Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on February 6, 2017

Every morning when I walk my son Teddy to the subway station at the corner of St. Nicholas Avenue and 145th Street in our Hamilton Heights neighborhood in Harlem, we pass a sea of young men and woman making their way from the trains toward City College.

Founded as the Free Academy of the City of New York in 1847, it was established to provide children of immigrants and the poor access to free higher education based on academic merit alone, according to the colleges website.

Liza Schoenfein

Alexander Hamiltons home, The Grange, with City College towering in the background.

After I wish Teddy a good day at school I turn toward home, walking with the tide of young people carrying backpacks; kids with faces so diverse the school boasts a student body that represents over 150 nations.

They are all on their way to an institution of higher learning thats turned out more Nobel Laureates than any other public college or university in the United States a number of whom were Jewish, including Arthur Kornberg for physiology/medicine in 1959, Herbert A. Hauptman for chemistry in 1985 and Leon M. Lederman for physics in 1988. (In the early 1900s, as the number of Jewish students grew as a result of the migration of Ashkenazi Eastern Europeans to New York, the school did away with mandatory chapel attendance.)

This morning, our path was decorated with messages, one after another, written in colorful chalk on the sidewalk messages of hope and peace and protest and inclusion. I tried to catch them all. Heres what I saw.

Liza Schoenfein

We Are Lucky To Have Each Other

Liza Schoenfein

Freedom Demands Justice

Liza Schoenfein

In the immortal words of Lin-Manuel Miranda, Love Is Love Is Love Is Love Is Love

Liza Schoenfein

Immigrants and Refugees Make Us the Country We Are

Liza Schoenfein

Hate Has No Home Here. Immigrants Do.

Liza Schoenfein

Alexander Hamilton himself (left) keeping an eye on the activity.

Liza Schoenfein is food editor of the Forward. Contact her at schoenfein@forward.com or on Twitter, @LifeDeathDinner

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward.

The rest is here:
On My Morning Walk, Chalk Messages Mark Path of Hope for Immigrants to City College - Forward

Category: Ashkenazi
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