Hanukkah & Jewish Culture

Use this as your roadmap to Jewish immigration in New York!

Featured sites are divided by their location, traveling from the south to the farthest northern tip of Manhattan. Each section provides a map of the area and a broad introduction to the district's place in the historic timeline of Jewish immigration. The author provides suggested itineraries, tips for the visitor, and reference notes for further exploration, while a historical introduction provides the framework for locals and visitors of every religion and nationality. Vintage photos provide historic illustrations.

Brick City Past Revealed

Newark's history is as diverse and powerful as the community that continues to call New Jersey's largest city home. The colonial settlement at Four Corners--the Broad and Market intersection--grew into one of the most heavily traveled thoroughfares in the nation. In the nineteenth century, innovations such as the public use of the electric light bulb in Military Park and the discovery of how to make patent leather established Newark as a flourishing industrial hub. Dramatic events including the battle between Nazi sympathizers and city residents in the 1930s, hearings held by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s and the event that triggered the infamous 1967 riots, defined a raucous twentieth century in Newark. Today, urban farming can be found in the Ironbound, NBA star Shaquille O'Neal has helped fund the city's first high-rise tower in fifty years and revitalization efforts continue. Author Helen Lippman presents hidden history of Newark, New Jersey.

Known as Newark's ""Jewish Frontier,"" Weequahic was home to 35,000 Jewish residents from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Homes built on farm lots, known as Lyons Farms, attracted the city's upwardly mobile Jewish families. Weequahic High School still remains at the heart of the community, drawing generations of alumni for annual reunions and events. Pulitzer Prize-winning author Philip Roth, a Weequahic High School graduate, found inspiration in the community, documenting its intricacies in his work. The high school still houses a mural, The Enlightenment of Man, painted by New Deal painter Michael Lenson. This mural is regarded as one of the most important pieces of public art in the state. Jews of Weequahic captures the life of this vibrant community that has become one of Newark's legendary neighborhoods.

The Jewish Community around North Broad Street weaves the tale of the Jewish community in this part of Philadelphia through a collection of rare and stunning images. The construction of the North Broad Street subway in the 1920s and the row house Jewish community known as Logan are parts of this story. The development of business districts led to a more cohesive north and northwest Jewish community that allowed for satellite Jewish enclaves to flourish, complete with their own synagogues, bakeries, kosher meat markets, and hundreds of other shops that served the general population. In the 1950s, new neighborhoods, such as Mount Airy and West Oak Lane, alleviated an acute housing shortage at a time when 110,000 Jews lived in north-central and northwest Philadelphia.

With this collection of the best of his columns from the Baltimore Jewish Times, Gilbert Sandler crafts a brilliant portrait of Jewish Baltimore.

Baltimore is the cultural hub of Maryland's Jewish community, and for three decades, local legend Gilbert Sandler has chronicled its stories. With this collection of the best of his columns from the Baltimore Jewish Times, Sandler crafts a brilliant portrait of Jewish Baltimore. Join Sandler as he evokes memories of the corner drugstore, rides at Carlin's Park and freshly fried coddies. From these warmly familiar scenes of neighborhood life, Sandler moves to stories of the community banding together during the Great Depression and the extraordinary courage of rabbis and their congregations during the civil rights protests of the 1960s. Recall the halcyon days and share the joys and sorrows of Charm City's Jewish community.

Strawberry Mansion: The Jewish Community of North Philadelphiais a testament to the urban experience in American Jewish life. Perfect for fans of Jewish-American History.

A section of North Philadelphia, Strawberry Mansionis nestled high on the banks of the Schuylkill River, adjacent to the large expanses of Fairmount Park, with many wonderful venues such as Woodside Park.

The area became the setting for America's premiere Jewish Community in the 20th century, with over 50,000 inhabitants.Strawberry Mansionwas the first Jewish suburb within an urban setting. Affectionately known as the Mansion, it was only a trolley car ride away from South Philadelphia's immigrant district. Jewish families migrated from one neighborhood to another as they advanced economically in American society during the early 1900s. By the mid-1950s, the decision to discontinue the once heavily traveled Route ,9trolley car marked the decline and eventual demise of Strawberry Mansionas a Jewish enclave.

Images of America: Jews of Paterson is more than just nostalgia--it is the remarkable story of how the city's Jewish population built a community and made it into a special place.

When Jews immigrated to Paterson in the early 20th century, they came as skilled weavers from the Russian Polish textile centers of Lodz and Bialystok. They brought strong notions of social justice and living righteously; ideas that came alive during the 1913 Industrial Workers of the World silk strike. They raised families, became Americans, and reluctantly moved when the economic base collapsed. Despite this, Paterson Jews defend the aging, gritty city as a wonderful place, and they never left it spiritually or emotionally. Former and current residents recall the Hamilton Avenue bagel bakery, Purity Cooperative rye bread, candy stores, delicatessens, the YMHA, bar mitzvah coaches, rabbis, the baby doctor, pediatricians, schoolteachers, and even the synagogue shammes. They remember and honor the past as a bridge between the present and the future.

The Jewish Community of West Philadelphia portrays Jewish life throughout West Philadelphia in the mid-twentieth century, including rare and vintage photographs.

The Jewish community of Philadelphia west of the Schuylkill River is a composite of seven distinct neighborhoods surrounding West Philadelphia proper. These include Fortieth and Girard, Parkside, Wynnefield, Overbrook Park, Wynnefield Heights, Southwest Philly, and Island Road. A gathering of seventy-five thousand Jewish people in West Philadelphia during the twentieth century qualified the area known as ""a city within a city"" as a second settlement area. Excellent public transportation included the famed Market Street Elevated. The West Philadelphia Jews flourished and supported dozens of synagogues and bakeries, and more than one hundred kosher butcher shops at the neighborhood's height from the 1930s through the 1950s. Newly arrived immigrants embraced traditional Jewish values, which led them to encourage their offspring to acquire a secondary education in their own neighborhoods as a way of achieving assimilation into the community at large. The Jewish Community of West Philadelphia portrays Jewish life throughout West Philadelphia in the mid-twentieth century. The book captures rare, nearly forgotten images with photographs gleaned from the community at large.

The Jewish Community of South Philadelphia is a tribute to tradition and pride that will serve as a valuable tool in teaching the history of Jewish immigrants in America.

For many Jewish immigrants to America, Philadelphia's row houses provided an instant community of neighbors where they were able to combine the traditions of the Old World with new American ideals. In their flight to a new land and a new life, Jewish immigrants found a place to call home in South Philadelphia. This unprecedented collection of images celebrates the people and places of this community, from their struggles to their triumphs and the family bonds that provided their strength along the way. Join Allen Meyers in this exploration of the past that will be enjoyed for generations to come.