Disciplines

Jewish Studies

Abstract

Summarizer: Sophia Maier

Marsha Cohen’s parents grew up in New York City, her mother living in the Highbridge area of the Bronx and her father living first in East Harlem then the South Bronx. Her grandparents had immigrated from Eastern Europe. Her parents married in 1939 and, by the time Cohen was born in 1946, the family lived at 3050 Decatur Avenue, on the north side of Mosholu Parkway. The neighborhood had five and six story apartment buildings, like theirs, and private houses and was mixed Irish, Italian, and Jewish. Cohen describes her building as primarily Jewish, with all boys her own age, meaning she was a tomboy playing outside with them, while the adult women in the building would all get together for coffee klatch. Cohen’s father worked in a factory for airplanes, fixed TV sets around the building, and later owned a bowling alley.

Cohen describes herself as a shy, sickly child. At PS 56, Cohen witnessed academic tracking and split classes because of overcrowding. She did well in JHS 80, completing the SPs, but describes how she was in the bottom fifth of her class at Bronx Science because of how smart everyone else was there. On weekends, Cohen would work at her father’s bowling alley, and she enjoyed getting to bowl for free. Her mother, like many others in the neighborhood, went back to work. Her mom worked at a local store, Honig’s Parkway, and was able to eat lunch with Cohen and get to know all the women in the neighborhood.

Cohen would go to Fordham Road for shopping, ice cream, or the movies, and during the summers she would go up to a bungalow colony in the Catskills. Cohen shares that the girls got little religious education, and on the holidays they would get dressed up and sit on the parkway. When she was young no one locked their doors and felt safe, but she remembers being a fearful child hearing about the Cold War and polio on the news. Cohen was a skinny child, so she was always encouraged to eat and snack, not developing the negative relationship with food that many of her peers did.

Cohen graduated from Stony Brook and went to Europe for eight weeks, which changed her outlook on life. She was unsure what to do with her life and began working for Department of Social Services and living on the Upper East Side. Cohen traveled to Israel, Afghanistan, California, and elsewhere before becoming a librarian and working for CBS News. Her time at Ally and Gargano advertising company, working for Carl Ally, was the second most important influence, after her parents, in her personal growth. Cohen never married, always believing she could take care of herself and be independent. In her older years, she first volunteered for and is now a member of DOROT, an organization for older people. Through this organization, she joined a memoir writing class and learned the stories of other Jewish women of her era. Cohen credits her New York upbringing for her ability to tell a story and loves visiting and volunteering at museums.

Cohen considers the Bronx home, as she never spent so long in one place ever again. It was a stable place, a normal place, but to her a little boring. They considered themselves like everyone else, American and middle-class, visiting their family and working hard. Cohen wanted to get out and see the world, craving adventure. Still, as a kid, City Island provided another world, where her father’s family had boats, and for her 60th birthday Cohen had her birthday party there.

Keywords: Highbridge, Harlem, class, poverty, race, 92nd Street Y, Mosholu Parkway, Decatur Avenue, Irish, Italian, gender, TV, religion, tracking, overcrowding, JHS 80, Bronx High School of Science, bowling, Fordham Road, Catskills, Robert Moses, McCarthyism, Cold War, polio, politics, Communism, food, Stony Brook, education, Europe, travel, Israel, Afghanistan, CBS News, library, advertising, relationships, COVID, DOROT, museum, safety, immigration, Democrat, Korean War, City Island

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