| Author | Message | ||
     Copperfield Citizen Username: Copperfield Post Number: 103 Registered: 1-2004 |
In the book, Roth (a Newark native) relates that his fictional alter ego, circa 1941, has rich cousins who live in Maplewood and attend Columbia High School "with other rich Jewish girls who have lots of clothes." He also references the wealthy Jewish fathers of Maplewood, their Cadillacs and "large colonial houses." Would I be correct to assume that Maplewood was the first suburban outpost for Newark's Jewish community as it spread out from the Weequahic neighborhood? When did Jews first start moving into Maplewood in significant numbers? | ||
| marinab Citizen Username: Marinab Post Number: 80 Registered: 8-2002 |
I don't have an answer to that, but I re-read and taught Good-bye Columbus this semester, and Maplewood makes a similar appearance. Neil kills time in the college named streets before heading over to Brenda's house in Short Hills and he describes the businessmen with their arms hanging out of the train windows, heading for the city. There's definitely an evocation of Maplewood/Millburn/Short Hills as the next step up for Newark Jews. | ||
| Bobkat Supporter Username: Bobk Post Number: 7096 Registered: 5-2001 |
This might be of some interest. http://www.maplewoodonline.com/forum/ | ||
| jem Citizen Username: Jem Post Number: 1138 Registered: 5-2001 |
Where were you trying to direct us in that last link, Bobk? It just goes to the entire forum, not to any particular post. I don't know much about the chronology, but I have heard that when Jews began to arrive in Maplewood, they mostly moved to the neighborhood around the Clinton school. I saw a Clinton school yearbook from the 1950's or early 60's (I'm not sure which decade, now), and it was striking how many of the names were Jewish. | ||
| Bobkat Supporter Username: Bobk Post Number: 7097 Registered: 5-2001 |
The thread about "Wyoming Synagogue" in this section. The last entry was back in May of 2003. and once again my computer skills, or lack thereof, come to light.  | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 4909 Registered: 1-2003  |
Bob means /discus/messages/3517/17748.html?1053347072 Bob, I right-clicked on the link for Wyoming Synagogue, and one of the choices was "copy link address". That's in Opera. The text for that choice will be a little different in IE, assuming IE is the browser you use. | ||
| shoshannah Citizen Username: Shoshannah Post Number: 657 Registered: 7-2002 |
My Newark-born empty-nester neighbors tell me that in the 1940s and 1950s South Orange was THE place for rich Jews, and Millburn's South Mountain section was the place for middle-class Jews. There were no Jews in the Wyoming section of Millburn. Short Hills was restricted back then -- a Jew couldn't buy a house there until the Deerfield section (bordering on Livingston) was built for Jews in the '60s. | ||
| Copperfield Citizen Username: Copperfield Post Number: 104 Registered: 1-2004 |
>>Short Hills was restricted back then -- a Jew couldn't buy a house there until the Deerfield section (bordering on Livingston) was built for Jews in the '60s.>> Your neighbors may have a slightly faulty memory on dates, Shoshannah. As MarinaB (who I now know from MOL is a fellow Briarwood native) noted, "Goodbye, Columbus" was set in Short Hills and it was published in 1959. (The wealthy Patimkin family lived in Short Hills, which was surprising to Neil's aunt & uncle who (and I'm quoting from memory) said something like "Millburn she lives?" No, Short Hills, I told them. "Since when do Jews live in Short Hills?" On the other hand, Roth had them living there for a while and made no references to that being an unusual state of affairs- the comment from Neil's aunt & uncle was more to show how provincial their world view still was. Livingston also must have had a large Jewish community at that time, since Neil meets Brenda at a Jewish country club he's been invited to by his cousins from Livingston. | ||
| Joe Meola Citizen Username: Maplewoodexile Post Number: 1 Registered: 12-2004 |
Technically, Weequahic itself was the first Jewish 'suburb', built in the 1910s and 20s, that the Jews of Newark's South Side moved to. I had a great-uncle who claimed that as a youth he used to hunt for pheasant in the marshes upon which Weequahic was built. The settlement of Maplewood by Jews occured at the same time Jews started moving anywhere outside of the original core inner urban neighborhoods. | ||
| tulip Citizen Username: Braveheart Post Number: 2077 Registered: 3-2004 |
Joe, Your statement is borne out by the fact that a good 80%, or more, of all students at Cleveland Heights High School, classes of 64, 65, 66 and others, were Jewish. At that time, Shaker Heights was only for the (Paul) Newmans and other wealthy Jewish families, while most of us lived in Cleveland Heights and University Heights. Shaker was our Short Hills. | ||
| Joe Meola Citizen Username: Maplewoodexile Post Number: 2 Registered: 12-2004 |
Good point, Tulip. Once white flight got rolling in Weequahic (its speed was stunning) more Jewish folk probably moved to Union and Irvington than places like Short Hills. I think my generation was the last of people native to the area are the last to think of certain towns and neighborhoods by their white ethnic mixes (ie, Vailsburg=Irish; Irvington=Jewish and Slavic; Union=German; Maplewood=Waspy and Jewish; Italians=ubiquitous.) Having spent half my child life in Union and half in Maplewood, I cringed with knowing truth at Roth's remarks about Union in Plot! By all accounts, he wasn't exaggerating about the Nazi-sympathizers! |
