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Photo: Gryffindor, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This temple traces its lineage to the founding of the Reform Jewish community in New York in 1845, although this building itself dates from 1929. The building is an important and impressive landmark, and the congregation numbers among its members many of the pillars of the Jewish community in New York, including major philanthropists, businesspeople, and politicians. If you don't arrange to visit the interior, it's worth just walking past the building and looking at the decorations on its exterior.
Congregation Emanu-El of New York is the oldest Reform Jewish congregation in New York City. It has served as a flagship congregation in the Reform branch of Judaism since its founding in 1845. The Art Deco building it uses – – was built in 1928–1930 and is one of the largest synagogue buildings in the world.
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The Park Avenue Armory is, again, a site not to be missed. The Armory is a venue for unconventional performing and visual arts with a vast array of unique storytelling methods and programs.
The former home of steel baron Henry Clay Frick, this sprawling mansion is filled with Frick's enormous personal art collection, displayed as he left it. It's worth a visit for the house alone, which is explained nicely in the audio tour. The collection is impressive, including works by Whistler, Corot, El Greco, Turner, Renoir and Rembrandt.
The Society of Illustrators is one of the many off the beaten path museums in New York City, and while it may not have as many visitors, it certainly isn't a place to miss. Certainly don't miss the art of illustration featured here, with countless historical galleries since the museum's opening in 1901. It's even the origin of the famous "I Want You For U.S. Army" poster of World War I and II.
The Asia Society is a unique educational organization like no other in the area promoting relationships and understanding among and of leaders, people, and organizations of Asia. It features a vast array of Asian art including art, business, culture, and education, promoting collaboration and a new, progressive understanding of Asian relations. The opportunities for discovery here are endless, with lessons about art, calligraphy, language, literature, politics, and religion.
A hidden gem that's been a hotspot for Upper East Side recreation since 1996. While the area may seem like any park welcoming screaming children from nearby areas and plenty of areas to exercise such as basketball courts and the running track, this park is so much more. Such a small park is so rich in history, mimicking Rome's Santa Maria Sopra Minerva church and including many Roman-influenced details few and far between. If you're in this area, be sure to pay the park a visit.
The Ukrainian Institute has a plethora of history on the culture-ridden Eastern European country of Ukraine, promoting the variety of art, music, and literature from the past centuries. In fact, you can not only be educated on but learn the Ukrainian language here. Art exhibits, concerts, films, lectures, literature readings, poetry, and even educational programs for both adults and children all contribute to the education of this fascinating yet too often forgotten culture.