Research Guides @ Fordham: Jewish Studies: Bronx Jewish History

Digital Collections, Archives, and Public History Projects

For information on Jewish life in the Bronx, try searching by keyword in the following resources:

Bronx Synagogues -- Remembrance of Synagogues Past
Public history project by Dr. Seymour J. Perlin (1928-2010) documenting synagogues of the South Bronx.
Yiddish Book Center Digital Library & Collections
Offers 11,000 digitized books in the Spielberg Digital Yiddish Library, oral histories, audio lectures, children's literature and Yizkor books.
Historical Jewish Press
A collection of Jewish newspapers (including NY papers) preserved by the National Library of Israel and Tel-Aviv University.

Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new window
Full text of ethnic, minority, and native presses including Jewish community periodicals from 1959-present (varies by publication). Includes access to:
- The New York Jewish Week (Manhattan edition)
- The Forward (Forṿerṭs)

Researching Housing Cooperatives

Image credit: Ground plan of apartment buildings of Amalgamated Clothing Workers. Drawing. Monthly Labor Review, U.S. Department of Labor, Vol. 27 no.2. August 1928.

Freedomland [electronic resource] : Co-op City and the Story of New York by Annemarie H. Sammartino
Cornell University Press, 2022.
Working-Class Utopias : A History of Cooperative Housing in New York City by Robert M. Fogelson
Princeton University Press, 2022.
Call number [RH Stacks] HD7287.72.U62 N536 2022

Selected History & Social Science Books

Jewish New York : The Remarkable Story of a City and a People by Deborah Dash Moore; Jeffrey S. Gurock; Annie Polland; Howard B. Rock; Daniel Soyer; Diana L. Linden (eds.)
New York University Press, 2017.
Call number [RH Stacks] F128.9.J5 M665 2017
(This is a shorter, distilled version of City of Promises)
City of Promises : A History of the Jews of New York, 3 vols. by Howard B. Rock; Deborah Dash Moore; Jeffrey S. Gurock; Annie Polland; Daniel Soyer; Diana L. Linden (eds.)
New York University Press, 2012.
Call number [RH Stacks & LC Stacks] F128.9.J5 C64 2012 V.1-3
Parkchester : A Bronx Tale of Race and Ethnicity by Jeffrey S. Gurock
Washington Mews Books, an imprint of New York University Press, 2019.
Call number [RH Stacks] F128.9.A1 G87 2019
Lost Synagogues of the Bronx and Queens by Ellen Levitt
Avotaynu, 2011.
Call number [RH Stacks] NA4690 .L482 2011
Boulevard of Dreams : Heady Times, Heartbreak, and Hope along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx by Constance Rosenblum
New York University Press, 2009.
Call number [RH Stacks & LC Stacks] F128.68.B8 R67 2009
New York Jews and the Great Depression : Uncertain Promise by Beth S. Wenger
Yale University Press, 1996.
Call number [RH Stacks & QuinnX] F128.9.J5 W46 1996
Unfinished People : Eastern European Jews Encounter America by Ruth Gay
W.W. Norton, 1996.
Call number [RH Stacks & QuinnX] F128.9.J5 G39 1996
The Miracle of Intervale Avenue : The Story of a Jewish Congregation in the South Bronx by Jack Kugelmass
Schocken Books, 1986.
Call number [RH Stacks] BM225.N5 I57 1986
At Home in America : Second Generation New York Jews by Deborah D. Moore
Columbia University Press, 1981.
Call number [RH Stacks & QuinnX] F128.9.J5 M6

Union Histories & Digital Collections

Digital Collections via The Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation & Archives
Offers links to digital collections on the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, the International Workers Order, the Jewish People's Fraternal Order, and more.

The Women's Garment Workers : A History of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union by Lewis L. Lorwin (Lewis Levine)
B. W. Huebsch, Inc., 1924.

Bronx Jewish Oral History Project

Bronx Jewish History Project
A local history project based at Fordham dedicated to collecting oral histories and artifacts from Jewish people from the Bronx.

Image credit: Awake and Sing. Poster. Federal Theater Project. n.d. Library of Congress.

A play by Clifford Odets set in the Bronx. See this play and other works by Odets in the Library Catalog.

Dissertations

Theses and dissertations can be helpful when researching the Jewish Bronx. Here are a few examples:

Muller, John Alfred. Community Organization, Neighborhood Redevelopment, and Local Politics: The East Tremont Neighborhood Association, 1954-1965. Fordham University, 1971.

Gardener, Bradley. And then the Neighborhood Changed: Jewish Intra-Urban Migration and Racial Identity in the Bronx, NY. City University of New York, 2012.

→ To search for more examples, use the database below:

Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window
The world's most comprehensive collection of full-text dissertations and theses.

Jewish Studies: Bronx Jewish History

Bronx Jewish History