Disciplines

Jewish Studies

Abstract

Hilde Klein, born 1945, lived on Monroe Avenue, near Claremont Park, before it became part of the Cross Bronx Expressway and her family would move to Mount Eden Avenue. Klein remembers playing games in the street, roller skating and picnicking in the park. In addition to being an avid reader, she was a singer throughout school and in the synagogue choir and was recruited to be a part of the Ed Sullivan Show, but her parents said no.

Her family kept kosher, and on weekends would go to a dairy restaurant or delicatessen. Klein describes many experiences spent with her parents, grandparents, sisters, or friends from the building or neighborhood. They spent Passover at her grandparents’ apartment with a sunken living room. She attributes the closeness of her family and the importance of parents being around in their children’s lives as something important, providing a sense of stability.

Klein attended Wade Junior High School, Taft High School, and Hunter College Uptown. She loved show music. She was a shy, good student. During the summers, she remembers going up to the Catskills with her family. Klein moved to Virginia Beach with her first husband and, after they divorced, returned to the Bronx, first to Co-op City where her sister was living, then to the Pelham Parkway area, before remarrying and moving upstate with her children. Her memories of the Bronx are very fond, of the Good Humor ice cream truck, friends, family, and shared values.

Keywords: Monroe Avenue, Mount Eden, Cross Bronx Expressway, Claremont Park, Israel, singing, Wade Junior High School, Taft High School, Hunter College, food, Great Depression, family, the Catskills, education

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