Welcome to Polish New York

Zapraszamy do polskiego Nowego Jorku

Taken from the syllabus of Professor Omri Elisha’s Peopling of New York Macaulay Honors College seminar, our course explored “social, historical, and culture dimensions of immigration and population change in New York City, with a focus on issues of religion, ethnicity, and community activism and an emphasis on the experiences of everyday people.”  As a class, we read about communities such as Italian Harlem during the mid-20th century, Lubavitch and African American Crown Heights, and the Chinese in their Chinatown enclave.  Articles were also assigned about projects and initiatives in the Hispanic community, and other low income neighborhoods in areas such as LeFrak City.  Conversation arose mainly around the topics of ethnic, racial, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds of the immigrants and how they confronted change while trying to retain their heritage when living in New York City.

Building the Connection: How Our Seminar and Project Relate

Our seminar has focused mainly on immigrant groups in New York City and how they manage to implant themselves into the city’s cultural landscape. Throughout the semester, whether it be the Italians in early 1900s Harlem, the evolution of the Chinese in Chinatown, or the Jewish community of Crown Heights, we have analyzed these ethnic enclaves and how they have formed and prospered or declined. In a sense, our project is just another deep analytical investigation (much like those in class) of an ethnic enclave: the Polish community. We looked closely at the center of this community (Greenpoint) and focused our research primarily on New York City since our class is centered on New York. The main difference between our previous class studies and our project is that we analyzed our community through the lens of a cultural organization: the Kosciusko Foundation.  Through statistical research, it became evident that the Polish community was beginning to lose its voice in New York as more and more residents began to leave the United States and return to Poland. However, as we have learned in this class, many ethnic groups still find importance in truly establishing themselves here in the United States while still retaining cultural pride, and the Polish community is no exception. The Polish community is an example of this idea of transnationalism that we have learned about, and the socioeconomic bridge between the United States and Poland that we have thoroughly researched is the Kosciusko Foundation.

The Making of Polish New York

The Kosciuszko Foundation had been established much earlier in 1925 by Stephen Mizwa. Our visit to the foundation building at 15 East 65^th St. consisted of a tour by Magdalena Mazurek-Nuovo, the Director of Cultural Affairs. An interview with her revealed a lot of important information about the foundation, the Polish community in NYC and Greenpoint.

Most Polish immigrants arrived in NYC during the late 1980s and early 1990s (a modern wave as opposed to early-20th century immigration) due to great instability in Poland at the time. They brought with them their strong sense of culture with which they settled around Greenpoint, Brooklyn and surrounding areas. We visited Greenpoint and learned about its Polish culture through a walking tour by Patryk Perkowski, a Polish Greenpoint resident. During this tour, we visited numerous Polish cultural institutions such as the St. Stanislaus Kostka Church.  During these visits, each of us had our own topics in mind: History, Purpose, People or Context.

The Future of Polish New York

Through our interactions with the Polish Community, both through the Kosciuszko Foundation and our site visit to Greenpoint, we encountered a group of people who are proud of their culture.  Even though many Polish immigrants moved to America looking for a better life, their love for their country, which one lady we spoke to described as beautiful, has not ceased.  These immigrants are looking to maintain their Polish heritage.  Unfortunately, from our fieldwork, we have realized that many people feel like the Polish Community is not unified in America.  The Kosciuszko Foundation, while their work is tremendous, has a big challenge with publicity and reaching out to the Polish Community, and even educating the American community at large about Polish culture. We hope that our project may impact the Polish Community by connecting the Foundation with its target audience both in Greenpoint and greater New York City.

This site was brought to you by:
Marina Nebro (History) – a freshman University Scholar studying History and Art History
Moette Nehama Schwartz (Purpose) – a freshman University Scholar studying Liberal Arts
Palak Bhasin (People) – a freshman University Scholar studying Mathematics and Latin
Cassandra Price (Context) – a freshman University Scholar studying English and Theatre