Disciplines

Jewish Studies

Abstract

Michael Rosen was born in the Bronx in Parkchester in 1943 to immigrant parents who came to New York in the early 20th century. He remembers the freedom of his childhood and going all over the city with his friends, visiting the New York Stock Exchange, sports games, and even once interviewing the artist Salvador Dalí.

Rosen had a fast-tracked education, skipping both kindergarten and one year of middle school, eventually graduating at the age of sixteen. Rosen went to PS 106 for elementary school and fondly remembers his teachers from the time. For middle school he attended Junior High School 127; however, he does not remember it as fondly, characterizing it as nothing special. For high school, Rosen went to Bronx Science and recalls the rigor of his education there. While he believes his high school experience was not very well-rounded, overall, he considers there to have been “more pluses than minuses.”

Outside of school, Rosen would hang out with his friends and went to Hebrew school in order to prepare for his bar mitzvah. Although Rosen was bar mitzvahed, he considers himself to be more culturally Jewish and always had a difficult time attending synagogue services because of his ADHD. Despite Rosen’s lack of religious observance, he is interested in Jewish history and finds certain aspects of Jewish observance, such as the Mourner’s Kaddish, to be gripping.

Keywords:

Parkchester, Metropolitan Oval, Segregation, Yankees, Bronx Science, PS 106, Music, Junior High School 127, Bronx Science, Hebrew School, Hillel, Vietnam War

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