Living in Kiev was miserable for the parents of Anna Zhuk, who faced insufferable persecution because of their Jewish heritage. They decided to join their relatives in the United States, to escape the travails of daily life in Ukraine. What actually happened when they flew to New York would end up altering their lives, and subsequently Anna’s life, forever.
Continue reading Anna Zhuk’s Interview as told to Allegra DePasquale
When my father turned 21, he left India with his older brother and friends to find work abroad. During this journey, he travelled to Jordan, Switzerland, Germany, England, and finally the United States. He was amazed at how large the world actually is. Continue reading Journey From India
In the 1990s almost every Jew that lived in a Middle Eastern Arab country decided it would be better and more suitable to leave their place and go elsewhere. This crowd of migrators in our community are called “boats”, not because they left on boats but because they left in such a rushed and hurried manner that they looked like unsettled, olden age, individuals when they arrived at their new destination. Many moved to either America or Israel and brought their Middle Eastern (in my case Syrian) culture. Continue reading My immigration narrative
добро пожаловать в Брайтоне! Or, Welcome to Brighton! This the biggest, most influential Russian and Eastern European community in the United States. Here you will encounter Eastern European goods, culture, and language on every step of your journey. As soon as you step off the Q, you will think you’ve been transported to Odessa itself! Enjoy the crisp ocean breeze, warm sand, and living, breathing Russian culture. A majority of the residents are immigrants from the Soviet Union, where anti-Semitism and outright, arbitrary coercion drove people to leave as soon as they could. Russians and Eastern Europeans flooded Brighton when Gorbachev implemented reform that opened the sheltered Soviet Union to the rest of the world. With this history in mind, bask in the richness of the neighborhood – it is certainly a community unlike any other. So, without further ado, let’s tour Brighton:
Welcome to Kensington, New York!
Yes, yes, we know most of the things you’ve heard about this grand metropolis include fancy skyscrapers, noisy and smelly subways, the irreplaceable 5th Avenue, Central Park, amongst other touristic attractions. But what most people don’t really emphasize is the overwhelming diversity contained within New York City. An example of such diversity is the neighborhood of Kensington in Brooklyn.
Continue reading A bit closer to the Bangladeshi & Pakistani Communities…
