Disciplines
Jewish Studies
Abstract
Ruthie Cohen is a second generation American, with her paternal grandparents immigrating from Poland. When she was born, her family lived at 2805 Sedgwick Avenue, but moved nearby to another two-family home at 2805 Webb Avenue. She remembers how her immediate neighborhood and school was predominantly Jewish, but Italians and Irish also lived nearby and attended parochial schools. Cohen felt very little antisemitism from them. She was the youngest of four children in a relatively observant family.
Cohen’s father was a teacher who was very involved in the larger community, and education and tolerance were important values in her family. She went to a yeshiva for the first two years of her education, before moving to the public school where her father taught. Cohen remembers having predominantly Irish Catholic, single female teachers in public and junior high school. She then attended Walton High School, and was unhappy about it being an all-girls school. Cohen went on to attend Harper College, CCNY, and Yeshiva University.
As a child, Cohen would play street games with her friends and spend time with her family on the weekends. As she got older, she would take the subway into Manhattan with her friends. The family would also take educational trips outside of the city using their car. After her father passed away, she moved with her mother into Manhattan. Cohen then moved out to Armonk after she married and had children. Overall, she remembers her childhood as being a joyous and carefree time in her life.
Key Words: Orthodox, Yiddish, Yeshiva University, Walton High School, street games, Israel, education, history, Irish, Italian, race, antisemitism, Sedgwick Avenue, kosher, Civil Rights
Recommended Citation
Maier Garcia, Sophia, "Cohen, Ruthie" (2023). Bronx Jewish History Project. 45.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/bjhp/45
