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Historian
Jeff Gottlieb
Creates ‘Jewish
Heritage Trail’
In Queens
by john toscano
 | | Gazette photo Among the more well known places that are part of Gottlieb’s Jewish Heritage Trail is the Astoria Center of Israel. |
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Musical composers Simon and Garfunkel and Burt Bacharach and talk show host Jerry Springer are part of a list of significant Jewish people and places connected with Queens compiled by Jeff Gottlieb, the leading expert on Jewish life and history in the borough.
Among the more well known places that are part of Gottlieb’s Jewish Heritage Trail are the Astoria Center of Israel, the Free Synagogue of Flushing, Mount Hebron Cemetery, with its special Yiddish Theater Alliance section, and Mount Carmel Cemetery in Glendale.
Among those buried in the latter cemetery are Benny Leonard (1896–1947), a renowned prize fighter who was once lightweight champ and won over 200 fights, and Leo Frank (1884–1915), the only Jew ever lynched in the United States, Gottlieb revealed.
All told, there are 30 listing on Gottlieb’s compilation. "It could have been 40 or 50," Gottlieb said, but he wanted to keep the list manageable.
Gottlieb, a former teacher, a Forest Hills resident, and long-time president of the Central Queens Historical Society, drew up the list at the request of the Jewish Community Relations Society (JCRS). The organization has requested similar lists from all boroughs, but only Gottlieb has produced one so far.
Many of the sites are stops on a bus tour which Gottlieb has conducted over the past few years.
Howard Teich of the JCRS said he is seeking the lists because the organization wants to develop a sense of pride in the community and to help the city’s tourism.
Brochures listing the sites and their significance will be printed up. There are also plans to develop a Web site based on them.
His approach to making up the list, Gottlieb said, involved spreading sites out geographically as much as possible. He also tried to give the list a special quality by including well-known individuals who have lived in the borough.
From a general perspective, he said that in some neighborhoods, such as Ridgewood, Ozone Park, Laurelton and Springfield Gardens, the Jewish presence has all but disappeared.
But Jewish life is still vibrant, Gottlieb said, in Forest Hills, Kew Gardens Hills, and parts of Hillcrest.
It is generally known that Simon and Garfunkel, one of the most successful young songwriting teams to emerge in the 1960s, graduated from Forest Hills H.S. in 1958. But it is not as well known that the musical authors were born and grew up in Kew Gardens Hills and lived across the street from each other—Simon at 136-57 72nd Ave. and Garfunkel at 136-58 72nd Ave., according to Gottlieb.
He said they were born within a month of each other in 1941, went to P.S. 164 and then Parsons J.H.S. 168 before moving on to Forest Hills H.S.
Gottlieb said Jerry Springer’s parents were Holocaust survivors who came to this country from London and settled in Rego Park at 97-07 63rd Rd.
Bacharach, an Academy award-winning music writer lived at 150 Burns St. in Forest Hills Gardens and also graduated from Forest Hills H.S. in 1946.
Among those buried in the Yiddish Theater Alliance section of Mount Hebron Cemetery, Gottlieb said, are actor Menasha Skulnik (1892–1970) and many others.
Besides the Astoria Center of Israel and the Free Synagogue of Flushing, other houses of worship listed by Gottlieb are the Congregation Agudas Israel of Ridgewood, the Wet End Temple in Neponsit and Knesseth Israel Synagogue in Far Rockaway.
Gottlieb also listed places frequented by many people, such as the King David Bakery/Tandoori Bakery on Vleigh Place in Kew Gardens Hills and in the same community, the Stam Judaica Store on Jewel Avenue.
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