Deborah Sebrow's blog

The Integrated Community

Deborah Sebrow — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 19:42:41 +0000

There is one paragraph in Pritchett’s article that really captured my attention. Pritchett wrote about the Easter/Purim Festival in 1948 where African Americans and Jews celebrated together and acknowledged the “brotherhood of man.”

While this paragraph contradicts Baldwin’s view of the Jewish-African American relationship in Harlem, it demonstrates the changing values of Americans in other areas.

Avenue U

Deborah Sebrow — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:25:40 +0000

Kings Highway

Deborah Sebrow — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 20:22:18 +0000

Arriving at Kings Highway, we expected to see a quiet residential area. Instead, we heard the loud sounds of shopping bags, bargaining, and cash registers.

People from all across Brooklyn and other parts of the city come to Kings Highway for its commercial appeal.

Our interview with Cara and Laura, two local girls who have lived in the area their entire lives, said that the only activities in the area are eating at the many restaurants or going shoe shopping.

Jewish neighborhoods

Deborah Sebrow — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 16:52:14 +0000

In Joshua M. Zeitz’s “White Ethnic New York,” Chapter 1, he illustrates how certain areas of New York seemed predominantly Jewish. Even in areas where the census and demographics proved that the area was diverse, the Jewish presence stood out and there was an illusion of Jewish predominance.

Dangers of Propaganda

Deborah Sebrow — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 20:58:35 +0000

Project

Deborah Sebrow — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 21:12:57 +0000

After today's class, I thought of a really interesting approach we might be able to take for our project. Each neighborhood comes with certain stereotypes. Chinatown is known for it's noxious smell. Brighton Beach is known for the unfriendly attitude of its inhabitants. I think it would really interesting to comment on the different stereotypes of each area. Are the stereotypes true? Or, are they only there because outsiders associate the areas with certain ideas, people, geographies...?

Baruch and City College: Then and Now

Deborah Sebrow — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:35:20 +0000

Every morning I walk 20 minutes to the building on 23^rd street and Lexington Avenue so that I can attend my free classes, challenge myself, and learn. It’s comforting to know that had I been born 80 years earlier, I might still have had the same daily routine. While every other university was denying Jews the opportunity to study, City College was “the one major New York school that freely admitted Jews.”

IDC outside of the classroom

Deborah Sebrow — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 07:24:35 +0000

Since the dangerous and thrilling aspects of Little Italy no longer present themselves to the public, people differentiate between inside Little Italy and outside Little Italy by the presence of “Italian” restaurants and the various decorations that surround them. In class I remember thinking that the Italian decorations were comparable to Christmas lights during the holiday season. When the leaves fall off the trees and the snow starts to fall, everyone is aware that the holidays are arriving. The Christmas lights don’t control when the holidays come.