This
article appeared in the May 20, 2005 Jewish
Advocate.
Judaism
blooms in the Evergreen Garden City
By
Susie Davidson
Advocate
Correspondent
On the
bottom floor of Hebrew SeniorLifeÕs Hebrew Rehabilitation Center in Roslindale,
murals depict a community many residents once called home. Scenes of Blue Hill
Avenue, which include the Martin Theatre, the G&G Deli, the Prime Kosher
Market, Blue Hill Credit Union, and Waldman Candies, recall the 1930s, 40s, and
50s. The Blue Hill Avenue Memory Board and Web sites also keep their memories
alive.
At the
Newton History Museum, the Newton Historical SocietyÕs library and materials
present another panorama of pioneering settlers and abolitionist leaders at the
Jackson Homestead, a former Underground Railroad stop at 527 Washington St. In
this welcoming and diverse community, many Jews found their post-Mattapan
homes.
Settled
as a part of Watertown in 1630, Newton became known as Cambridge Village in
1688, was renamed Newtown in 1691 and Newton in 1766. It became a city in 1873.
The 2000 census lists its population at 83,829. In 2003, FBI crime statistics
helped deem Newton the nationÕs safest city.
Its 12
villages and neighborhoods have distinct characters and histories.
Stagecoaches, followed in 1834 by the railroad, and mills and factories aided
the development of Newton Corner and Nonantum. A sawmill created in 1688 on the
Charles River helped establish Newton Upper Falls. A gristmill and two major
roadways further down the river spurred other mills and the first post office
(1813) in Newton Lower Falls. Though a 1712 town hall meeting house at Centre
and Homer streets was moved to ÒWest Newton SquareÓ in 1849, Newton Centre
remains the heart of town. In 1834, the Boston and Worcester Railroad and the
1844 commuter rail helped establish Newtonville and Auburndale. In 1821, Joseph
Lee bequested 165 acres he had bought from the Hammond family. Roadwork in 1850
and the Charles River Railroad in 1852 made the area accessible. His hiers
named it Chestnut Hill. Newton Highlands, and to the south, Oak Hill, which was
largely wet-meadowland that was later drained, evolved around an 1852 Charles
River Railroad extension. Westward extensions of Beacon Street in 1855 and the
Boston and Albany Railroad in 1886 fueled the growth of Waban, named for the
old village of Waban and the Praying Indian.
Like
most areas Jews have historically migrated to, Newton was a destination
preceded by others. At the turn of the century, Jews mixed with Italians in
BostonÕs North End. By 1910, according to Gerald Gamm, who authored ÒUrban
Exodus: Why the Jews Left Boston and the Catholics StayedÓ (Harvard University
Press), there were 80,000 Jews in Boston and seven Yiddish newspapers. (This
newspaper had been founded in 1905 as well.) But the 1920s found the Jewish
population out of the North End and into the triple-deckers of Roxbury,
Dorchester, and Mattapan. For 50 years, Blue Hill Avenue was the focal point of
Jewish Boston.
In the
late 1940s, the Jewish population was moving from the West and North Ends, East
Boston and Chelsea to Roxbury, Dorchester, Brookline and Newton, and in the
1960s, to the suburbs, due to the infamous low-interest loan program targeted
to African-Americans.
The
turbulence of late 1960s-early 1970s Mattapan definitively ended that Jewish
era. Jews left behind and donated their community centers, grand buildings and
store facades, now filled with empty memories of the the vibrant community
centered around Blue Hill Avenue, the likes of which has never been replaced in
the Boston area.
A CJP
demographic survey documents the Jewish population in 1965 at 176,000, 208,000
including North Shore and western suburbs. Younger Jews were in south suburbs,
Brookline and Brighton, Newton and Wellesley, Framingham and Natick. The 1975
study revealed only 195,000 Jews in the overall geographic area, 165,000 in CJP
communities. The CJP began building facilities in the western suburbs, a
decision that was not without controversy. In 1979, a Jewish Community Campus
site was purchased in Newton, and in 1983, CJP's Gosman Campus and
Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center opened there.
Congregation
Agudas Achim Anshei Sfard (the Adams Street Shul), was founded in Nonantum as
the first synagogue in Newton by American Jewish immigrants in 1911. Its
orthodox congregation continues to welcome all to 168 Adams St., a registered
historic site. Today, it is the third oldest synagogue in New England.
According
to Shul records, Jews fleeing Eastern European pogroms arrived in Nonantum in
the late 1800s in the first wave of immigration. Jews from Russia, the Ukraine
and the former Austro-Hungarian Empire fled to New York and New England. (The
pogrom era itself succeeded a perilous time for Jews in Tzarist Russia, who were
relegated to ÒThe Pale of Settlement,Ó mainly now Ukraine.)
Newly-introduced
commuter trains and electric streetcars made for a quick five-mile journey from
Boston to Newton. In 1646, the General Court chose the name Nonantum, which
means Òrejoicing,Ó for Òthe village for the Praying Indians,Ó established by
the Reverend John Eliot in 1646. The neighborhood was called North Village
until The Nonantum Worsted Company set up in 1880.
Joining
its Irish, French Canadian and Italian immigrants were Jews, many of whom had
lived elsewhere in New England, and knew or were related to one another. Many
became Òjunkers,Ó self-employed peddlers who took the Sabbath off. The trolley
line to the then-Jewish North End also allowed them to get kosher groceries.
Nonantum had become NewtonÕs most densely populated area by 1895, and by 1901,
half of NewtonÕs Jewish families lived there. The peddlers eventual retail
operations enjoyed a warm relationship with the community. SwartzÕ Hardware
store, run by the same family, and FoxÕs Pharmacy are still in operation.
The
all-volunteer shul opened for Chanukah of 1912, but its mortgage was not paid
off until after World War II. Its largest initial benefactors were New York
millionaire Jacob Shiff and two local non-Jews, the doctor and the mayor. The
hall they had occasionally rented is today the Nonantum BoysÕ Club, which
donated its 48-star flag to the Shul in the 1990s.
Other
Newton synagogues are listed below.
ÒMy
Jewish Newton experience was rather overwhelming,Ó says Rosian Zerner, who is
the Vice-President of the World Federation of Jewish Child Survivors of the
Holocaust and runs a German-Jewish dialogue group. ÒNot in the religious sense,
but in the ethnic and family sense.Ó When her family arrived in America, they
came to Newton because her mother's uncle had come over in the mid-late 19th
century. His five children also had many children. ÒSo we came from no family
at all (over 40 family members were murdered during the Holocaust) to this huge
enclave of Harvard/Radcliffe Jewish Brahmins who had done the typical Chelsea,
Dorchester, Newton upward mobile route.Ó Every day was a birthday, an
anniversary, or some other event. ÒFriends were called Ôthe kibbutz,Õ and it
was truly a warm and loving community,Ó she says. The extended group was
largely secular and blended well with the Newton community, though Zerner notes
a newer trend toward Jewish observance.
ÒI see
Jews seeking each other out for community, for validation, for finding
religious and other roots. Passover is now the holiday with most meaning for me
because so many of freedoms that were taken for granted are endangered again.Ó
Jamie
Stolper is President of ShalomBoston.com and a third generation Newton resident
comfortably ensconsed in the city. ÒMy grandparents were among the original
members of Temple Emanuel in Newton, our family has been associated with the
Adams Street Shul, and my mother was the first graduate of the Hornstein
Program at Brandeis,Ó she says. She attended Temple EmanuelÕs Hebrew school and
Prozdor Community High School. She holds a bachelorÕs from M.I.T., a masterÕs from its Sloan School of
Management, and a BachelorÕs of Hebrew Literature from Hebrew College, where
she was the valedictorian. She studied at Hebrew University in Jerusalem for a
year, has taught at Temple Israel in Boston and at Prozdor. She settled in
Newton, where she and her husband, also a third-generation from a family active
at Temple Reyim, are raising three boys, one
of whom attended Solomon Schechter Day School. Her own Newton-based enterprise,
ShalomBoston.com, is a primary resource for the Jewish community. Cited by The Jewish Agency for Israel as
one of the best Jewish web sites worldwide, it offers a calendar of ongoing
events, searchable directories for synagogues and organizations, information
life cycle and ritual needs, food, products and services geared to all.
Kosher
establishments in Newton include the Bodavi Bakery on 551 Comm. Ave.
(617-332-2008, Gordon and Alperin Meat at 552 Comm. Ave., 617-332-4170,
Rosenfeld's Bagels at 1280 Centre St. (617-527-8080), Sweetberry Cafe and
Catering at 333 Nahanton St. (617-558-6475) and Wald's Catering at 160 Stanton
Ave. (617-965-1117). Kosher bakeries can also be found at Stop and Shop and some
Whole Foods Market locations. Cordially Yours Invitations and Calligraphy
(617-969-6048) specializes in Hebrew printing.
Israeli
Folk Dancing meets at Temple Emanuel in
Newton Centre on Sundays from 7:30-10 p.m. (Pam and Joan, 617-484-3267; jeh@netzero.net) and at Congregation Beth El
on Tuesdays from 7:30-10 p.m. (women only; Pam, 617-254-4362).
Four
Seasons Kosher operates a bed and breakfast at 15 Madoc St. (617-928-1128).
Synagogues
in Newton:
Chabad
Chestnut Hill, 163 Bellingham Rd., 617-323-2000
Chabad
Newton Centre, 49 Chase St., 617-965-1968
Congregation
Agudas Achim Anshei Sfard (Adams Street Synagogue), 168 Adams St., 617-630-0226
Congregation Beth El Atereth Israel, 561 Ward St., 617-244-7233
Congregation
Shaarei Tefillah, 35 Morseland Rd., 617-527-7637
The
Sephardic Congregation of Newton, 561 Ward St., 617-244-9643
Mishkan
Tefila, 300 Hammond Pond Pkwy., 617-332-7770
Temple
Beth Avodah, 45 Puddingstone Lane, 617-527-0045
Temple
Emanuel, 385 Ward St., 617-558-8100
Temple
Reyim, 1860 Washington St., 617-527-2410
Temple
Shalom, 175 Temple St., 617-332-9550
Congregation
Bnai Jacob, Zvhiller Beis Medrash, 955 Beacon St., 617-227-8200
Four
Newton chavurat:
Dorshei
Tzedek, 617-965-0330, dtzedek@gis.net
Newton
Centre Minyan, 617-527-2949
Progressive
Chavurah, 617-484-8466, Karen Schwartz, chavurah@kosher.com
Shir
Hadash, 617-965-6862
Schools:
Beis
Yaacov Girls High School, 561 Ward St., 617-965-2548
Gan
Yeladim, 125 Wells Ave., 617-965-1370
Hebrew
College/Prozdor, 160 Herrick Rd., 617-559-8600
Jewish
Community Day School, 25 Lenglen Rd., 617-965-5100
Solomon
Schecter Day School, K-3, 60 Stein Circle, 617-964-7765
Solomon
Schecter Day School, 4-8, 125 Wells Ave., 617-928-9100
Organizations
Aleinu
Jewish Gay Advocacy, 2150 Washington St., 617-527-2830; 617-964 8191; tisrael@shore.net.
American
Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, 617-969-8534.
American
Committee for the Weizmann Institute, 1320 Centre St., 617-965 2159;
800-242-2947
American
Jewish Historical Society, 160 Herrick Rd., Newton Centre, 617-559-8881
American
Society for the Technion, One Gateway Center, 617-964-0048
Brezniak-Rodman
Levine-Briss Funeral Directors (617-969-0800)
Bureau
of Jewish Education, 333 Nahanton St., 617-965-7350
Coed
Jewish Sports, P.O. Box 610-372, Newton, 781-453-9599
German-Jewish
Dialogue Group, meets monthly in a church in Newton Centre, 617-244-1029
Jewish
Alcoholics, Chemically Dependent and Significant Others, 333 Nahanton St.,
617-527-1888
Jewish
Big Brother/Big Sister, 333 Nahanton St., 617-965 7055
Jewish
Chamber Orchestra, 617-232-5035
Jewish
Cemetery Association of Massachusetts, 1320 Centre St., #306, Newton,
617-244-6509, jfcsbost@aol.com; 1340
Centre St., 617-965-1123
Jewish
Family and Life, 90 Oak St., 617-965-7772
Jewish
Genealogical Society of Greater Boston, Box 610366, Newton, 617-283-8003
Jewish
Theological Seminary of America, 1320 Centre St., 617-965-1490
Leventhal-Sidman
Jewish Community Center, 333 Nahanton St., 617-965-7410
Massachusetts
Board of Rabbis, 1320 Centre St., 617-244-6506; 617-964-7055 (fax);
info@synagoguecouncil.org;
National
Jewish Council for the Disabled, 617-457-8789
New Israel
Fund, 850 Boylston St., 617-734-2771
Parents
of Adult Jewish Singles, 103 Beethoven Ave., 617-332-4482
Project
Ezra, 1320 Centre St., 617-244-6506
Synagogue
Council of Massachusetts, 1320 Centre St., 617-244-6506; 617-964-7055 (fax);
info@synagoguecouncil.org;
United
Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, 1320 Centre St., 617-964-8210