Disciplines

Jewish Studies

Abstract

Summarizer: Sophia Maier

Barbara Pafundi, born 1952, grew up in Parkchester in the East Bronx. Her grandparents immigrated from Ukraine and Romania, and her father was born in Charleston, South Carolina. Pafundi describes Parkchester as primarily Jewish and Irish and a really beautiful place to grow up, with green areas around the apartment buildings. She would go with her family to the local Chinese restaurant, grocery stores, and library. Reading is a continued love. In the summers, they would go up to Putnam Valley.

Pafundi explains they never felt antisemitism, except she is not sure if St Helena’s would purposefully have a parade every year on Yom Kippur or if it was coincidental. She grew up believing Jews to be the majority, as they were in her schools. Pafundi says she had a great education, going through the SPs and to Bronx High School of Science. Education was an important value in her family, with many members graduating from college, including her father. Her sister and brother-in-law led teachers strikes during 1967-1968, and Pafundi herself became an American history teacher in Florida for 30 years, including teaching Holocaust courses.

In her teenage years, Pafundi was involved with Bronx House. She continues to enjoy watching New York sports and shares the importance of the New York Giants (baseball) to her family. She was much younger than all her family members, but grew up with a profound sense of family community with them all living nearby. Pafundi went on to attend City College, witnessing and participating in some of the anti-war protests, including a March on Washington. She describes the 60s as a great time to grow up, with the Beatles and the social change. Her family was not kosher and attended a Conservative synagogue, Temple Emanuel of Parkchester, on the major holidays. Pafundi explains her connection to Judaism is more ethnic and social than religious.

Pafundi and her husband left New York in 1977 for Florida, thinking it was a good idea at the time because of the state of the city, but they eventually tired of the heat and politics and moved back up north once they retired. She says Parkchester still looks beautiful and there are still nice areas of the Bronx. Pafundi considers the ethnic changes in the Bronx to be part of the circle of life and smiles thinking back on the happy, family-centered life she had there.

Keywords: Parkchester, library, Putnam Valley, antisemitism, Bronx High School of Science, family, college, education, Teachers Strikes 1967-1968, Vietnam War, Bronx House, New York Giants (baseball), World War Two, Florida, quota system, race, the Holocaust

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