Readers Report
"467 Ashford Street"
In postwar (WWII) East New York, Brooklyn, I grew up in the "Greenar" neighborhood that was the shadow of the famous Brownsville.
Home to a large population of Holocaust survivors, hardworking family oriented and an amazingly energetic, East New York was a bustling town with outdoor shopping plazas (pushcarts on Blake Avenue), boutiques of all types (dry goods and shoe stores) and culinary delights to suit everyone's taste: delis, bakeries—pickle stores too!
The street I grew up on and the neighborhood of my earliest memories was Ashford Street between Blake and Sutter Avenues on the side of the street where the Big Shul was. My house was number 467—467 Ashford Street, next to the school which was next to the Big Shul. Mine was a 6-family tenement: I lived on the first floor in the back in a 4-room apartment with cross ventilation. We had a bathroom in the apartment and the bathtub was in the bathroom. This was a major step up from our apartment on Blake Avenue above the fish store. We didn't own the building; we were tenants. My world had limits: I couldn't ever go off my street alone and without permission. I longed for the day when I could someday go afar and be somewhere I didn't know every inch of the territory. I watched the summer sky pass from the rooftop beach we sunbathed on and wondered what the rest of the worlds was like—the fantasy of travel and strange lands . . .
3 September 1997
I am looking for information regarding my grandfather, Rabbi Simon J. Finkelstein, who was the Rabbi of Oheb Shalom until his death in 1947. Anything you can tell me would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
3 September 1997
I am just curious... My great grandfather built a home at 1318 President Street in Brooklyn which still stands. Is this the neighborhood in which you live? I believe it is Crown Heights. If so, could you tell me about the neighborhood now? (I occasionally think about one day purchasing the "family house" again but know nothing about the area.)
Thanks.
5 September 1997
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