Disciplines

Jewish Studies

Abstract

Mark Koppel was born in October 1942 at Bronx Hospital. He first lived on 245 East Gun Hill Road before moving to Chicago with his family while his father served in World War II. Following the war, Koppel’s family moved back to the Bronx and settled in an apartment on 167th Street and College Avenue. He remembers the enighborhood he grew up in being predominantly Jewish and the close friendships he made with the other kids in his neighborhood and the street games they would play together.

Koppel’s family was not religiously observant growing up. However, Koppel had a Bar Mitzvah and remembers learning Hebrew and Yidish and a child. For his education Koppel started at PS 53 before moving to PS 94 when his family moved houses. He recalls his elementary schools being racially diverse with a mix of Black, Irish, and Jewish children. However, there were racial disparities within which classes students were placed in. He was in the Special Program, 1 class, and remembers having a fun and engaging education. For middle school he attended Jordan L. Mott Junior High School (MS 22), which he remembers as being almost entirely Jewish. For high school Koppel attended Bronx Science before going to Columbia for his undergraduate degree and Northwestern for his continued education to become a psychologist.

Koppel remembers growing up as a gay man during the 50s as well as the migration of Jews out of the Bronx begining in the 1960s as the demographics of Bronx neighborhoods began changing. Today Koppel splits his year between living in Somers, New York and Hawaii.

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