In 2003, the 82nd
year of my life, in one way or another, I have been associated with a YM-YWHA
facility for most of these years, and for more than a third of them in the City
of Newark.
The 'Y' movement in Newark, now
just a memory, had an eventful history that spanned nearly a century.
It came to a lamentable end shortly after the 1967 riots with the exodus of
nearly all of the remaining Jewish population in Newark's Weequahic Section to
the suburbs.
Newark's remaining YM-YWHA
facility at 255 Chancellor Avenue was closed in 19691
and sold to the Newark Board of Education and became Chancellor Avenue Annex.
My Entry Into Y Movement
I came into the Y movement as a
youngster of about eight or nine when I wandered into the magnificent new 'Y'
building at 652 High Street around 1930. It was just around the corner
from the Third Ward cold-water flat where I lived with my family on Montgomery
Street
As the Jewish population in the
Third Ward neighborhood adjacent to High Street 'Y' shifted over the next two
decades to the Clinton Hill or Weequahic neighborhoods, or to the suburbs, the
High Street 'Y' facility was closed with the sale of the building to a black
Masonic society in 1954.
Starting a 'Y' in Hillside
With no 'Y' building operating in
Newark, I was then part of a group instrumental in helping to start a small
branch YMHA in a duplex former residential building on Hillside Avenue in
Hillside, just 2,500 feet from the Newark Line.
Later, I was on the planning board
for a new Newark 'Y' building, subsequently opened at 255 Chancellor Avenue,
corner of Aldine Street in Newark--then the center of Newark's Jewish
population.
Chancellor 'Y' Building
I was still a board member when
the Chancellor 'Y' opened in 1959, and remained an active member throughout its
life. It had been built at a cost of $1 million. I had voted in
favor of having the Hillside 'Y' building sold to provide some of the funding
for the new Chancellor building.
Long-Term Vision for Building
The planners had told us at 'Y'
planning meetings that they would limit expenditures to $1 million for the
proposed Chancellor building because they anticipated that, with the normal
population flow, the concentration of Jewish population currently around the
proposed Chancellor 'Y' building would shift westward, and that the Weequahic
neighborhood would not have a sufficient Jewish population in 30 years to
continue to support that building location.2
Concurrently, I was told, planning
was underway for a much more substantial 'Y' facility, at an estimated cost of
$4 million, to be built on Northfield Road in West Orange -- the major direction
in which the planners anticipated that the Essex County Jewish population would
flow over the next three decades.
Their forecasts proved true sooner
than they had ever imagined. When the Chancellor 'Y' closed its doors in
1969, the building's operations were moved to the Northfield 'Y' building, which
had broken ground in 1966 and was now an operating facility.
After the 1967 riots, Jewish
population movement out of Newark's Weequahic Section to the suburbs cut the
30-year life expectancy of the Chancellor 'Y' by about two thirds, and marked
the death knell of the 'Y' movement in Newark that was started in December 1877.3
1877 Birth of Newark 'Y' Movement
The birth of the 'Y' movement in
Newark took place in 1877 in the vestry rooms of the Temple B'nai Jeshurun, New
Jersey's oldest congregation. Franklin Marx was its chosen president.
It was patterned after the YMCA of
those days.
For the first three years of its
life, the 'Y' was based in Library Hall on Market Street near Broad in a premise
that later became a Woolworth 5 and 10 cent store. By 1896, it began
losing membership to a new Newark Jewish club called the Progress Club, and shut
its doors in 1898.
Numerous attempts to revive the
closed Newark 'Y' failed until shortly after the end of World War I. On
November 19, 1919, a group of young men--mostly World War I veterans--initiated
a 'Y' revival program and succeeded in lining up 2,000 members.
Planning for First 'Y' Building
They had the support of Louis
Bamberger and Felix Fuld, prosperous Newark merchants and philanthropists, and
launched a building drive in 1922 that led to the ultimate erection and opening
of the magnificent 654 High Street building in 1924.
With its growing membership and
great interest in a new 'Y', the group ran a minstrel show on February 17, 1920
in the Broad Street Theatre.
In September 1920, the meeting
hall at the Talmud Torah on Morton Street proved inadequate for the YMHA, and it
was moved to the vestry rooms of the Temple Oheb Shalom at 572 High Street,
courtesy of the Temple's rabbi, Charles I. Hoffman.
The 'Y' remained in those premises
until 1924 when it moved next door to the newly-constructed 'Y' building at 652
High Street.
Fund Raising for the High Street Building
The fund raising campaign for the
proposed High Street building was kicked off on May 5, 1920 with a dance at the
Newark Armory that was attended by 6,000 persons. But the official date of
the building campaign was May 10, 1920, and on that date the 'Y' boasted a
membership of 1,500. This was considerable in a city which at that time
had a Jewish population of 24,000.
The bulk of the $500,000
anticipated for the building was raised in a few days with a start by Louis
Bamberger of $25,000 and by 1922, ground was broken for the start of the High
Street site, which ultimately cost $750,000 ($7.73 million in today's dollars).
By 1928, four years after the
formal opening of the High Street 'Y', membership had soared to 4,500 and the
High Street facility was the second largest YM-YWHA in the United States.
High Street 'Y' Dedication
The dedication of the High Street
'Y' took place on Sunday, May 18, 1924. Rabbi Hoffman delivered the
opening prayer. Newark Mayor Frederick C. Breidenbach greeting the people
on behalf of the City of Newark. New Jersey Governor George S. Silzer also
addressed the audience.
Growth of the 'Y' on High Street
In the 30 years that followed the
building's dedication, the High Street 'Y' building would be the major center
for Jewish social and cultural life in Newark.
That 'Y' had everything: Dramatic
clubs, literary club, theatre, lectures, a staffed library, extensive sports
facilities, game rooms, and a place where the neighborhood's immigrant
population, living in ramshackle tenements, and their growing children could feel
welcome, despite -- for many -- struggling and unhappy lives in grinding
poverty.
In the 'Y' building, they could
socialize with one another and enjoy some of the nicer things that life had to
offer, and to set their sights for a brighter future.
Untold marriages resulted from
meetings at the weekly dances and other social events at the 'Y', and numerous
'Y' alumni went on to positions of leadership in retail merchandising, business,
government, and industry... and in such professions as accounting, law,
education, medicine, and the theatre.
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