Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Back to Opinion

5 Jewish Things About Grand Central Terminal

Grand Central Terminal turns 100 this year, and the party kicks off February 1 with celebrity appearances, musical entertainment and vendor promotions, including vintage 1913 prices at selected shops in the terminal.

Image by getty images

But six-cent loaves of rye bread at Zaro’s aren’t the only Jewish connection to the famed station.

Here are five Jewish things to know about one of the world’s busiest transit hubs.

• It’s been called the gateway to a million lives, but for some, Grand Central Terminal provides a place to transcend worldly concerns. Orthodox Jews gather in a corner near Eddie’s Shoe Shine and Repair to pray at 1:40PM on weekdays.

• In the 1980s, Grand Central functioned as a de-facto homeless shelter, with hundreds taking refuge in the terminal. Mayor Ed Koch drew fire from homeless advocates for cracking down on loitering, particularly after the death of an elderly homeless woman on Christmas Day 1985.

• The architecture firm behind the station’s 1990s renovation, Beyer Blinder Belle, also laid its mark on two New York landmarks near and dear to Jews: the Ellis Island Immigration Museum and the Center for Jewish History

• Ayn Rand, born Alisa Rosenbaum to Jewish parents in Russia, set parts of her novel “Atlas Shrugged” in a fictionalized version of Grand Central called Taggart Terminal — including a steamy sex scene on some abandoned train tracks. A walking tour illuminates significant parts of the station for die-hard Rand fans.

• In the 1978 film version of Superman, villain Lex Luthor inhabits a sumptuous lair hidden 200 feet below Grand Central — though the movie was actually filmed on a set, not in the station. The Superman character, created by first-generation Eastern European Jews from Cleveland, has plenty of Jewish connections.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.