Many Jewish social service
institutions had opened their doors
in the Rockaways
Brooklyn
Jewish Home
for
Convalescents
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The Brooklyn Jewish
Home for Convalescents was founded
in Brooklyn in 1921. It moved into
its new location at 609 Beach 9th
Street in 1948.
Here, over several
decades, thousands of Jews would
come to convalesce after
hospitalizations that left them too
ill to resume the burdens of
everyday life. The building
had separate wings for men and women
with a glassed clubroom connecting
the wings. It also housed a
minyan to serve the needs of the
convalescents. Two kitchens
were created for meat and dairy
where the food would be prepared
under strict Orthodox Jewish dietary
laws
The Gabbai and Baal Koreh was Daniel
Meyers (d. 2001), a colorful Jewish
Torah activist who devoted his life
to Jewish causes in the Far Rockaway
area and elsewhere (especially
Yeshiva Torah Vodaas in Brooklyn).
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Hebrew
Kindergarten and Infants
Home
|
Located
at 310 Beach 20th
Street, the Hebrew
Kindergarten and
Infants Home
was a branch of a
similar institution in
Manhattan whose
purpose was to "care
for children when
mothers are obliged to
work."
The home in
Far Rockaway
accommodated children
from infancy to
four years of
age who are destitute
or neglected, or who
come from
underprivileged
families were accepted
for full time
care.
Kindergarten and
Hebrew schools were
conducted.
School
children could come in
for meals and after
school activities.
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Sanitorium
for Hebrew
Children
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The Sanitorium for
Hebrew Children at Rockaway Park was
founded in 1878. It provided a
summer program of free excursions on
land and water for poor, destitute,
and sick Jewish children. It
also supplied medical aid, advice,
and assistance to them.
In
1900, some 17,026 children benefited
from the Sanitorium’s programs. In
1906, the building depicted in the
postcard was dedicated.
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Social Clubs
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In 1918, the following Jewish
clubs were listed for the Rockaways:
- Far Rockaway Club: Far Rockaway, L.I.
- Ocean Country Club: Far Rockaway, L.I.
- Rockaway Beach Y.M.H.A., care of
Temple Israel.
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Today, the Jewish Community
Council of the Rockaway Peninsula (JCCRP)
has been providing services on a non-sectarian
basis to those in need and to serve as advocates
for issues of concern to the Jewish
community. Established in 1972, the JCCRP
is a member organization consisting of over
forty Jewish groups serving the Rockaway
Peninsula. The JCCRP mission is to combine and
coordinate the efforts of all parts of the
Jewish Community, including all the religious,
educational, social welfare institutions and
Jewish communal organizations within the
Rockaway Peninsula; to improve the cultural,
educational, social, communal and religious
welfare within this community, city, state,
country and throughout the world.
Rockaway hotels were not merely for
vacationers requiring a kosher
environment. Catering facilities were
used for celebratory events such as weddings,
bar mitzvahs and even Sweet Sixteens!
Many hotels provided Passover Seders and
accommodations for the length of the holiday.
Rockaway
Kosher Hotels (past and present)
- Bader’s Hotel
Arverne
- Park
Inn Hotel
Rockaway Park
- Hotel
Seville
Belle Harbor
- Washington
Hotel
Rockaway Park
- Ocean
Park Hotel
Rockaway Park
-
Borenstein's
Far Rockaway
- Genadeen
Hotel Far
Rockaway
Thanks to the Leiman
Library for use of the postcards
shown.
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