Nexus For Queens Jewish Life

Bustling Austin Street is one of the highlights of Forest Hills, which offers myriad shopping amid a thriving Jewish community. Michael Datikash

Bustling Austin Street is one of the highlights of Forest Hills, which offers myriad shopping amid a thriving Jewish community. Michael Datikash

by Hilary Larson
Special To The Jewish Week

Large, bustling and diverse, Forest Hills, Queens almost feels like a city within the city.
It has a central downtown, revolving around trendy Austin Street, where shoppers browse national chains and meet up at stylish cafés. It has varied neighborhoods that range from high-rise apartment buildings to single-family Tudors on postage-stamp lots to the elegant, tree-lined “suburb” of Forest Hills Gardens. Russian pastry shops and Caucasian cafés line 108th Street, a lively ethnic enclave. Above all, Forest Hills has a strong identity: its stately institutions and well-worn storefronts give it a long-honed sense of place.
Along with being one of New York City’s most established neighborhoods, Forest Hills is also a nexus for the Queens Jewish community.
“With over 100,000 Jews, it would be one of the

largest Jewish cities outside Israel,” pointed out Bob Friedman, acting director of the Central Queens Y in Forest Hills, where Jews from across the spectrum come together. “It represents a total Jewish community. It’s economically diverse, ethnically diverse, religiously diverse.”
Occupying a prime spot in central Queens, Forest Hills is bordered by its less-expensive neighbors, Rego Park and Middle Village, as well as Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. The Long Island Expressway and the Grand Central Parkway intersect nearby, while the borough’s major thoroughfare, Queens Boulevard, bisects the neighborhood.
While many Queens Jewish communities have declined over the past several decades, as the children of postwar suburban settlers deserted the borough in droves, Forest Hills has maintained its vibrancy thanks to a huge, sustained influx of Jews from Iran and the former Soviet Union. Though some are Russian, Georgian and Ukrainian, most are Bukharians, hailing from the Central Asian country of Uzbekistan. Over the past two decades, thousands of Bukharian Jews have settled in and established a community, renovating homes and founding their own temples and schools.
Even before the Bukharian influx, the area long served as a way station for young Manhattan couples seeking more space en route to the suburbs. While many synagogues are struggling to maintain membership levels, anecdotal evidence suggests that young Jews may once again be settling in Forest Hills in substantial numbers. They are attracted by the area’s urban vitality, convenient transportation and apartments that are relatively affordable compared to Manhattan’s.
“I’ve not seen so much life in the Y in years,” said Friedman, whose Central Queens Y has been a driving force in the effort to unify Forest Hill’s diverse Jewish community. “There’s a tremendous influx of young families, replacing some of the elders who are no longer with us. They are searching for community, and in an urban setting, they’re drawn to the Jewish community center.”
Friedman and others have observed an influx of native-born Ashkenazi Jews, many of whom are intermarried and tend not to affiliate with traditional synagogues. While their parents abandoned Queens for the suburbs, Friedman sees “a disillusionment with the suburbs” — a rejection of long commutes, mall culture and car dependence. Their first contact with local Jewish life may be sending their toddlers to the Y’s early childhood program, working out at the fitness center or dropping by for a Chanukah party.
“They’re looking for connection,” said Friedman. “They’re seeking forms of affiliating toward other Jews, in some cases nontraditional ways of affiliating, because they don’t necessarily affiliate along the traditional denominational lines. But they are looking for Jewish experiences and Jewish celebrations.”
Generations of residents have been drawn by the area’s easy commutes: as little as 20 minutes on the morning express subways from Continental Avenue, or slightly longer on the Long Island Rail Road.
A wide range of Jewish and secular amenities is another big draw. The downtown area has plenty of kosher and non-kosher restaurants, ranging from upscale Italian to traditional Central Asian cuisine. Along Queens Boulevard and 108th Street, a shopper can pick up steaming hot knishes, imported specialty foods, kosher pastries and freshly butchered meats.
Synagogues include the Forest Hills Jewish Center, a 700-family Conservative temple; the Reform Temple of Forest Hills; the Orthodox Congregation Machane Chodosh, founded by German Holocaust survivors and now home to many Bukharian worshipers; and two Orthodox synagogues with new rabbis, Young Israel of Forest Hills and the Queens Jewish Center.
Forest Hills has numerous Sephardic temples, including the Sephardic Jewish Center and the Sephardic Jewish Congregation of Queens. The neighborhood’s substantial Georgian community has its own congregation, and there are several Bukharian shuls, including Binat Chaim and Ohr Natan.
Many Bukharians saw the opening of the Bukharian Jewish Community Center last year at Austin Street and 70th Avenue as a sign that their immigrant community had officially arrived. The community has also established two coeducational yeshivas: Beth Gavriel and the Queens Gymnasia, which includes a high school and is funded by the Russian-born Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev.
“It is very convenient to live in Forest Hills, but expensive,” said Lydia Musheyev, who works for the Queens Jewish Community Council and serves as a liaison to the Bukharian community. She lamented that some younger Bukharians, many of whom are more religious and more assimilated into American Jewish life than their parents, are moving to the Five Towns of Long Island or to Teaneck, N.J., seeking cheaper housing and a more Orthodox community.
Still, many choose to stay in Forest Hills for its Jewish atmosphere and stellar educational options. The neighborhood boasts some of the city’s best public schools, as well as an array of nearby yeshivas, such as the Yeshiva of Central Queens in nearby Kew Gardens Hills and Har Torah in Bellerose. The Solomon Schechter School of Queens in nearby Flushing is affiliated with the Conservative movement.
Local Jewish leaders say the neighborhood’s continued vitality depends on attracting more young families.
“It’s our biggest challenge,” said Jack Nussbaum, a lifelong resident who is currently president of the Queens Jewish Center, a 60-year-old Modern Orthodox synagogue. The congregation numbers around 250 families, a slight drop from a few years ago; as with many other synagogues, the Jewish Center’s membership is disproportionately elderly. Nussbaum is hoping that the recent hiring of a 30-something rabbi, Benjamin Geiger, who assumed his post in August, will help reverse the trend.
Nussbaum said the Jewish Center, like other Ashkenazi temples, is also trying to create closer ties with the Bukharian community; recently, the Jewish Center held a series of joint events with the Bukharian congregation next door.
For his part, Rabbi Geiger, who recently settled in Forest Hills with his wife and young children, was pleased to discover the area’s settled suburban feel and transportation convenience.
“We’re both native Californians, so it’s an adjustment for us,” said the rabbi of himself and his wife, Karen. “But it’s a beautiful neighborhood: there’s lots of trees and grass, and the homes are beautiful. My impression of New York had always been Manhattan, so it was a nice surprise.”

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