NEW YORK'S BEST INSTITUTIONS AS SELECTED BY NEW YORKERS

The 92nd Street Y

Photo: Sol Adler.

The 92nd Street Y is about people. The people of New York City and the surrounding area. The people of the United States and of the world. It's about people who entertain and challenge, inform and educate. It's about people who learn and discover, observe and participate. The 92nd Street Y operates in the context of a history that spans over 130 years. Founded in 1874 as the Young Men's Hebrew Association where Jewish men could find harmony and good fellowship, the 92nd Street Y today has evolved into a world-renowned community and cultural center, an organization of exhilarating vitality and remarkable diversity, a proudly Jewish institution that reaches out to people of every race, ethnicity, religion, age and economic class. At once a lecture hall, a performance space, a school, a health center and a community organization, the Y remains focused on its mission of enriching the lives of the people who pass through its doors - women and men, young families and senior citizens, accomplished artists and aspiring beginners, master instructors and enthusiastic students, world leaders and concerned citizens. Sol Adler, Executive Director. A 25-year veteran of the 92nd Street Y, Sol Adler has been executive director since June of 1988. Over the course of his tenure, he has increased the organization's budget to $42 million from $15 million, initiated the Y's first strategic planning process, raised over $80 million through two capital campaigns and $2.3 million through the Y's first corporate gala, launched the Y's foray into e-commerce and satellite broadcasting, and merged the organization with Makor, a young Jewish cultural program on Manhattan's West Side created by financier Michael Steinhardt. Data: The Institution.

MOMA (MUSEUM OF MODERN ART)

Photo: View of the new David and Peggy Rockefeller Gallery Building from Fifty-fourth Street. Photo credits: Timothy Hursley.

Founded in 1929 as an educational institution, The Museum of Modern Art is dedicated to being the foremost museum of modern art in the world. Through the leadership of its trustees and staff, The Museum of Modern Art manifests this commitment by establishing, preserving, and documenting a permanent collection of the highest order that reflects the vitality, complexity, and unfolding patterns of modern and contemporary art; by presenting exhibitions and educational programs of unparalleled significance; by sustaining a library, archives, and conservation laboratory that are recognized as international centers of research; and by supporting scholarship and publications of preeminent intellectual merit.

Photo: MOMA director, Glenn D. Lowry. Photo credits: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. The Museum of Modern Art seeks to create a dialogue between the established and the experimental, the past and the present, in an environment that is responsive to the issues of modern and contemporary art, while being accessible to a public that ranges from scholars to young children. The ultimate purpose of the Museum declared at its founding was to acquire the best modern works of art. While quality remains the primary criterion, the Museum acknowledges and pursues a broader educational purpose: to build a collection which is more than an assemblage of masterworks, which provides a uniquely comprehensive survey of the unfolding modern movement in all visual media. Data: The Institution.

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

Photo: Philippe de Montebello, Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Metropolitan is a collection of museums, each deserving of many repeated visits. It is a vast storehouse of knowledge, where works of art are held for reference as well as for display; its collections are meant to be consulted as one chooses from a long menu. Indeed, the strength of the Met is that all under one roof it provides an almost infinite number of options for many rich and rewarding visits. These can take an infinite number of forms, from random wanderings to planned itineraries, from an in-depth study of a single gallery or exhibition to the exploration of several different cultures or periods. Every conceivable peregrination is possible because the Met is a universal museum: every category of art in every known medium from every part of the world is represented here and thus available for contemplation or study – and not in isolation but in comparison with other times, other cultures, and other media. Understood in this way, of course, the Met can never be too big, for once we acknowledge that it can be visited best only in sections, in small tastings, then, as with a long menu or a box of assorted chocolates, the more we have to choose from, the better. Data: The Institution.

THE METROPOLITAN OPERA

The Metropolitan Opera’s foremost goal is to present the highest quality performance of the opera repertory featuring the world’s most talented artists, conductors, stage directors and designers.

The Metropolitan Opera has been one of the world’s leading opera companies since its opening in 1883. Originally housed on Broadway and 39th Street, The Met moved to its current home at Lincoln Center in 1966. Since its inception, The Met has engaged many of the world’s most significant artists, and continues to strive for musical and dramatic excellence. Today The Metropolitan Opera continues to present the best available talent from around the world, and also concentrates on training artists through its Lindemann Young Artists Development Program and National Council Auditions. The opera house is equipped with the finest of technical facilities. The renowned “Met Titles”, a unique system of simultaneous translation, appear on individual computerized screens at every seat in the opera house. The Met has given the American premieres of some of the most important works in the repertory, including Wagner’s Ring and Puccini’s Turandot; its twenty-nine world premieres include Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West and John Harbison’s The Great Gatsby. Each season The Met stages more than two hundred performances of opera in New York. More than 800,000 people attend the performances in the opera house during the season, and millions more throughout the world experience The Metropolitan Opera on TV, radio, on tour and recordings. Data: The Institution.

JUDAICA:

Photos from L to R: #1. Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz. #2. Dr. Jerome S. Kaufman. #3. Diva Paulette Attie. #4. Dr. Ilil Arbel. #5. Tuvia Tenenbom.

America's most generous Jewish people: Dr. Ilil Arbel, Diva Paulette Attie, Dr. Jerome S. Kaufman.

New York's most honored and appreciated Rabbi for his humanitarian contributions: Rabbi Moshe Wiener.

New York's best Jewish charitable and educational organization in service of the general public: Jewish Community Council of Greater Coney Island, Inc., 3001 West 37th Street,  Brooklyn, New York

Photos from L to R: #1. Moti Sandak. #2. Rabbi Moshe Wiener. #3. The fabulous Isabel Rose. #4. Arlene Peck.

World's most revered Rabbi and Judaic scholar-author: Adin Steinsaltz.

World's best Jewish Theater Organizations: 1-Jewish Theater of New York, created by Tuvia Tenenbom. 2- All About Jewish Theater, created by Moti Sandak.

USA's brightest, most delightful and tragi-comic columnist and TV host: Arlene Peck.

New York's most talented, educated and brightest entertainer and movie star: Isabel Rose.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________