Borough Park, Brooklyn

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Coordinates: 40.6335°′N 73.9929°′W

Borough Park (usually spelled by its residents Boro Park), is a neighborhood in the southwestern part of the borough of Brooklyn, in New York City in the United States.

Borough Park is home to one of the largest Orthodox Jewish communities outside of Israel. With an estimated Jewish population that may be as high as 250,000 Jews, which includes many hasidic and chareidi Jews.^[1] It has one of the largest concentrations of Jews in the United States and is among the most Orthodox neighborhoods in the world.

Borough Park is home to many Hasidic groups with the largest being the Hasidic communities of Bobov; as well as large numbers of chasidim of Belz, Ger, Satmar, Stolin, Vizhnitz, Munkacz, Spinka, Puppa and many others. It is also home to many hareidi non-Hasidic or Lithuanian Jews, with a smaller number of Modern Orthodox Jews.

Its "heart" lies between 12th and 18th Avenues and 40th and 62nd Streets.^[2]

Contents 1 Neighborhood Transformation 1.1 Population growth 1.2 Business development 2 Education 3 Religion and politics 3.1 Religious observances 3.2 Bobov 4 Police and security 5 References

[edit] Neighborhood Transformation

The neighborhood has made many transformations in the recent decades. Demographically, it has changed from a largely diverse neighborhood of Italian, Irish, and modern Jewish families to an enclave of Hasidic Jewish families. These families, which tend to have several children, often require larger homes, and this has fueled construction and renovation projects across the neighborhood. The vast majority of these projects involve larger bedrooms and kitchens. Since 1990, the Building Department has issued more permits for private construction projects - new homes and additions - in the Borough Park area than in any other residential neighborhood in Brooklyn."^[2] These construction projects were aided with a new law in 1992, which established Borough Park as a special zoning district where residents could build on 65% of their lot. This reduced the size of setbacks and backyards tremendously.

[edit] Population growth

Borough Park has been described as being the "baby boom capital" of New York City, because of its high birth rate. The neighborhood recorded 4,523 births in 2004,^[3] the highest in the city. The closest area in Brooklyn in population growth was in Williamsburg, home to many Satmar Hasidim, which reported 3,839 births. Borough Park's birth rate, 24.4 per 1,000 residents has translated into major growth in the neighborhood.

[edit] Business development

Stores and businesses are currently expanding and gaining economically. The 13th Avenue shopping district, a shopping strip roughly one mile in length from 39th street to about 55th street, is packed with many storefronts to supply Jewish households. Many Hasidic Jews shop at these stores, coming from all parts of the city, other parts of the country and from other countries. Their increase in profits and business is attributed to the use of entrepreneurial spirit among their storeowners, the increasing density of the Hasidic population in Borough Park, and the Internet.^[4]

The community has achieved global renown among Hasidic Jews for its shopping and attractions. In 1999, a 52-room kosher hotel called “The Avenue Plaza Hotel” opened on 13th Avenue, thus becoming the first hotel to rise in Borough Park in more than a decade. It is now a popular attraction for visitors to New York City and is among a very few that can accommodate the needs of many Hasidim.

Through its expansion, it has become among the most economically active and expanding Jewish communities in the world^{[citation needed]}. The major banks, JP Morgan Chase, Citibank and HSBC have had local branches for decades. A booming economy has brought in others including Apple, North Fork, Park Avenue, Washington Mutual, Sovereign Bank, Berkshire, and Commerce Bank. Charles J. Hamm, the chairman, president, and CEO of Independence Community Bank commented on how incredible his banks have grown in Borough Park: “We went from zero deposits to more than $350 million in these two branches,” he said, adding that the average branch has around $110 million in deposits. He attributed its large economic activity to its large population of merchants and the huge number of shopping attractions available.

[edit] Education

The New York City Department of Education operates Borough Park's public schools.

Virtually all of the large population of school-children born into Borough Park's Hasidic families, attend local yeshivas for boys and Bais Yaakov-type schools for girls. This has led to a public school population drain for local schools, such as Montauk Intermediate School. Most recently, the New York City Department of Education hoped to take advantage of the empty space and construct a small school, called the Kingsborough Early College School inside Montauk. ^[5] The Hasidic community was not pleased by the prospect of a new public school and protested the decision. The Community Educational Council heard these complaints and decided against expanding its public school system.

Many of the elementary schools have had mixed results from this student drain. For example, Public School 164 in Borough Park "...is at only 89 percent of capacity because many children in the community attend yeshivas. Classes are small, the hallways quiet, the principal and assistant principal know every student by name."^[6] Subsequently, the percentage of children reading at or above the grade level has increased to 55% in 2004 from 40% in 1998 in an otherwise unchanged school.

[edit] Religion and politics

In Brooklyn, about 37% of Jews consider themselves Orthodox,^[7] and Boro Park is often referred to as the "heartland" or "home" for New York's Orthodox Jewish population^{[citation needed]}. The neighborhood became largely Orthodox in the last 40 years, however, transforming from "suburb to shtetl" as the sociologist Egon Mayer described it.

During much of the early 1900s, the Jewish population in Borough Park, and Brooklyn as a whole, was part of a much more liberal-leaning voting block. However, many of these early Jewish families moved to the suburbs or other places around the city while more conservative Hasidic Jews (many of them survivors of the Holocaust and immigrant families from Eastern Europe) joined their neighborhoods. As a result, the overwhelming majority of the Hasidic population in Borough Park and Brooklyn introduced a more traditional Jewish religious lifestyle. A 2002 study by the UJA Federation-New York revealed that only 2% of Borough Park's Jews identified themselves as Reform Jews and nearly three-fourths identified themselves as Orthodox Jews. ^[8]

The neighborhood is mostly Haredi, and identifying a person as a "rabbi" is not considered unusual.

[edit] Religious observances

The Hasidic population adheres strongly to halakha ("Jewish law") and the Shulkhan Arukh ("Code of Jewish Law") based on the Torah following many strict Judaic laws in their daily lives. There are many Hasidic rebbes as well as many rabbinical personalities with their own synagogues and followings. The neighborhoods in which the Haredi communities live are connected by an Eruv which enables those who accept it to carry items outside of their homes on the Shabbat, an activity which is halakhically forbidden without an Eruv. Saturday is the Shabbat, a day of rest, which is strictly observed to the full extent of halakha, by most members of the community. In some areas a siren is sounded on Friday before sundown to indicate the arrival of the Shabbat.

Culturally and religiously, the neighborhood is considered one of the most Orthodox in the world. "Many families do not own televisions or attend movies. The children attend yeshivas instead of public schools. Adolescent girls do not leave the house without making certain that their knees and elbows are covered, and at weddings and funerals alike, women and men sit separately to avoid physical contact, as required by religious law."^[9]

Many stores in Borough Park sell or prepare kosher food made under rabbinical supervision.

There was a large controversy surrounding the erection of an eruv in Borough Park, because of differing interpretations of the application of Jewish law. In the 1950s, recent Jewish immigrants, mostly Hasidim, from Poland and Hungary began to expand their presence. These Hasidim, who populate most of the neighborhood today, brought their own traditions and religious customs to Borough Park. The eruv, which was used to network Orthodox families in many places of Eastern Europe for a long time, was originally challenged by the older Jewish community. Lithuanian Jews, who settled in Borough Park beginning around 1910, saw it as a move of religious liberalism. However, over time, the Hasidim grew reaching roughly 85% in 2000.^[10] After some debate, the eruv was constructed to link the community, circumventing the Shabbat prohibition of carrying necessary items. It was built in 1999-2000 and has remained an enormous network, numbering about 225 blocks in Borough Park. Its use is still the subject of controversy.

[edit] Bobov

Main article: Bobov (Hasidic dynasty)

Borough Park is the headquarters of Hasidic Judaism's large Bobov community, numbering roughly between 1,800 to 2,000 families,^[11] It is one of Brooklyn's largest Hasidic communities and has followers in Canada, England, Belgium and Israel.

In 2005, the Bobover Rebbe, Rabbi Naftali Zvi Halberstam died, and Bobov split between his son-in-law, Rabbi Mordechai Dovid Unger, and his half-brother Rabbi Ben Zion Aryeh Leibish Halberstam. Rabbi Ben Zion is presently Rabbi in the main synagogue on 48 Street and is referred to as "Bobov 48", while Rabbi Mordechai Dovid's temporary synagogue is located in the Bais Yaakov building on 45th Street and is referred to as "Bobov 45th".

[edit] Police and security

The Hasidic community has developed a network of residents to handle emergencies in the neighborhood. Hatzolah is a volunteer ambulance group composed of emergency medical technicians and paramedics. The Hasidic community has been able to form close ties with the local authorities, leading to sometimes close, but often fragile relationship.

[edit] References

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