People

The Buffalo region has been home to a wide range of individuals associated with local Jewish communities and Jewish networks from the 1820s through to the contemporary period as immigrants, citizens, residents and locals.

Institutions

Buffalo Jews have a rich history of forming both formal and informal institutions for religious, educational, political and social needs. From synagogues to organizations, and from coordinating agencies to groups and clubs, Jewish Buffalonians have seen a changing range of institutions supported by group endeavors and community philanthropy.

Neighborhoods

In living memory, the East Side and North Buffalo stand out as physically connected and interwoven religious and commercial centers of Jewish living. In contrast to these specific areas are the mini hubs identified with Jewish living and connected to a more dispersed idea of neighborhood. Separately, suburbia with its significant geographic spread, has redefined how a series of Jewish spaces come together with a mix of hubs, focal points and networks.

Themes

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Exhibitions

Special exhibitions, through a focus on particular individuals and subjects, delves into the personal stories that have animated Jewish lives. Each digital exploration reflects on the interplay between place, identities and changing times and the way in which American, Jewish and Buffalo historical experiences are deeply interwoven.

Resources

Materials that document Jewish Buffalo in all its diversity are found in books, articles, archives and museums, many of which are available locally or online. This section highlights some of these sources and will be updated regularly.

Arlen-Map-Highlight

Harold Arlen Exhibition  /  The Jewish East Side

Along the streets of Jefferson, Pratt, Spring and William and the surrounding highways bounded by Michigan and Fillmore, Clinton and Broadway, dense networks of Jewish family and friends formed the “The Jewish East Side” of popular memory.

Eastern European Jews dominated this newer Jewish community expansion that built on a community of mainly Central European immigrant Jews and their descendants, already integrated into Buffalo civic life. Most Eastern-European Jewish immigrants began their lives on the East Side where rents were cheaper and many homes allowed for combined work and living spaces.

For many Buffalo Jews, the East Side felt like a visible Jewish neighborhood. Signs in Hebrew indicated where families could buy kosher meat. Posters and banners in Yiddish and Hebrew called attention to community events. Jewish organizations, homes and commercial life mixed with each other forming interdependencies between friends and family.

 

In comparison with other ethnic groups, however, Jews only formed a small percentage of the area’s population. Much greater numbers of Polish and German non-Jewish emigrants and their descendants still dominated the East Side neighborhood spaces, alongside a growing African American community. Public Schools became places for children to adapt to American ways while also meeting people of different backgrounds. Public School 32 played a key part in developing Jewish student opportunities beyond the neighborhood. Hyman Arluck attended PS 32 graduating in 1919.

Due to religious restrictions around when observant Jews could work, and the difficulty of obtaining employment with limited language skills, many immigrant Jews preferred to work in family businesses. In these domains, individuals could set their own hours enabling observance of the Jewish Shabbat and religious holidays. Throughout most of Hyman’s childhood, the streetscape was filled with Jewish businesses, especially on William Street. In addition to synagogues, a number of buildings were associated with the Jewish community across the East Side. A Jewish community school, known as the Talmud Torah nestled on Hickory Street and a Jewish settlement house called Zion House had homes on Walnut, Spring, and Jefferson. Eventually Zion House evolved into the Jewish Community Building where Hyman spent his time as a teen.

From 1880 to 1900, the Jewish community grew ten-fold.

By 1904, Eastern-European Jews living to the east of Michigan Avenue comprised 75% of the total community of 10,000 Jews in Buffalo.

Gallery

Zion House

Zion House, c. 1920s. Jewish Federation Collection, Ms150.1, University Archives. Courtesy of the University Archives, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York.

Zion House