Streets of Brownsville Once Again Filled With the Joy of Torah

A century ago, Brownsville, NY, had so many Jewish residents, it was nicknamed ‘Little Jerusalem’. A Siyum Sefer Torah in the neighborhood on Sunday marked a milestone in its revival.

By Anash.org reporter

Photos: Oded Kaizerman/Anash.org

A century ago, Brownsville, NY, had so many Jewish residents, it was nicknamed ‘Little Jerusalem’. A Siyum Sefer Torah in the neighborhood on Sunday marked a milestone in its revival.

The Brownsville neighborhood was predominantly Jewish from the 1880s until the 1950s. By 1920, over 80,000 of the area’s 100,000 inhabitants were Russian Jews, and Brownsville had been nicknamed “Little Jerusalem”. It was also considered to have the highest density of Jews of any place in the United States through the 1950s, with some 70 Orthodox shuls just in the neighborhood.

By the 60s, the neighborhood had mainly cleared out of its Jewish residents, and so it remained for over six decades. But recently, the neighborhood has begun to see a rebirth of Yiddishkeit as a young Lubavitch community springs up on its streets, complete with bustling shul, multiple weekly shiurim and events.

A siyum sefer Torah marks a historic revival of Jewish life in Brownsville, NY. The Torah was dedicated by the Overlander family in memory of their mother.

The dedication marks the tenth yahrzeit of Mrs. Overlander, shlucha to London, England. A mother of 10 and spiritual mother of countless others, Mrs. Overlander was a beloved figure to all who knew her. Her warm sense of humor and wisdom drew an untold number of people closer to Yiddishkeit during, and beyond, the thirty years of her shlichus.

Family and friends joined residents of Brownsville and Crown Heights, along with a large contingent of cheder boys, for the writing of the last letters at the Overlander home. The completed Torah was then paraded through the streets of Brownsville, passing sites that once used to bustle with Torah and Jewish life, before entering the fledging new shul for hakafos and joyous dancing.