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Bensonhurst was mostly Jewish before it became NYC's biggest Italian area. Some famous Jews from Bensonhurst include Larry King, Carl Sagan and Sandy Koufax.
Bensonhurst was the main reception for the second wave of Italian immigrants in the 1950s and 1960s. But their children moved to Staten Island and New Jersey and the area is now heavily Chinese and Russian.
And Arab, Pakistani, Indian!
FDR High School is minority white now, mostly above and Asian.
Yeah the German population was actually similar to the Irish population in NYC, but NYC is never thought of as a city that had a large German population.
as did hoboken. during the 1800's there were 4x more germans in the nyc area than any other immigrant group and they stayed within their own enclaves and communities, meaning they didn't interact much with other groups, spoke german in their neighborhoods, not english, all of which contributed to part of their problems post world war 1 when germans largely disappeared from nyc. there are famous germans who helped define nyc tho. john astor, george steinbrenner who bought the new york yankees, and donald trump.
germans were very much part of the fabric of nyc culture and had a unique culture within america up until the ferry accident and world war 1 and world war 2 when anti-nazi sentiments had them packing up and moving out west to PA and further. many actually changed their names to more american sounding surnames, and also many let go of their german roots and culture, intermixing with scot/dutch wasps. little do people know that there were severe anti-german sentiment at the time, and mobs who murdered germans. many germans were investigated by the US govt as spies, a period not much different than how society treats muslim-americans today.
pennsylvania currently has the largest population of those claiming german heritage. huge population in pittsburg.
as did hoboken. during the 1800's there were 4x more germans in the nyc area than any other immigrant group and they stayed within their own enclaves and communities, meaning they didn't interact much with other groups, spoke german in their neighborhoods, not english, all of which contributed to part of their problems post world war 1 when germans largely disappeared from nyc. there are famous germans who helped define nyc tho. john astor, george steinbrenner who bought the new york yankees, and donald trump.
germans were very much part of the fabric of nyc culture and had a unique culture within america up until the ferry accident and world war 1 and world war 2 when anti-nazi sentiments had them packing up and moving out west to PA and further. many actually changed their names to more american sounding surnames, and also many let go of their german roots and culture, intermixing with scot/dutch wasps. little do people know that there were severe anti-german sentiment at the time, and mobs who murdered germans. many germans were investigated by the US govt as spies, a period not much different than how society treats muslim-americans today.
pennsylvania currently has the largest population of those claiming german heritage. huge population in pittsburg.
I think Glendale or Ridgewood are the only neighborhoods with German populace.
Washington Heights was the main center for German Jewish refugees in the 1930s and 1940s. German Jews from the 19th century wave often lived in German neighborhoods but this later wave, understandably, did not want to live among non-Jewish Germans (it also didn't help that a wave of German immigrants that came in the 1920s tended to be very reactionary and supported the German American Bund).
At some point the German Jewish community of Washington Heights began to dissolve. I believe that many moved to New Jersey and Westchester.
I think Glendale or Ridgewood are the only neighborhoods with German populace.
vast majority of germans jumped ship and booked when leftists took over nyc neighborhoods in the first half of 20th century. a reaction to anti-nazi persecution in the streets of nyc, tho most german americans had no affiliation to what was going on in europe. interestingly, nearly every immigrant group, including europeans have been persecuted in the united states at some point out of distrust via foreign conflict. this is no different than current bias against muslim americans. this also happened to japanese americans during ww2.
germans moved to pennsylvania which has always had a favorable bias towards germans since the amish, who are originally from germany.
there really isn't a german presence in nyc anymore. just historical remnants. places in queens are influenced more by eastern europeans and czechs, and run by them ie the beer garden. places like bierleichen, gottscheer hall isn't german, they're run by east european jews, and ukranians/russians.
Last edited by ControlJohnsons; 04-30-2016 at 08:53 PM..
Williamsbridge in the North Bronx -- I'll stretch its border south to Adee Avenue for the purpose of this exercise -- was heavily Italian from the opening of the northern part of the IRT White Plains Road line in 1917 up until the 1960s. The area then had an influx of mostly middle class African-American and Caribbean-American residents, groups that now are the overwhelming majority in the area. Even before this migration, though, I think there historically was a small African-American population in the East 220s.
The demographic shift in Williamsbridge did not occur as fast as white flight in other areas of the borough or city. As the commanding officer of the 47th Precinct once told me: "The Irish run. The Jews run. The Italians stay." A reason for that could be that many Italian residents of the area were homeowners, as opposed to renters (think of the Irish and Jewish neighborhoods in the West Bronx that were composed predominantly of rental apartments, and how quickly those changed in the 1950s and 1960s.). Perhaps homeowners such as the Italian-Americans in Williamsbridge put down deeper roots in their neighborhood and were more reluctant to move.
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