• Yesterday was Community Day for the Museum of Jewish Heritage, meaning downtown residents could get a free sneak peek at the new Keeping History Center (which opens Nov. 6). The main exhibit, Voices of Liberty, is devoted to immigrants’ tales—appropriately enough, given the amazing third-floor views of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. As you enter the space, you’re given an iPhone Touch (an iPhone without the phone) and headphones. When you step inside one of the circles placed around the room—labeled Leaving, The Trip, First Impressions, Adapting, and so on—the headphones’ antenna picks up the right RFID (radio-frequency identification) signal, and you start hearing immigrants’ stories, while the speaker’s photo appears on the Touch’s screen. Some of the speakers—Henry Kissinger, Daniel Libeskind—are famous, but most are not; all but one are Jewish (I asked afterward, because I had assumed everyone would be). The second exhibit, Timekeeper, is a complimentary installation to artist Andy Goldsworthy’s Garden of Stones, outside the building. A monitor shows the time-lapse progress of the garden—which is
composed of boulders with trees growing out of the them—as you spin a dial. I enjoyed both exhibits, and focusing on people’s stories is the best possible way to bring history alive. And yet, for me, the most powerful moment came when I had to pass through airport-level security in the building’s lobby; it was a grim reminder of what Jewish people have to do to ensure their heritage continues.

• On the way home from the museum, I was walking along North Cove Marina when I noticed workers tying light-blue ribbons to the branches of the trees on the plaza outside the Winter Garden. I asked one why, and he said , “I don’t know. I’m just doing it.” I emailed Terese at the Broadsheet Daily, who I’m sure will get the full scoop. (Also, this was the first time I’d walked by the colorful new Goldman Sachs lobby, across from the Regal Battery Park cinema—it’s not exactly banker gray!)

• A tipster points out that Fitz’s Pig-N-Whistle at 365 Greenwich has been closed for a few days for sanitary violations. The Department of Health report is here; frankly, we’ve seen worse. (The restaurant had 35 violation points, and you need 28 or fewer to pass.)

• Details senior market editor and Housing Works Thrift Shop board member Matthew Marden will be at Housing Works Tribeca tonight offering fashion advice on the “urban preppy” look: “Sort through racks and shelves bursting with wool blazers, tartan-plaid button-downs, polo and rugby shirts, striped scarves, Oxford shoes, wingtips, Redwing-style boots and more, as well as an array of furniture and housewares that evoke the preppy lifestyle.”

• Congratulations to wine store Maslow 6 for a very hopping launch party the other night!