When the Jews immigrated to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, they lived in small, crowded apartments in tenements. Beginning in the 1920s, following the creation of the subway system and East River bridges, many Jews began to move out of the Lower East Side to the suburbs. The subway allowed workers to commute every day to the city and escape the broken-down tenements for nicer residential homes. This reflects the greater social movement of the Jewish community from the lower class to the middle class.
Although Bensonhurst’s housing was an improvement from the tenements that the community escaped from, it still wasn’t perfect. It was common for families to move to larger quarters as the family grew because many apartments were not big enough to hold families with many children. Sometimes up to five children would share a tiny room together because of the small apartment size.
