German Jews in Washington Heights
By Deborah Harley
There is a moment in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s new film In the Heights when a young woman asks a Washington Heights resident for neighborhood directions. She reluctantly confesses that she has never been above 96th Street. That is so true to life! Many New Yorkers have not ventured north of the Upper West Side or Upper East Side of Manhattan.
The neighborhood that Miranda showcases, Washington Heights, may be the most New York place in Manhattan in that it has long been a neighborhood of immigrants, a community of dreams. Before the Dominicans made it their home, many other ethnic groups made it their refuge. One of the largest groups was German Jews. They were so dominant in the neighborhood in the mid-twentieth century that researcher Steven M. Lowenstein wrote a book in 1989 about them that he titled Frankfurt on the Hudson.
There is a moment in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s new film In the Heights when a young woman asks a Washington Heights resident for neighborhood directions. She reluctantly confesses that she has never been above 96th Street. That is so true to life! Many New Yorkers have not ventured north of the Upper West Side or Upper East Side of Manhattan.
The neighborhood that Miranda showcases, Washington Heights, may be the most New York place in Manhattan in that it has long been a neighborhood of immigrants, a community of dreams. Before the Dominicans made it their home, many other ethnic groups made it their refuge. One of the largest groups was German Jews. They were so dominant in the neighborhood in the mid-twentieth century that researcher Steven M. Lowenstein wrote a book in 1989 about them that he titled Frankfurt on the Hudson.
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