Borough Park (Brooklyn) בארא פארק

Overview

Borough Park (also spelled Boro Park) lies on the southwestern side of Brooklyn, New York ^[2]. Nearly one hundred thousand Jews are estimated to live in the neighborhood, which is counted among the largest Jewish neighborhoods in the world, with hundreds of institutions and batei midrash ^[2].

From a Mixed Neighborhood to a Hasidic City

In the 1980s the neighborhood changed dramatically: once home to Italians, Irish and Modern Orthodox Jews, it became a neighborhood of Hasidic families ^[1]. By 1983 some 85 percent of its residents were already Jewish, and new shops opened on Thirteenth Avenue for the growing Orthodox community ^[1]. In 1987 two well-known businesses opened there — Eichler's seforim store and the Kosher Castle dairy restaurant ^[1].

"The Capital of Children"

According to English Wikipedia, some 76,600 Jews lived in Borough Park in 2000 ^[1]. The New York Post called the neighborhood New York's "baby boom capital" because of its high birth rate: in 2004, 4,523 children were born here — the highest number in the entire city ^[1]. Many of them are born at the neighborhood's Maimonides hospital, which has more births than any other hospital in New York State ^[1]. The large families have led to a great deal of building and home expansion ^[1].

Hasidic Courts

The largest Hasidic community in Borough Park is Bobov (including Bobov-45), which has its central headquarters here ^[1]. The neighborhood is also home to communities of Boyan, Belz, Ger, Satmar, Karlin-Stolin, Vizhnitz, Vien, Munkatch, Spinka, Klausenburg, Skver and Pupa, as well as a minority of Litvish Jews ^[1]. The world headquarters of Munkatch stands at 14th Avenue and 47th Street ^[1]. The Bobov community numbers several thousand families and has Chassidim in Canada, England, Belgium and Eretz Yisroel as well ^[1]. Among the Rebbes who have lived in Borough Park are the Bobover Rebbes Rabbi Shlomo, Rabbi Naftali and Rabbi Ben Zion Aryeh Leibish Halberstam (the fifth Bobover Rebbe), as well as the Kossover Rebbe and the Sanz-Klausenburger Rebbe of Borough Park ^[1].

Thirteenth Avenue

Thirteenth Avenue, about a mile long from 39th to 55th Street, is Borough Park's business center ^[1]. Jews come here from across the city, from other states and even from other countries to buy kosher goods ^[1][2].