s grow -

New
York,
New
ork

In light of the recent
tragedies, we take a
look at the Jewish
community's longtime
love affair with
New York
city and state.

earn a lot by learning a little. In
ay, AppleTree provides you with
tidbits about any Jewish subject,
present. This month, you'll find a
on of 31 --- one for each day of
*
; r honoring the many Jewish con-
ts to New York,
have a suggestion for Fact-A-
please drop us a line at
Facts, 27676 Franklin Road,
MI 48034, fax (248) 354-6069,
354-6060 ext. 308 (voice-mail
or e-mail paljoey@earthlink.net

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
AppleTree Editor

y 1890, it was the most densely populat-
ed community in the world.
The Lower East Side of New York
City was, at the end of the 19th century,
home to more than 330,000 men, women and chil-
dren, all crowded into one small square mile. It was
often a terrible existence. Disease was, of course,
rampant. Not just large, extended families, but
sometimes complete strangers shared a room, divid-
ed only by a curtain.
•
But it was a lot better than where they came
from, places like Russia and Poland. So the hun-
dreds of thousands of Jewish immigrants who set-
tled in the Golden Land came to love the Lower
East Side and all of New York, despite its problems.
And to the millions who are there today, there is
simply no place like New York.
At this time of national crisis, at this time of New
York's anguish, we remember the special connection
Jews have with that great city and state.

The Statue of Liberty offers
welcome in New York harbor.

z re

#1) Despite the constitutional guarantee of freedom
of religion, most of the first American states offered
the exact opposite. By the late 1700s, Delaware still
insisted that anyone holding public office take a
vow professing faith in "God the Father and in
Jesus Christ His only Son."
Only two states, from the start, actually practiced
what the Constitution guaranteed. These were
Massachusetts and New York, the latter whose 1777
State Constitution promises "the free exercise and
enjoyment of religious freedom and worship" and
specifically asserted that any laws "construed to
establish or maintain any particular denomination
of Christian [were] repugnant to this Constitution."

Jacob Epstein, economist Solomon Fabricant, actor
#2) The earliest known congregation in the country
Peter Falk, author Howard Fast, poet Donald
was Shearith Israel, of New York City, organized
Finkel,
newspaper publisher Ralph Ginzburg,
around 1706.
•
actress Paulette Goddard, author Gerald Green,
baseball legend Hank Greenberg, art maven Peggy
#3) Just a few of the well-known Jewish figures
Guggenheim,
journalist David Halberstam, com-
born in New York: congresswoman Bella Abzug,
poser Lorenz Hart, and writer Joseph Heller.
film maker Woody Allen, economist Kenneth
Also: singer Janis Ian, actors Gabe Kaplan, Danny
Arrow, basketball coach Red Auerbach, actress
Kaye, and Harvey Keitel, rock star Al Kooper, civil
Lauren Barn11, baseball star Robert "Bo" Belinsky,
rights activist William Kunsder, producer Stanley
comedian Milton Berle, composer Elmer Bernstein,
Kubrick, actor Bert Lahr, mayor Fiorello
business tycoon Alfred Bloomingdale, director Mel
LaGuardia, poet Emma Lazarus, composer Alan Jay
Brooks, journalist Art Buchwald, actor James Caan,
Lerner,
author and psychologist Robert Jay Lifton,
playwright Paddy Chayefiky, fencing star Herbert
musician Herbie Mann, violinist Yehudi Menuhin
Cohen and composer Aaron Copland.
and opera singer Robert Merrill.
Also: director George Cukor, comedian Rodney
Also: scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, author S.J.
Dangerfield, singer Neil Diamond, historian
Perelman, author Chaim Potok, co-authors Frederic
Leonard Dinnerstein, author E.L. Doctorow, actors
Dannay and Manfred Lee (aka "Ellery Queen"),
Kirk Douglas and Richard Dreyfuss, sculptor Sir

IN

10/26
2001

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