The Syrian Jewish community in New York began in the Lower East Side, where they started off their careers selling fruit and candy, peddling, and shining shoes until they were able to start opening businesses in Manhattan. Edmond Dweck, a member of the Syrian community, stated in an interview how, at six or seven years old, he used to get on the subway and shine shoes for allowance. “There was competition, all these young kids, six or seven, shining shoes, and we made 50 cents a day and we were happy,” he recalled. These Syrian Jews were not openly welcomed by the Eastern European Jews already living on the Lower East Side and were referred as “Arab Jews,” which spiked their eventual desire to move to Brooklyn. Soon after, in the 1920s, the community moved to Bensonhurst, where they grew and started establishing their own defined infrastructure. Magen David Synagogue was built, and Syrian Jewish kids were sent to public schools in
Bensonhurst in order to learn English and the practices and norms of American culture. Additionally, some boys attended Hebrew School after attending public school five days a week. Then, in the 1940s and 50s, the community started moving to the Ocean Parkway area in Brooklyn, and in just a few years, the entire community had left Bensonhurst and moved to the area, dubbed “Aleppo in Flatbush.” It was there that they established the Congregation of Shaare Zion and Sephardic Bikur Holim, two extremely important institutions that are the backbone of the Syrian community, and it is there where they continue to grow and expand their community.
Oral Histories:
- Oral History interview with Isaac and Sally, a Syrian Jewish family who talks about their family’s experience in New York as Syrian Jews from Aleppo :
- Oral History interview with Edmond and Virginia Dweck, talking about their life growing up in the Syrian Community: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b2wWdmGgmezGhFPJGI_uBT0kYxhB2giY/view
