Radio 53 AM

More from the archives.

This sign was posted on a traffic signal control box near Union Square. As always, you can click on the image for a larger view.

You must listen to Christ Radio 53 AM Radio on 24 hours or the Devil will take you and your family and make bats out of all of you.

Christ will protect you. Devil is Boogie Man. Beautiful gorgeous Mary and Christ will hug and kiss you forever in Heaven. For keeping the ten commandments.

It’s so easy to keep the ten commandments. Teen ages and people in Hell are suffering terrible.

Grand Central Kaleidoscope Light Show

Today, Grand Central Terminal will be packed with those travelling home for the holidays. Although the train station will be crowded, the travellers’ waiting time will be made less painful by a spectacular, free holiday sound and light show called Kaleidoscope.

Every half hour, from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., tourists and commuters watch as the marble walls and painted ceiling of the main concourse are washed with choreographed audiovisual effects. If you want to see the show in person, you’ll have to hurry; it ends on New Year’s day.

Here are a few images from the show, along with happy holiday wishes from Blather in Brooklyn.

The main entrance to the station

Suddenly, the music starts and the walls begin to change color

A traveller stops in his tracks to watch the show

Patterns cover the pale marble walls

The music swells and images of fireworks appear

The lights cover every surface

Twinkling stars are projected onto the ceiling

Grand Central Terminal

It’s beginning to look a lot like …

Every year before the trees are lit, the streetlamps are wrapped with garlands, or the wreaths are hung, these enormous Christmas balls magically appear on Sixth Avenue.

The pyramid of gleaming, red globes, placed in the center of a fountain across from Radio City Music Hall, is always one of the first signs that New York City is getting ready for Christmas.

Signs of Ramadan

Ramadan is a religious observance that takes place during the ninth month of the Islamic lunar year (this year, it begins September 13 and ends October 12). The holy month commemorates the period when the Koran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed.

During Ramadan, Moslems around the world are obligated to pray, perform charitible acts, focus less on material concerns and spend more time in spiritual contemplation. From sunup to sundown, they must refrain from eating, drinking, smoking and intimate relations.

Throughout the month, breakfast is eaten before dawn and large meals, often featuring special foods, are consumed at night. At the end of Ramadan, Moslems celebrate Eid ul Fitr, a joyous holiday that marks the breaking of the fast.

In non-Moslem countries, the observance of Ramadan usually occurs in a low-key, unobtrusive manner. But, in New York City, if you know where to look, you will see the signs of the faithful.

Under scaffolding near Broadway, men face Mecca to pray

Sign honoring Ramadan at Brooklyn Borough Hall

Ramadan Awareness Campaign 2007
Islamicity: Ramadan Around the World
Ramadan on the Net

Lord Ganesh of the Lake

The Hong Kong Dragon Boat Races are held on Meadow Lake at Flushing Meadows Park in Corona, Queens.

The ground around the lake is swampy and slippery, full of tall reeds, grasses and deceptively deep, muddy hollows. On Saturday, as I moved closer and closer to the edge to take photographs, I cautiously kept my eyes pointed downward.

When I reached the shore, I noticed something bobbing on the surface of the water. It appeared to be the back of a picture frame. I carefully reached down, grabbed it and turned it over.

To my amazement, it was an image of the elephant-headed Hindu god, Ganesh, the god of intellect and wisdom. The picture had gotten a bit gritty, but being submerged in the lake didn’t seem to have done it any real damage.

I wrapped the dripping frame in a plastic bag and brought it home. It now occupies a space in my tiny Brooklyn kitchen.

However, I can’t help wondering: How did Ganesh get into the water? How long had he been there? And — was there any significance to the fact that, out of the thousands of people assembled by the shore, he washed up at my feet?

Any theories?

Wikipedia: Ganesha

Swordfish and Roosters and Rams. Oh, my!

Deep in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, across from a tile factory and hard by an auto body shop, an eye catching sign stands at the corner of 21st Street and 3rd Avenue.

Adorned with images of a ram, a swordfish and a rooster, in three languages it advertises the Al-Noor Halal Live Poultry Market.

Intrigued by the sign, I ducked around the corner to visit the store. All I’ll say is that for a person like me (accustomed to meat that comes from a white-coated, genial butcher standing behind a gleaming, sanitized counter), slaughterhouses are not suitable for casual visits.

Oh, my!

Black Electorate: Growing Muslim Community Brings New Traditions To The Neighborhood

Signs of South Williamsburg

What is Williamsburg, Brooklyn like? To a great extent, the answer you receive depends upon the age and class of the person you ask.

In the early part of the 20th century, this waterfront community was the most densely populated neighborhood in the United States. Immigrants from Italy and Ireland lived in Williamsburg and worked in its thriving refineries, breweries and shipyards (Williamsburg was the setting for the best-selling novel, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn).

Following World War II, the neighborhood was transformed when thousands of Jewish refugees arrived from Europe. The area became headquarters for several displaced Hassidic sects, most notably the Satmar community that originated in Hungary.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Williamsburg changed again when it acquired a large Hispanic population, mostly new arrivals from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

In the 1970s, when the city teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, the neighborhood reached its lowest point. While the South Bronx burned, much of Williamsburg was overwhelmed by poverty, drugs, arson and violent crime. 

Real estate values plummeted, the middle class fled and, in their wake, young artists arrived. The 1980s and 1990s produced an influx of hipsters and musicians who established a creative community around Bedford Avenue (one subway stop away from Manhattan).

Today, ever-evolving Williamsburg is attracting developers who are replacing many of the old industrial buildings and tenements with luxury housing.

Despite the vast and rapid changes to the neighborhood, South Williamsburg remains almost exclusively the domain of the Satmar. This is an area where Yiddish is more widely spoken than English, strangers are regarded with suspicion, and most of the businesses cater exclusively to the needs of this devout, insular community.

It isn’t easy for an outsider to get a peek inside the world of the Satmar, but here is a sampling of the signs they’ve displayed on the streets of South Williamsburg.

Feltly Hats at 185 Hewes St

Feltly Hats at Hewes and Lee Ave

Shoe shop on Ross Street

Kolel Sibernburgen on Hewes Street

We specialize in whitening ladies silk scarves

Hem lines is our specialty!

Ms USA Inc

Gestetner Printing: Wedding and Bar Mitzva Invitations

Mikvah of Congregation Yetev Lev D’Satmar

Poultry store at Division & Driggs Ave

It is strictly forbidden … on shabbos

Optical shop

Crown Hatters

Bais Hasefer

United Talmudical Academy school bus

Delivery cart from Satmar Meat & Poultry Market on Lee Ave

Heimish Care

Not here! Shatnes is next house

Signs on buildings at the corner of Hooper & Lee

Record Online: In Brooklyn, Hasidim Build Shul in a Flash
NY Post: It’s a House Of ‘Gosh!’
Block Magazine: The Satmar Community of Williamsburg Divided
Hasidic News: Satmar
OU: Rav Yoel Teitelbaum - The Satmarer Rebbe
Billburg
FREEwilliamsburg
Village Voice: Arson for Hire
Demographia: The South Bronx:
From Urban Planning Victim to Victor

Yom HaShoah

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, also known as Yom HaShoah (in Hebrew, yom means remember; shoah is the word for catastrophe).

In most of the United States, the day passes almost without notice. In Israel, however, it is a day devoted to nationwide remembrance and education. During my recent visit to New York’s Jewish Museum, I saw a film depicting one of the most moving parts of the observance — the sounding of the Yom HaShoah siren.

At 10:00 a.m., a two-minute siren blast is heard throughout the country. While the siren screams, everything else comes to an immediate dead stop. Pedestrians stand still as statues, cars pull to the side of the road, workers halt their motions, people dining in cafes and chatting on mobile phones suddenly fall quiet, and the entire nation stands at silent, reverent attention.

Here in New York, a small ceremony for Holocaust survivors was held at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Lower Manhattan (not far from the site of the World Trade Center).

This was a day when the sun never came out. From morning to night, the sky remained flat and gray as cold rain poured onto the city. It was as though the heavens themselves were remembering and mourning the horrors we humans inflict on one another.

Memorial Candles on the Brooklyn Promenade
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Knesset: Yom HaShoah
Yad Vashem
The Ghetto Fighters’ House
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Museum of Jewish Heritage
Jewish Virtual Library: Holocaust Memorial Day
Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research
Holocaust Memorial Day Trust

The Mitzvah Tank in Times Square

Parked in front of the Times Square subway station, surrounded by neon and flashing lights, was a large vehicle bearing signs that identified it as a Mitzvah Tank. A what?

Mitzvah Tanks are a fleet of specially-outfitted motor homes used by followers of Menachem M. Schneersohn, commonly known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe. His adherents, who are called Lubavitchers, use the vehicles as portable educational and outreach centers.

To understand the purpose of the Mitzvah Tanks, it is necessary to know that the Lubavitchers are Orthodox Jews who encourage secular Jews to learn about and practice Judaism.

The Lubavitchers are not like traditional missionaries or evangelists. They aren’t trying to convert anyone who follows a different religion; rather, their goal is to reach those who have drifted away from (or never really learned) the teachings of their own faith.

The name Mitzvah Tank combines two important concepts: a mitzvah is a good deed (or a holy obligation), and the Lubavitchers cheerfully compare their outreach efforts to a military campaign in which motor homes serve as “tanks.” 

Mitzvah Tanks are often seen around town just before major Jewish festivals. Since Passover (Pesach) begins tonight, the tank in Times Square was surrounded by kids offering boxes of hand-made matzoh and information about the holiday.

When I guessed that the kids lived in Brooklyn (location of the Lubavitcher World Headquarters), they were delighted to give me kosher-for-passover snacks and pose for a few photos.

They also urged me to visit their neighborhood, Crown Heights, including a trip to the Jewish Children’s Museum that opened last year. Well, the weather is getting warmer …

In front of the Times Square subway station
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Let’s welcome Moshiach with acts of goodness & kindness
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Step up to the Mitzvah Tank
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Parked on 42nd Street
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Boys with boxes of hand-made matzoh
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Wikipedia: Mitzvah Tank
Gothamist: Mitzvah Tank Invasion
Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters
Passover
Beit Chabad: Pesach
Tank Parade

The Wearin’ o’ the Green

On March 16 the city was battered by a fierce blizzard and an ice storm. Trains and flights were cancelled, drivers skidded and slid off the roads and pedestrians ran to the nearest store, stocked up on bread and milk, then scurried home and locked their doors.

But for those who wait all year for the wearin’ o’ the green, winter’s last gasp was a mere inconvenience; nothing could stop the 246th New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade. This is the city’s largest and most popular parade, typically drawing 2 million spectators and 150,000 marchers.

In New York the tradition is older than the nation; our first St. Patrick’s Day Parade was organized by Irish soldiers serving in His Majesty’s service more than 10 years before the Declaration of Independence was drafted.

The St Patrick’s Day Parade is one of the few that allow no cars, floats, trucks or other vehicles; anyone who wants to participate goes up Fifth Avenue, from 44th Street to 86th Street, on foot.

So, despite the day-long storm that nearly brought the city to a halt, city sanitation crews worked throughout the night to clear the route of ice and snow for today’s big parade. Other municipal agencies were busy, too, as subway and railroad schedules were adjusted to accommodate parade goers, the surrounding streets closed and barriers erected along the parade route.

The weather prevented the work crews from painting the traditional green stripe down the middle of the street, but everything else was as usual. Pipers and marching bands from around the country (and a few from the auld sod) nervously fingered their instruments. Firefighters and police officers assembled in their full dress uniforms. Souvenir vendors loaded themselves up with green balloons, green hats, green beads, shamrock stickers, Irish flags and badges saying “VIP: Very Irish Person” and “Kiss Me, I’m Irish.”

At the stroke of 11:00 the parade began, and it didn’t end until about 4:30, when the last red-headed, green-shirted boy giddily heard the applause as he crossed 86th Street. I hope your St. Patrick’s Day was as happy and exciting as his.

A lamppost on Fifth Avenue
Originally uploaded by annulla.

The last boy across 86th Street
Originally uploaded by annulla.

A green tie and a special cap
Originally uploaded by annulla.

The Buena Colts Marching Band from Arizona
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Wearing a green beret
Originally uploaded by annulla.

An experienced piper
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Banner of the Glasgow Celtic Supporters
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Father & daughter marched together
Originally uploaded by annulla.

A visitor from Vermont
Originally uploaded by annulla.

You don’t have to be Irish
Originally uploaded by annulla.

A marcher from New Jersey
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Displaying his faith
Originally uploaded by annulla.

His mother comes from Kerry
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Official St. Patrick’s Day Parade Web Site
SaintPatricksDayParade.com
Emigrant Online
Irish Echo
Irish Dirt

A Trip to the Jewish Museum

After thoughtful consultation by the Museum’s Trustees and management, and with the endorsement and support of The Jewish Theological Seminary of America, we embarked upon the experiment of opening the exhibition galleries on Saturdays, on a trial basis, [from May 12] through September 16, 2006. In observance of the Jewish Sabbath, Saturday admission is free, the shops and café are closed, and interactive electronics are not available. We are wholly committed to providing an educational and contemplative experience in a way that respects and honors the Sabbath spirit.

It isn’t the biggest museum in the city, nor the most famous, nor the site of the biggest, splashiest exhibitions. It doesn’t have the best-known collection, make headlines with controversial shows or plaster the city with racy posters, so even though it is located on Fifth Avenue’s Museum Mile, many people never think about walking through the doors of the Jewish Museum.

Recently, the museum’s directors have taken a few steps to increase the number of visitors, including remaining open on Saturdays, offering free admission on Saturday (adult admission is usually $12), and hosting exhibits featuring well-known artists and popular culture. (Note to management: allowing visitors to use cameras would be a nice next step.)

I took advantage of the free Saturday policy to see the current shows as well as a permanent display, Culture & Continuity: The Jewish Journey. The exhibit consists of a series of videos, playing continuously on a row of televisions, which reflect five themes from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: A time to be born and a time to die; a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance; a time to love and a time to hate; a time of war and a time for peace.

Masters of American Comics
September 15, 2006 - January 28, 2007
Originally exhibited in Los Angeles, this show, the first major museum examination of one of America’s most popular forms of art, was split into two sections when it came East: comic strips from the first half of the 20th century went to the Newark Museum while comic books from the 1950s and later were exhibited at the Jewish Museum.

Superheroes: Good and Evil in American Comics
September 15, 2006 - January 28, 2007
Superheroes examines how, in the 1930s and 1940s, young artists and writers (many of them Jewish immigrants who had suffered as victims of oppression) created a new comic book genre—the superhero. This superb exhibit shows how these innovators melded characters from Greek mythology and biblical narratives with the immigrant experience of America to create superheroes: personages who, while seeming to be ordinary people, were actually powerful figures dedicated to fighting for “truth, justice and the American way.”

Light x Eight: The Hanukkah Project
November 25, 2006 - February 04, 2007
In honor of Hanukkah, the Jewish feast of lights, the show features the work of eight contemporary artists exploring lights’s ability to change in form, appearance and structure.

Alex Katz Paints Ada
October 27, 2006 - March 18, 2007
Prominent Brooklyn-born painter Alex Katz has spent most of his career depicting a single subject, his wife, model Ada del Moro. The show includes 40 paintings Katz created between 1957 to 2005, all of them featuring Ada. According to a sign posted at the exhibit, “Ada’s sense of style is timeless and unassuming and she … has a knack for wearing outfits that would make anyone else look dowdy.”

From Light x 8: Alyson Shotz’s Coalescence
Originally uploaded by annulla.

From Light x 8: Teresita Fernández’s Vermillion Fragment
Originally uploaded by annulla.

From Masters: Devil Dinosaur
Originally uploaded by annulla.

From Masters: Chris Ware’s Superman Suicide
Originally uploaded by annulla.

From Superheroes: Will Eisner drawing with corrections
Originally uploaded by annulla.

From Superheroes: Will Eisner’s The Spirit
Originally uploaded by annulla.

Zap Comics #1 by R. Crumb
Originally uploaded by annulla.

From Alex Katz: Black Scarf
Originally uploaded by annulla.

From Alex Katz: Ada Ada
Originally uploaded by annulla.

NY Times: Masters of American Comics
The Jewish Museum: Masters of American Comics
The Jewish Museum: Superheroes
The Jewish Museum: Light x Eight: The Hanukkah Project
The Jewish Museum: Alex Katz Paints Ada
The Jewish Museum
Museum’s Exhibition Galleries To Open On Saturdays

Don’t Knock, Shout

Today this sign was posted on the front doors of the Iglesia Antioquia, a Pentecostal church on Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue.

Sign on church door  

Christmas Fair at “Little Denmark in the Big Apple”

Housed in a landmark brownstone in historic Brooklyn Heights, the Danish Seamen’s Church is both a house of worship and cultural center for New York’s Danish community.

The church, which was founded in 1878 by Danish minister Rasmus Andersen, has been in its current location for nearly half a century. This Lutheran congregation’s name comes from one of the church’s primary missions: caring for the thousands of Danish seafarers who come to New York each year. Model ships are displayed in the chapel; an engraved brass ship’s bell is near the door.

This is the only church the Americas where Danish-language church services are held every Sunday. In addition, the congregation, which refers to itself as “Little Denmark in the Big Apple,” supports a variety of clubs and activities, offers Danish lessons and hosts visiting Danish politicians, musicians, artists and celebrities.

The biggest event on the church’s calendar is the annual two-day Christmas Fair, which draws such a large crowd that the greater part of the festivities are held a block away at the neighboring Zion German Evangelical Lutheran Church.

This year’s Fair, held November 17th and 18th, included Danish Christmas ornaments, arts, crafts, products, food and drink. This was a day to enjoy Denmark’s glorious pastry, open-faced sandwiches (smørrebrød), hot dogs, beer and babies.

Church exterior

Ship’s bell inside the sanctuary

Girl on the stairway

Girl in striped top

Baby in red fleece

Baby tooth

Brothers

Danish hot dogs

Danish Seamen’s Church

Zion German Evangelical Lutheran Church

Danish Seaman’s Church Festival

Mysteries of Brooklyn: The Hidden Grotto

Dere’s no guy livin’ dat knows Brooklyn t’roo an’ t’roo, because it’d take a guy a lifetime just to find his way aroun’ duh f_____ town.
– Thomas Wolfe, Only the Dead Know Brooklyn, 1935

At the mouth of the alley near the corner of 43rd Street and 8th Avenue, between the bar and the plumbing supply store, stands a tall iron gate. Affixed to the front are two signs: the white one says that a garage is available for rent; the yellow sign proclaims in English and Chinese that behind this gate is a private driveway; violaters will be tow and ticket [sic].

Peeking past the iron bars of gate, beyond the partially-disassembled cars and the tools strewn about the ground, a passer-by can glimpse something that seems out of place — a flash of color out of keeping with this dirty, gray, shadowed space.

If the workmen are in a good mood they’ll allow you to pick your way through the mazes of tires, wrenches and hoses until you reach the back wall. There you will find a grotto roughly hewn from wood, plaster and pieces of broken stone. The person who built this wasn’t a skilled craftsman, didn’t know how to use a lathe or a level, didn’t know how to move the electrical outlets that were already laid onto the surface.

But at some point, an unknown person, for unknown reasons, felt compelled to build this grotto in this very spot. Driven by passion or madness, he or she carefully built a series of niches, firmly fixed statues of saints inside them and painted the entire creation.

Today, the men who labor here know nothing of the hidden grotto, its creator or its meaning. The plaster is crumbling. The paint flakes from the wood. St. Gabriel’s wing is broken; St. Joseph’s robe is chipped; Mary’s blue mantle is marked with patches of gray. But still they stand here, long forgotten, silently keeping watch over the workers and cars. Just another of Brooklyn’s many mysteries.

The hidden grotto

Madonna with electrical outlet

Planting a Hope

He who plants a tree
Plants a hope.
~Lucy Larcom

On April 15, 1995, terrorists attacked the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The structure was destroyed and 168 people killed, many of them young children.

Against all odds, an ancient elm tree growing near the building survived the blast. After the horror and wreckage was cleared away, fragile new growth emerged from its blackened, wounded branches. Those affected by the attack called it the Survivor Tree and it quickly became seen as a symbol of hope and resilience. Seeds from the tree were carefully gathered and planted; representatives from Oklahoma City brought one of the resulting trees to New York City.

Today, speakers representing several faiths gathered near City Hall and described what the tree meant within their own traditions and beliefs. Then they — and survivors of the attacks on the Murrah Building and the World Trade Center — gently placed shovels full of earth around the young tree meant to symbolize healing and unity.

The sapling from the Survivor Tree joins five trees, already moved to this spot, that lived through the attack on the World Trade Center. These six trees, survivors all, form a living memorial grove, a small pocket of faith and hope, at the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Ven. C. Chen, American Buddhist Confederation

Rev. Julie Taylor, Disaster Chaplaincy Services

Rabinder Singh, United Sikhs

Mohammad Ravzi, Council of Peoples Organization

Rabbi Craig Miller, Jewish Community Relations Council

Victoria Ramsey, Union Theological Seminary

Antonio Mondesire, Awo Ifa Olo-Obatala

The littlest tree planter

Akiva & Co. playing

Oklahoma City National Memorial: Survivor Tree

WTC Survivors Network

American Buddhist Study Center

United Sikhs

Disaster Chaplaincy Services

Union Theological Seminary

Lucy Larcom

The Gardens of Carroll

Most of the brownstone row houses in Carroll Gardens were built in the late 1800s, shortly after the American Civil War. The oldest homes in this section of Brooklyn have large, deep front yards, allowing their residents to enjoy an aspect of outdoor living rare for New Yorkers — the ability to create distinctive stoopside gardens, many of them featuring statuary, arbors, grottoes, plaques and fountains.

St. Maria Addolorata at Court & 4th Place  

St. Joseph on 1st Place  

The grass withers and the flower fades

Fountain and pots of hostas

St. Lucy in memory of Tuddy Balsamo  

Back gate to Mazzone Hardware on Court St.  

Garden diva hard at work  

My secret garden: Don’t tell nobody!  

Geese and ADT Security sign  

Statue, hostas and coleus  

With red rosary beads on 1st Place  

South Brooklyn Network: Carroll Gardens

New York Magazine: Neighborhood Profile

Brooklyn Now: BoCoCa Guide

Borough Park: Part Deux

Borough Park is a neighborhood largely shaped and defined by its large population of Hassidic Jews. Last spring I visited on a Friday afternoon when the area’s businesses shut down to prepare for Shabbos, the Jewish Sabbath (see Erev Shabbos in Borough Park).

In sharp contrast to the stillness and quiet found here at Shabbos, during the business week Borough Park is bustling. The busiest street, 13th Avenue, is lined with hundreds of mom-and-pop shops and restaurants. It doesn’t take many mothers pushing strollers to fill the aisles of these small stores, so on a sunny day most of the shopkeepers move racks, tables and boxes of merchandise outdoors. Their sidewalk displays serve to both promote the business and make more room inside. Everything from earrings to suitcases to toys can be purchased curb-side, giving the district the air of a gigantic stoop sale.

The prices aren’t far above those of a stoop sale, either. While some stores cater to the needs the religious community, dozens of places offer deep discounts on designer and name-brand goods, particularly women and children’s shoes and clothing. Buy a few items and be prepared to be offered a discount — or just ask for one. In addition to shopping, Borough Park is a great place to practice your bargaining skills.

Kosher pizza guys

Strolling near 48th Street

Three mommies on 13th Avenue

Yakub’s Shoe Repair

S&W Ladies Wear

At the corner of 13th Avenue and 44th Street

Stationery - Cigars

Klein’s real kosher ice cream truck

Newsstand on 13th Avenue

Rack of dresses displayed on sidewalk

Towels for sale

Old man on 39th Street

Mother and daughter running errands

Sign in window of butcher store

Join us for dinner. Gas is on us.

Wikipedia: Borough Park

Village Voice: Close-Up on Borough Park

Boychiks in the Hood: Travels in the Hasidic Underground

Etude: At Work in the Fields of the Lord

Baal Shem Tov Foundation

Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Block Party

This section of the Lower East Side, Eldridge Street between Canal and Division, was once the home of a thriving community of Eastern European Jews. In 1887, they constructed the jewel of their block - the Eldridge Street Synagogue, an imposing Moorish-style building with a vaulted ceiling, stained glass windows, ornate brass fixtures, hand-painted murals and a velvet-lined ark.

Over time, the center of New York Jewish life moved elsewhere and the area began to fill with immigrants from other areas, primarily China. The Synagogue’s congregation dwindled, the operating budget became smaller and the building fell into disrepair. As a tiny group of worshippers hung on, the roof caved in, the walls crumbled and the entire structure neared collapse. Then, in the late 1980s, historians and community activitists “discovered” the building and formed the Eldridge Street Project, Inc., determined to restore and preserve this landmark.

Today, with the restoration project well underway, the Eldridge Street Project is sponsoring the 4th Annual Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Block Party. This unique event celebrates the evolving culture and traditions of this densely-packed community with nods to both its Jewish heritage and its Chinese present.

The block party features the language, arts, music, dance and foods of both cultures, including mah jong lessons, a Chinese calligrapher and a Jewish scribe, arts and crafts, performances in Yiddish and Chinese, and, of course, delicious home made kosher egg rolls (a fried variation of the classic Chinese spring roll which contains no egg) and egg creams (a traditional New York soda fountain drink which contains no egg).

How to Make an Egg Cream according to Fox’s U-Bet Chocolate Syrup

1. Take a tall, chilled, straight-sided, 8 oz. glass.
2. Spoon 1 inch of U-Bet Chocolate Syrup into glass.
3. Add 1 inch whole milk.
4. Tilt the glass and spray seltzer (from a pressurized cylinder only) off a spoon to make a big chocolate head.
5. Stir, drink, enjoy.

Making egg creams for an eager crowd

Master egg cream maker

Mah jong on the sidewalk

Calligrapher, scribe and the tools of their trades

Restoration in progress

Selling kosher eggrolls

The yarmulke is a present for Daddy

Her first yarmulke; she made it herself

Eldridge Street Project

Eldridge Street synagogue Tour

New York Architecture: Eldridge Street Synagogue

Fox’s U-Bet Chocolate Syrup

Erev Shabbos in Borough Park

This is a sunny day in one of the world’s largest cities. It isn’t a legal holiday; there isn’t an emergency; the authorities haven’t evacuated the neighborhood. Yet the shops are shuttered, the businesses are closed and the streets are empty of traffic.

Question: What is going on and where is everybody?

Answer: It’s just another Friday afternoon in Borough Park.

Borough Park (also spelled Boro Park), a somewhat run-down, working-class area of Brooklyn, is home to one of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities in the world. Many of the residents here follow the teachings of Yisrael Ben Eliezer, known as The Baal Shem Tov (The Master of the Good Name).

The Baal Shem Tov, who died in the Ukraine in 1760, was the founder of the Hassidic Jewish movement. He taught that God is best served and worshipped through singing and dancing, and instructed his followers to meditate, so they could connect with the “holy sparks of the Glory of God” that dwell in “all that is in the world.”

The male followers of The Baal Shem Tov are easily recognized by their distinctive appearance. Bearded, they wear garments modeled after those of their spiritual leader, including a beskeshe (a suit with long tailored jacket), a fringed prayer shawl called a tallit or talles, a skullcap known as a kippah or yarmulke and, on Shabbos and other holidays, a circular fur hat called a shtreimel. Hasidic women can dress in mainstream styles but are limited to suitably modest items. They are free to wear makeup, jewelry and other fashionable adornments, but once married, the women cover their hair with wigs, scarves or hats.

While they have always considered children a blessing, many modern Hasidim are committed to having as many children as possible, believing that they must replace the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Consequently, the neighborhood has the highest birth rate in the city.

On Friday afternoon, around 2:00 p.m., the entire neighborhood shuts down, allowing the Hasidim to go home and prepare for Shabbos, the Jewish Sabbath. It is Erev Shabbos (the evening the Sabbath begins), when, dressed in their finest garb, large families hurry through the streets to the services where they welcome their day of rest. Come Sunday morning, the normal workweek will resume; the restaurants and stores will open again, the sidewalks will overflow with bustling shoppers and the streets will be filled with roaring, honking traffic.

Posters on a lamppost

Sign on a construction site.

Holding his shtreimel and tallit (talles)

Retrieving a curious (and fast-moving) toddler

A chubby little scholar

Taking a break

Mazel Tov Bubbies & Mommies - ad on a 13th Avenue bus shelter

Kosher Submarine, locked until Sunday

A yeshiva school bus stands empty

A family of seven (one inside Mom)

No place to spend a dime

A row of shuttered stores

Sisters in matching dresses

The main street of Borough Park, 13th Avenue, at 2:30 p.m.

Not a soul in sight on New Utrecht Avenue

Nothing in this direction, either

Wikipedia: Borough Park

Village Voice: Close-Up on Borough Park

Boychiks in the Hood: Travels in the Hasidic Underground

Etude: At Work in the Fields of the Lord

Baal Shem Tov Foundation

Welcome Aboard the Sukkah Mobile

Sukkot (also spelled Succoth or Sukkos) is a Jewish harvest festival that generally occurs in late October. One of the happiest events on the Jewish calendar, it is commonly known as “the Season of our Rejoicing.”

Sukkot commemorates the end of the 40 year period that Moses and his followers wandered in the desert and lived in temporary shelters. The word “Sukkot” is the plural of “sukkah,” which means “huts” or “booths.”

During the seven days of the festival, Jews are commanded to dwell in sukkot. Since few live in climates that allow them to sleep outside in October, most fulfill the requirement to “dwell” in a sukkah by eating all their meals there.

Generally, building the sukkah is a family project; once the structure is in place, the kids help decorate it with fruits and flowers of the season including dried squash, stalks of corn, bunches of grapes, painted pumpkins and branches laden with berries.

Another commandment involving Sukkot features what are known as the Four Species: a citron (known in Hebrew as etrog), a palm branch, two willow branches and three myrtle branches. The branches are bound together and called a “lulav.” The observant face East, hold the lulav and etrog, recite a blessing, then wave them East, South, West, North, up and down.

For those who can’t dwell in a sukkah, or shake the lulav and esrog on their own, the Chabad Lubavith has set up a mobile sukkah and it driving it through the streets of Brooklyn. Today it was parked downtown, near Borough Hall.

The curious and the pious were welcomed into the wooden hut on the back of a truck, where volunteers placed the Four Species in their hands. If the visitors didn’t know the proper blessing, they were prompted and if they didn’t know what to do with the Four Species, they were shown.

The Sukkah Mobile on Court Street

Borough Hall in the background  

Young volunteers display the lulav and esrog  

Judaism 101: Sukkot
Chabad-Lubavitch
Sukkot
CrownHeightsInfo: A Sukkah Mobile in London
DailyIllini: Jewish students celebrate