Disciplines

Jewish Studies

Abstract

Helen Siegel’s family came to the Bronx from Germany in the years leading up to World War Two. Siegel was born in 1945 and grew up in the West Bronx about a mile away from Yankee Stadium, which she remembers as a predominantly Jewish neighborhood. She attended Bronx public schools throughout her education, PS 64, JHS 117, and Taft High School, before going on to City College, receiving what she believes to have been a good education. Siegel would teach at Bronx elementary schools for 25 years and serve as a mentor for new teachers. She recognizes that teaching and education in the Bronx changed a lot over time, but tried to be a good teacher with positive reassurances, writing good notes to parents, and taking students to visit cultural sites in the area.

While she never married or had children, she was very involved as a caretaker for her mother and grandmother for much of her life. Her mother was a waitress and her father worked for the post office. Though he moved to Florida when she was 11, Siegel maintained a good relationship with him. She would spend a lot of time with her Oma, her grandmother as a child, cooking, doing embroidery, and visiting the Cloisters.

Becoming more involved in Jewish life over time, Siegel served as the volunteer principal at her synagogue’s Sunday School, and also volunteered in other capacities by organizing events like Passover outreach. As a child, her family did not keep kosher and would attend Temple Adath Israel on the High Holidays. It was not until after her mother passed away that Siegel began to attend synagogue more regularly and keep kosher. By that point in time, Siegel had left her West Bronx neighborhood because of fires and rioting and moved to Pelham Parkway. She shares that Pelham Parkway has become less Jewish since she moved there in 1979, despite an influx of Russian Jews.

Siegel’s block is multi-ethnic today, and she says that while she recognizes there are few white people still in the area today, people mostly mind their own business. She likes to patronize different ethnic markets and travel around for local events. Thinking back on her time growing up in the Bronx, Siegel says she didn’t realize they were poor at the time, and that children accepted what their parents said and what was in front of them. Today, Siegel believes, is a dangerous time, particularly for the elderly, and one has to be cautious.

Keywords: Germany, Nazis, Holocaust, education, teaching, 1967-1968 Teachers Strikes, West Bronx, Pelham Parkway, Soviet Jewry, race, immigration, religion, observance, Co-op City

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