Tag Archives: Gravesend

Gravesend, a southern neighborhood of Brooklyn, was founded in 1645 by an English settler named Deborah Moody. Despite its name, it offers the many perks of a functioning New York borough. The area is extremely diverse, evolving from a simple Dutch farming community to a region including Italians, Mexicans, Chinese, Haitian, and Russian populations. The neighborhood is also home to one of the largest Sephardic Jewish communities in the world, with numbers close to 75,000.

Largely a suburban town decades ago, Gravesend is now a vibrant urban collection of many cultures and ethnicities. A population explosion of middle class immigrants and local expansion has vaulted the area into a busy hive of progress and excitement. Large retail stores, small specialty shops and restaurants line Kings Highway and Coney Island Avenue, where movement is incessant and parking spots come at a premium. Subway lines and busses weave through the town, while handball courts, paved baseball diamonds and charming kiddie parks dot the active streets of McDonald Avenue and Ocean Parkway.

Growing up in this area all my life, my neighborhood has always been a source of pride and worthy of tribute and publicity. I also feel obligated to write about the Sephardic Jewish community which I belong to, an incredibly tightly-knit haven deeply entrenched in the traditions brought from the Middle East in the early 1900’s. I intend to highlight the customs, culture, and legacy of my community as only someone who has lived in it all their life would be able to do.

The area is a unique combination of enduring small business owners and historic landmarks, combined with and new modern attractions and development. I plan to focus on the people and places that have lasted all these years in Brooklyn, and hopefully gain a window to the history and foundation that anchors this town today. Of course, along with progression comes inevitable conflict,and I am therefore anticipating having plenty of material to investigate about how the town came to be what it is today.