Israel Travel Guide
Oscar Israelowitz was born in Brussels, Belgium. He has degrees in architecture and geology and has traveled extensively throughout Europe, the United States, Canada, the Caribbean islands, Africa and Israel. He is an architectural consultant by profession and is registered in the Register of Engineers and Architects in Israel. Some of his architectural projects include the Synagogue and Holocaust Center of the Bobover chassidim and the Yeshiva Rabbi Chaim Berlin, both in Brooklyn, NY. He has also designed homes and villas for clients in the United States, Haiti and Israel. In recent years, he was involved in salvaging an historic Ark from an abandoned synagogue. That Ark is now incorporated in a new temple in Plainview, New York. Mr. Israelowitz is also a professional photographer. His works have been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art in a show called "Watch the Closing Doors Mosaics of the New York City Subways" (1973). That exhibit traveled to the Brooklyn Museum and has been incorporated into a permanent exhibition at the New York Transit Museum. "The Changing Face of New York s Synagogues" was a joint photographic exhibit of Oscar Israelowitz and Bill Aaron in 1976. "Brooklyn: The City of Churches and Synagogues" was on display at Saint Joseph s College Gallery in Brooklyn in 1979 and traveled to the Long Island (now Brooklyn) Historical Society and to the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza. In all of these exhibitions Mr. Israelowitz served as the guest curator and project coordinator. Oscar Israelowitz has appeared on several network television and radio programs including the 30th Anniversary show of "The Joe Franklin Show" (1982), NBC s "First Estate Religion in Review,"(1982) "The Ruth Jacobs Jewish Home Show" (1982) and in a documentary for Australian Broadcasting Company called "Who Do You Think You Are?"(2008) Oscar Israelowitz has been a guest travel columnist for the Jewish Press of New York starting in 2004. He has written special articles about Jewish Philadelphia, the First Jewish Neighborhood in America, Jewish Harlem, Travels in Israel, and the Jewish Midwest. In more recent years, Mr. Israelowitz has been conducting guided tours of the Lower East Side, Ellis Island, Hassidic neighborhoods in Brooklyn and has conducted Boat Tours of Jewish NYC on the NY Water Taxi. These trips have been written-up in New York Magazine, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune and Crain s New York Business. Oscar Israelowitz has given private tours of the old Jewish neighborhoods in the city to many world-renowned personalities such as Leon Uris and members of the United Nations. Oscar Israelowitz is a fully-licensed tour guide in New York City. Over the past several years, Oscar Israelowitz has served as "Scholar-in-Residence" at the Heritage Resort in Southbury, CT, the Inn at Pocono Manor, PA and the Grand Hotel in Cape May, NJ during the Passover holiday and has presented lecture programs.