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The Polish-American Arts Festival has been held annually since 1979 at Cheektowaga Town Park to honor Casimir Pulaski, the Polish nobleman and mercenary who played a pivotal role in the American Revolution. Aside from the General Pulaski Parade down Harlem Road that kicks off the festivities each year, the Polish-American Arts Festival offers polka dancing, food and drink, and live music over three days in mid-July.
Maria Hilf Chapel
Built in 1853 in Greek Revival style.
292-acre complex of forests, ponds, and wetlands.
Belying the modest size of Western New York's Hasidic community is its importance in the history of that strain of Judaism: it was to the B'rith Sholem Synagogue on the Near East Side of neighboring Buffalo where Eliyahu Yosef Rabinowitz came from his home in what's now Ukraine to serve as the first Hasidic rabbi in the United States. Rabbi Rabinowitz's stay in the area was short — from 1908 until his death just two years later — but his piety, modesty, and exceptional knowledge of the Torah so endeared him to local Jewry that his passing made national news. Today, his ohel (tomb) near the entrance to Ahavas Sholem Cemetery on Pine Ridge Road is an important pilgrimage site for Hasidim from New York City, Toronto, and elsewhere, especially on his yahrzeit (the anniversary of his death), the 13th day of Cheshvan in the Hebrew calendar, which usually falls in early to mid-November. It's said that anyone who visits his grave on that day can present a request to the rebbe and it will be granted within a year.