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PART 4: OUR JEWISH HERITAGE
1870-1900
The
following brief history of the North End's
Jewish heritage is adapted from Michael A.
Ross, The Jewish Friendship Trail, 2nd edition,
2003, and is graciously provided with permission
by the author. Click
here for
more information.
Eastern
European Jews began settling in the North
End as early as 1870. By the early 1900s they
comprised 6,300 or almost one-third of the
entire neighborhood population. They settled
in a modest enclave comprising several blocks
along Salem Street.
Many
arriving Jews had skills related to the needle
trades and were able to find work in the burgeoning
clothing industries in Boston's North and
West Ends. Others opened up food, clothing
and retail shops. Salem Street and the adjacent
blocks around it soon became one of Boston's
most active shopping districts, filled with
Kosher butchers, bakers, delicatessens, clothiers,
tailors and food markets.
Solomon
and Jennie Rubinowitz (later known as Rabinovich
and then as Rabb) opened a grocery shop -
called the "Greenie Store" - at 134 Salem
Street in 1892. This was the very first of
many Rabb family grocery stores and it survived
at this location through 1908. The Rabb family
chain of groceries would eventually culminate
in New England's largest grocery chain, Stop
& Shop. The initial Greenie Store location
is today occupied by A. Bova & Sons Bakery.
Photograph by Lewis Hine
Street Child
Jewish immigrant consumers also provided a
ready-made market for Kosher chickens and
meats. One of the companies that was formed to
satisfy growing poultry demands was the
Menorah Products, Inc., which built its own "schlachthaus" (Yiddish
for slaughterhouse) building at 112-114 Fulton
Street. This building has been subsequently
subdivided into residential condominiums.
These
businesses and the entrepreneurial spirit
behind them reflect the importance of Jewish
immigrant enterprise and some of the lasting
contributions of Jews to the heritage of Boston's
historic North End. Another example is the
zeal with which the Jews relished and seized
new opportunities in North End real estate.
With the departure of the Irish to South Boston,
Jewish newcomers were able to acquire many
of the run-down neighborhood tenement buildings
from the 1870s and earlier periods.
In
many instances, 100% of the purchase money
was available through Jewish mortgage brokers
representing first mortgage financiers. By
requiring that these brokers place second
mortgages in their own names, first mortgage
holders were secure enough to offer 5-6% mortgage
rates. Utilizing such readily available financing,
Jews soon owned substantial portions of North
End housing and commercial space by the 1890s.
Capitalizing on their ownership, they often
either gutted whole buildings and subdivided
them into apartments or they tore them down,
replacing them with new construction. One
example among the very many is the Segel Building
at 18 Cooper Street built with Jewish financing
in 1896.
In
North End retailing, Saturday was the most
profitable commercial day of the week and
Boston's Sunday "Blue Laws" were, with a few
exceptions, still in effect during this period.
Thus, Jewish retailers were confronted with
a variety of choices among open-for-business
hours and/or personal/family Saturday Shabbat
celebrations. Some merchants practiced observance
or partial observance, while others simply
did not choose to observe the Shabbat by closing
their doors on this busy market day. And yet,
despite these different practices, it was
surely their common faith that bound the co-religionist
members of the Jewish community together.
Moreover,
there were at this time three large and two
smaller Orthodox Jewish shuls (synagogues)
along with companion Talmudim Torah (Houses
of Bible Study) of varying sizes and membership
in the North End. In addition, there were
two Hebrew schools located on alleyways off
Salem Street that also served the Jewish population.
Yet
by the early 1920s, all but a few signs of
this very strong Jewish presence in the North
End had faded away as the Jewish population
moved out of the neighborhood and on through
Boston's West and South Ends to Roxbury, Dorchester,
Brookline and Newton, as well as to Chelsea
and Revere. What remains to this day is one
barely visible Mogen (Star of) David high
on a building at Baldwin Place and the barely
discernable block letters of "Hebrew School"
over an arched doorway on Jerusalem Place
off Salem Street. Thus, the North End's Jewish
heritage has been subsumed within the overpowering
embrace of today's Little Italy.
Click here
to go to the 5th Part:
Boston's Little Italy:
1900-Today...
Page
1-2-3-4-5
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