trees begin to blossom. The cultural element open to the public is the Godwin-Ternbach Museum. Currently on view is LEGENDS: Athleticism in Asian/American Art, which shows art relating to sports by contemporary Asian and Asian American artists. On view through May 14.
Also on view is Wunderkammer III: The Language of Things, on sacred and mundane everyday objects from a variety of cultures. On view through May 29.
Alley Pond Environmental Center
229-10 Northern Boulevard, Douglaston
In late 2023, the ribbon was cut on the $28-million facility, which displays the small animals living in the salt marsh of Alley Pond Park and features trails leading from the building through the marsh and woodland at the head of Little Neck Bay. An ideal attraction for a short visit on the way to Great Neck, this nature center seeks to minimize its impact on the environment with a geothermal heating and cooling system, rainwater harvesting, and floor-to-ceiling windows to maximize natural light.
Socrates Sculpture Park
32-01 Vernon Boulevard, Astoria
In my childhood, when my parents shopped at Costco in Astoria, I ventured to its neighbor, Socrates Sculpture Park, which has outdoor sculptures on the East River waterfront with views of Manhattan. Many of the sculptures are designed for interaction, to be touched, walked around, under, and through. The park is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
Laser Bounce Family Fun Center
80-28 Cooper Avenue, Glendale
Located in Atlas Park, under the Regal Cinemas, this indoor amusement center offers many options for young visitors: inflatable trampolines, a ball pit, bowling, arcade games, laser tag, and virtual reality. For our Long Island readers, Laser Bounce also has a location in Levittown at 2710 Hempstead Turnpike. On a rainy day, it is good to have a Laser Bounce close to home.
MANHATTAN
Metropolitan Museum of Art
1000 Fifth Avenue
One of the world’s greatest art museums has something for everyone. The city’s ability to inspire artists is exemplified in The Magical City: George Morrison’s New York, with works by this Native American artist who participated in the city’s burgeoning Abstract Expressionist movement of the 1940s and 1950s. It is on view through May 31. Following a recent renovation, the artworks of Oceania, the ancient Americas, and Africa are now inside brightly lit spaces, shattering the age-old stereotype of museums as stuffy attics for cultural objects. The sandy color of the floor hosting the ritual objects of New Guinea contributes to their sense of place.
For Jewish content, ask the staff for directions to see Renaissance Masterpieces of Judaica: The Mishneh Torah and The Rothschild Mahzor. Created in Renaissance Italy, the pages of the manuscripts are turned periodically to allow visitors to see the variety of illustrations and floral patterns bordering these holy texts.
Museum of the City of New York
1220 Fifth Avenue
The official museum of this city is honoring the centennial of Robert Rauschenberg’s birth with an exhibit on this abstract expressionist’s photographs of the city. The works connect his photos to the paintings that defined this genre. It is on view through April 19. If you’ve seen the city model at the Queens Museum so many times that it doesn’t inspire you anymore, here’s an alternative: He Built This City: Joe Macken’s Model. Created by a Queens native who later relocated upstate but never forgot his roots, the model was built over 21 years with balsa wood, cardboard, and glue. It spans 50 by 27 feet and comprises more than 340 sections.
Studio Museum in Harlem
144 West 125th Street
This neighborhood museum focuses on art from the Black experience, having begun in 1968 on the second floor above a liquor store. This institution has grown impressively in the decades since then, opening its present six-story building last November. The spacious galleries host works that speak of past centuries, contemporary issues, and the immediate neighborhood’s ongoing role as the center of African American culture. On view through August 30, To Be A Place, on the sixth floor, has details on the museum’s growth from a grassroots space to an internationally renowned museum. Following the example of museums such as the Metropolitan Museum and the Whitney Museum, the rooftop is open with views of Manhattan, weather permitting.
MoMath: National Museum of Mathematics
225 Fifth Avenue
Created to “enhance public understanding and perception of mathematics,” this museum is preparing to move into a larger space on Sixth Avenue in 2026. In the meantime, it has more than 30 activities and displays relating to how numbers appear in nature, shapes, and art, revealing the presence of math in everything around us.
Governors Island
Situated at the confluence of the East River and New York Harbor, with views of Lower Manhattan, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the Statue of Liberty, Governors Island offers 172 acres of history, scenery, and public events. Formerly a military and Coast Guard base, the island is filled with public art, educational programs, and the longest slide in New York City. Visitors can take tours on topics such as ecology, history, birding, and gardening. Situated within a short ferry ride from either Brooklyn or Manhattan, it feels like a world unto itself.
BROOKLYN
Brooklyn Museum
200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn
The Beaux Arts landmark has its permanent collection of historical art from around the world, a colonial Dutch farmhouse transported inside the museum, and its ancient Egyptian collection. It is best to visit this museum before April 12 to see Doors by Christian Marclay, a cinematic view through decades of famous movies in which people are opening, closing, and walking through doors. How many movies do you recognize? The museum’s bicentennial exhibit, Breaking the Mold: Brooklyn Museum at 200, is on view through September, with artwork celebrating its long history, including a model of the museum as it was envisioned in 1897—a Beaux Arts palace that was only partially completed.
Building 92 at Brooklyn Navy Yard
63 Flushing Avenue, Brooklyn
From 1801 through 1966, the Brooklyn Navy Yard was the arsenal of democracy that produced fearsome battleships and weapons that preserved our independence, saved the Union, projected American power, and defended our allies. After the Navy left Brooklyn, this complex became a hub of light industry and tech innovation. This free-admission museum offers displays on the history and present use of the Brooklyn Navy Yard. It is within a short drive of Williamsburg, where one can shop for kosher items.
New York Transit Museum
99 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn
Located inside a subway station that was abandoned in 1946 and reopened 30 years later as a museum, its tracks hold more than a century of historic rolling stock. Step inside these old subway cars to see advertisements from decades past. On the mezzanine level are displays and artifacts relating to the construction of the country’s largest and only 24-hour transit system.
Kids ’N’ Action
1149 McDonald Avenue, Brooklyn
Sometimes it rains on Chol HaMoed, and the temperature doesn’t feel like spring has arrived. An indoor play center can fulfill a child’s desire to climb, jump, and compete for prizes. Located between Borough Park and Midwood, this indoor amusement park is close to the kosher establishments that are open for the chametz-free holiday.
THE BRONX
Wave Hill
4900 Independence Avenue, Bronx
The historic mansion and garden are celebrating Wave Hill’s 60th anniversary as a public garden and cultural center. Prior to becoming a public institution, this 28-acre estate hosted famous guests like Mark Twain, Arturo Toscanini, and the future presidents Theodore Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy when they were young. It serves as a sanctuary for nature and a forum for cultural expression, with picturesque views of the Palisades. Accommodating the sizable Orthodox community in Riverdale, Wave Hill allows visitors to pre-register their visits ahead of Shabbos so they can freely walk the grounds on the day of rest.
New York Botanical Garden
2900 Southern Blvd., Bronx
The largest curated green space in the city takes up 250 acres in the heart of the densely urbanized Bronx. Its library resembles a European parliament, and the greenhouse has soaring glass domes sheltering tropical plants. On view through April 26 is The Orchid Show: Mr. Flower Fantastic’s Concrete Jungle, in which orchids are sculpted into city-themed living displays. For young visitors, the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden offers activities, displays, and paths on a smaller scale, a park inside the park designed to answer their questions about plant life and the natural environment.
JEWISH CONTENT
Museum at Eldridge Street
12 Eldridge Street
The historic synagogue of the Lower East Side opened in 1887 as the crown of the immigrant neighborhood and was restored in the 1990s as a museum of Jewish life. On exhibit at this time is First Light: Birth in the Jewish Tradition, which contains a variety of Jewish objects and art relating to childbirth. Particularly notable are the wimpels used by German Jews to wrap their newborn sons, and art by Queens-born artist Mark Podwal. On view through April 26.
Center for Jewish History
15 West 16th Street
This center hosts five vital institutions that document the stories of Jews in America through art, artifacts, and literature: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Yeshiva University Museum, YIVO, and Leo Baeck Institute, each with its own exhibits and opportunities to research our past.
Currently on view is The World in Front of Me: A Bill Aron Retrospective, containing photos of Jewish life around the world. As YIVO celebrates its centennial, its collection includes The Strashun Library: Rare Books Rescued from the Ashes of Vilna, which shares the massive collection of Rabbi Matisyahu Strashun—more than 35,000 volumes—that survived the Holocaust and made its way to New York. YIVO is also an ideal place to begin one’s genealogical search, with volunteers who can assist in tracing the origins of Ashkenazi last names and the places associated with them in Europe.
Museum of Jewish Heritage
One Battery Place
Along with its permanent collection of artifacts from the Holocaust, the exhibit Art of Freedom: The Life & Work of Arthur Szyk explores the Polish-born artist who confronted fascism and promoted Zionism and Jewish culture in richly illustrated works. From the Heart: The Photojournalism of Ruth Gruber shares photographs from a pioneering woman journalist who reported on the Soviet Arctic, Alaska, postwar Europe, and the struggle to reestablish Jewish independence, most famously through her firsthand account of being aboard Exodus 1947.
The Jewish Museum
1109 Fifth Avenue
The ongoing exhibit Identity, Culture, and Community: Stories from the Collection of the Jewish Museum on the museum’s third and fourth floors offers more than 200 works in a thematic and chronological presentation, from delicate archaeological artifacts and Jewish ceremonial works to large-scale contemporary painting and sculpture.
On view through July 26 is Paul Klee: Other Possible Worlds, the first American museum exhibition devoted to this artist. Exiled to Switzerland with scleroderma ravaging his body, he continued to paint until his final days, seeing the world around him descend into war.
BEYOND THE CITY
LONG ISLAND
Cradle of Aviation Museum
Charles Lindbergh Boulevard, Garden City
A former hangar transformed into a museum of air and space technology. Currently it has exhibits on drones and the early “flying boats” of Pan American Airways. The latter is produced by the Pan Am Museum Foundation, a nonprofit created by former employees and airplane enthusiasts to preserve the history of this pioneering airline.
Nassau County Museum of Art
One Museum Drive, Roslyn
The grounds of this museum are the former property of naturalist William Cullen Bryant and industrialist Henry Clay Frick. As visitors drive into the museum, the lawns feature sculptures designed to fit into their setting. It is the Long Island version of Storm King Art Center, smaller in size but with scenery to match the artworks. Then there is the mansion with its Gold Coast opulence. In honor of this country’s 250th birthday this year, the museum has 250 Years of Art on Long Island, with works in every genre depicting Long Island from the American Revolution to the present day. On view through July 12.
Adventureland
2245 Broadhollow Road, Farmingdale
I have not visited Adventureland since I was in summer camp. Long Island’s longest-operating amusement park struck me as a street fair permanently moored in place, with rides that are standard across the country, such as a swinging pirate ship, carousel, and log flume. I had no idea that in 2015, it welcomed Turbulence, a new roller coaster that has become its star attraction. This new ride serves as an extra reason to revisit this blast from the past.
Valley Stream Historical Society
143 Hendrickson Avenue, Valley Stream
www.valleystreamlibrary.org/vshistpagan
At the southern tip of Valley Stream State Park is a historic mansion that predates the suburbanization of Long Island. The Pagan-Fletcher Restoration contains old maps of the area and other displays relating to the history of this village and its surroundings. The state park outside this mansion is one of the smallest, with a playground, picnic area, and paths through dense woodland. This year, the Village of Valley Stream marks the centennial of its incorporation, with events and shows relating to its hyperlocal sense of identity.
NEW JERSEY
American Dream Mall
One American Dream Way
East Rutherford, NJ
After hearing about it from her classmates in school and bunkmates in camp, my family took the trip to American Dream in the Meadowlands. Even when it’s not Chol HaMoed, this destination mall is filled with frum families eager to taste popular American foods with a hechsher and with the satisfaction that this mall was built by the Ghermezian family, whose philanthropy sustains many educational projects in the Jewish community.
Did we feel like paying for an indoor amusement park when it is sunny outside, or a water park that is only a fraction of Mountain Creek and Splish Splash? Nor did we feel that the novelty of an indoor ski slope was worth the price when we could wait a few months until the slopes of the Catskills and Poconos reopen.
For a family on a budget seeking unique thrills, the indoor skating rink, mini-golf, and candy store would be worth experiencing. If you have friends in Lakewood, Monsey, or west of the city, this mall could be a good place to meet up and have fun.
Liberty Science Center
222 Jersey City Boulevard, Jersey City
With nearly 300,000 square feet of exhibits, this interactive museum can take an entire day to see, ideal when it’s too cold or rainy for outdoor activities. Presently on view are Touch Tunnel, an 80-foot, crawl-through, pitch-black tunnel that engages your senses; Infinity Climber, the world’s first suspended climbing play space of its kind; and Making Mammoths, which explores the effort to bring back mammoths. Also notable, Our Hudson Home shows the animals, plants, and geology of the Hudson River and New York Harbor that flow past Liberty Science Center.
New Jersey Historical Society
52 Park Place, Newark
The renaissance of downtown Newark continues as its skyline rises and its cultural attractions are not much of a secret anymore. The New Jersey Historical Society highlights the unique stories of the Garden State across the street from a historic city park. On the occasion of this country’s 250th birthday, this museum offers an unlikely hero of the American Revolution in an exhibit titled Remembering Cudjo Banquante: Slave, Revolutionary War Soldier, and Newark’s First Black Business Owner. He was a Ghanaian royal kidnapped into slavery who earned his freedom by fighting as a patriot. For his service, he was rewarded with an acre of land in Newark, where he built a successful ornamental plant business. An eventful life that could inspire a movie.
A short walk from the historical society is the Newark Museum of Art, with a respectable collection of artifacts from abroad and artworks that relate to New Jersey.
Newark’s Jewish history is told with Meet Me Under Bamberger’s Clock: A Celebration of the Life and Contributions of Louis Bamberger, the immigrant businessman who built New Jersey’s largest department store. The exhibit was arranged in partnership with the Jewish Historical Society of New Jersey.
Urban Air Adventure Park
396 Ryders Lane, Milltown
1600 St. Georges Avenue, Avenel
69 Wesley Street, South Hackensack
When rain and wind interfere with outdoor plans and the temperature is too chilly for a walk, Urban Air Adventure Park offers three indoor locations in New Jersey. The family-friendly facility offers ample space for bouncing, climbing, virtual reality, and sports.
Six Flags Great Adventure
1 Six Flags Blvd., Jackson Township, NJ
www.sixflags.com/greatadventure
This year, the largest amusement park in the Northeast marks its 50th year in operation. To remain profitable, customer loyalty is key, as parents experience rides from their childhood and introduce their offspring to new rides relating to popular movies and comics.
Vertical Velocity is the park’s 15th roller coaster, which will be followed this summer by The Flash, a roller coaster reaching 60 miles per hour. Among the original rides, Sawmill Log Flume and Giant Wheel, formerly known as the Big Wheel, were refurbished for the anniversary. Not everything at Six Flags closes at sunset, as it now offers glamping as an overnight attraction, starting in June.
PENNSYLVANIA
Crayola Experience
30 Centre Square Circle, Easton
www.crayolaexperience.com/Easton
Many visitors to the hometown of Crayola are surprised to learn that this interactive children’s museum had branches in Minneapolis, Orlando, Plano, and Chandler, Arizona, but it is in the Lehigh Valley where the world’s most famous crayon manufacturer had its beginnings. Facing this museum is a traffic circle with monuments honoring Easton’s Civil War veterans and signs explaining the town’s long history. Four blocks to the west of this circle is the historic Northampton Street Bridge, with its views of the Delaware River.
National Museum of Industrial History
602 E. 2nd Street, Bethlehem
If you’re visiting the Crayola Experience in Easton, a 20-minute drive to the west is Bethlehem, which used to be the country’s leading steelmaking city. The factory closed in 1995, with its smokestacks standing as a historical monument. The Electric Repair Shop of the Bethlehem Steel complex received a new purpose as a museum of industry. Walk past the cogs, looms, and pistons from the factory’s heyday, and be sure to speak to the staff, some of whom worked in the steel mill before it became a museum.
Hersheypark
100 Hershey Drive, Hershey, PA
Since 1906, this 121-acre theme park has been a leading attraction in Pennsylvania, where the beloved chocolatier offers a factory tour, water park, zoo, and roller coasters. Most Jolly Ranchers candies are not kosher unless they have a hechsher, but the 105-foot-high Jolly Rancher Remix coaster offers colorful themed rides based on flavors, with lights, tunnels, and music, as it flips six times on its ride. On the way to Hershey, one can drive through Philadelphia, with its Revolutionary War history and the National Museum of American Jewish History, or through Easton, with the Crayola factory. A short distance to the west of Hershey is Harrisburg, the capital city of Pennsylvania.
In the Near Future: Iran
A month into the bombing campaign to topple the Khamenei regime in Iran, we continue to pray for the war’s speedy and successful conclusion, so that the patrons of Hamas and Hezbollah will no longer pose an existential threat to Israel and the United States.
Perhaps, then, the tomb of Esther and Mordechai in Hamadan will be open to Jews from anywhere in the world, along with the alleys of the Edgah, where Mashhadi Jews secretly kept their Jewish practices for nearly a century after their forced conversion in 1839.
The capital, Tehran, is the main airport in the country, where masses of Persian Jews boarded planes during their flight in 1979, experiencing fear and uncertainty as they left their centuries-old homeland. It would then become the gateway of return. They will visit the Haim Synagogue that sheltered Polish Jewish refugees during the Holocaust, the bustling Abrishami Synagogue, and the historic Ezra Yaghoub Synagogue, among others.
The monarchs who safeguarded religious tolerance will be celebrated again in the mirrored halls of the Golestan Palace. They would stand on the ruins of Persepolis, where Cyrus the Great ruled over an empire that allowed Jews to rebuild the Beis HaMikdash. Jewish travelers would have access to every corner of Iran, from the ski slopes of the Alborz Mountains to the beaches of Qeshm Island. May the future of kosher travel include a democratic Iran as an option.
