Disciplines

Jewish Studies

Abstract

Mrs. Joyce Turner was born in 1948 as Joyce Herzfeld and grew up at 364 East 170th Street in a one-bedroom apartment with her parents and younger sister. Her parents had decided to live in the Bronx due to the proximity to their other family members until most of them had decided to begin moving out. The neighborhood she grew up in was primarily Jewish but became more diversified as she grew older and saw much diversity within the schools. During her early childhood, Mrs. Turner attended Public School 53 for elementary school, located on 167th Street, and remembers walking these long blocks daily to get there. Interestingly, she attended J.H.S 22 for junior high school, which was located down the block from her original school. While in Junior High school, she began becoming involved with the Glee Club and has fond memories of all the extracurricular activities associated with the music club. Even though she recalls some of her family being Sephardic Jews and one of her grandfathers being religious, religion was not a considerable factor during her childhood life. However, she would attend synagogue on the high holidays. In her household, her mother spoke Spanish and Ladino to her friends and family, while her grandmother prepared Middle Eastern dishes. Mrs. Turner and her family lived in the Bronx until she was around 14 when her family decided to move to Flushing, Queens.

After graduating from High school in Queens, she attended Queens College before going to Boston to pursue her master's degree. Upon completing her graduate studies, Mrs. Turner was a teacher in East Harlem and was significantly affected by the budget cuts in New York City public schools during the early 1970s. As an adult, she became more religious and involved in the religion while living in Westchester County with her husband and two children. Today she resides in Florida.

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