From The Peopling of New York City
Welcome to Brooklyn: A World in a Borough - A WikiBook from Professor Krase's MHC Seminar 2, Brooklyn College
Upon driving into Brooklyn, one will see one of the signs depicted above (depending on the highway one is traveling on). According to Mayor Bloomberg and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn is "home to everyone from everywhere," "an experience" and "like no other place in the world." We, as members of the Macaulay Honors program at Brooklyn College, sought to determine for ourselves whether Brooklyn is truly a unique borough.
Just by walking through the streets of Brooklyn, it is obvious that Brooklyn is a diverse borough. From the Soviet community in Brighton Beach to the Orthodox Jewish community in Midwood to the West Indian community in Flatbush, Brooklyn is most certainly "a world in a borough." In order to have a more well-rounded view of Brooklyn, we each posted our own immigration stories on our personal page of the wiki. We discovered that in one classroom, we had students from Russia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria and more. By comparing our immigration stories, discussing sociological theorems and contemplating commonalities linking different communities, we decided to narrow our research to four issues: The Ellis Island Question, East and West of Brooklyn College, the Syrian Jewish community, and the Soviet and Ukranian communities of Brighton Beach. Each of these four chapters combine to form a book: Brooklyn: A World in a Borough. By exploring these four overarching chapters, one will not only learn from what is written here, rather one will be directed to links of our individual pages with more personal and detailed information.
After examining different neighborhoods, social themes and ethnic groups, it is apparent that Brooklyn is definitely "home to everyone from everywhere." This online book opens our eyes to the ethnic diversity of Brooklyn and explores its place in the world of immigration. We hope you enjoy the information, photographs and maps presented here and we are proud to be members of the Brooklyn community.
Each of the images below depict one of the four chapters in our book. The image on the top left is of the Soviet and Ukranian Communities of Brighton Beach, the image on the top right is of Ellis Island, the image on the bottom left is of a subway station by Brooklyn College and the image on the bottom right is of a Syrian Jewish Synagogue in Brooklyn.
