Celebration of Queens June 2016

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2016

19 Annual Celebration of Queens QUEENS

19 TH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF QUEENS • 2016

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19 TH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF QUEENS • 2016 QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, June 23, 2016 Page 2

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WHERE YOU’RE GOING.

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135 DESTINATIONS TO GET YOU

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Includes destinations served by our Delta Connection® carriers.

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Published every week by

MARK I PUBLICATIONS, INC.

MARK WEIDLER President & Publisher

CELEBRATING

SUSAN & STANLEY MERZON Founders Raymond G. Sito General Manager Peter C. Mastrosimone Editor-in-Chief Michael Gannon Editor Christopher Barca Associate Editor Anthony O’Reilly Associate Editor Ryan Brady Associate Editor Terry Nusspickel Editorial Production Manager Jan Schulman Art Director Moeen Din Associate Art Director Ella Jipescu Associate Art Director Richard Weyhausen Proofreader Lisa LiCausi Office Manager Stela Barbu Administration Gregg Cohen Production Assistant Senior Account Executives:

CONTENTS • Irish .......................................................6

• Asians ..................................................24

• Filipinos ................................................8

• Serbs ....................................................26

• Polish ...................................................10

• Greeks .................................................28

• Guyanese ............................................13

• Arabs ...................................................31

• Puerto Ricans and Dominicans ........ 14

• Hispanics ............................................32

• Germans .............................................16

• Bukharian Jews .................................34

• African Americans ............................18

• Italians ................................................36

• Jews .....................................................22

• Desis ....................................................38

Jim Berkoff, Beverly Espinoza

Account Executives: Patricia Gatt, Debrah Gordon, Al Rowe, Maureen Schuler

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Rego Park, NY 11374-7769 Phone: (718) 205-8000 Fax: (718) 205-0150 Mail: P.O. Box 74-7769 Rego Park, NY 11374-7769 E-mail: Mailbox@qchron.com Website: www.qchron.com TOTAL CIRCULATION: MEMBER

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Supplement editor: Peter C. Mastrosimone; Supplement designer and cover illustrator: Ella Jipescu; Editorial layout: Terry Nusspickel Logo box photos by Jorelle Tuvillo (Filipinos); Warren H. (Guyanese); Almarq (Serbs); Katka Nemcokova (Puerto Ricans and Dominicans); Hisham Binsuwaif (Arabs); NSiddhu (Desis); all via Wikipedia; and Peter C. Mastrosimone (Bukharians); file photo (Polish); clip art.

19 TH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF QUEENS • 2016

THE WORLD’S BOROUGH Is Queens more melting pot or gorgeous mosaic? “We the People” must believe it’s both.

Here in what Borough President Melinda Katz has dubbed “The World’s Borough,” it seems that nearly every ethnic, national and religious group under the sun is represented, and while many have communities that are largely their own enclaves, many mix together every day — at work, in the shopping districts, on buses and trains, in the parks.

This week, in our 19th Annual Celebration of Queens, we go in-depth about many of the distinct cultural groups that make up life in the borough. You’ll learn all about them — things like when and why they came to Queens, where they tend to live, what some of their traditions are, what culinary delights they bring to market.

Did you know German can still be heard spoken in places like Glendale’s Zum Stammtisch restaurant? People of primarily German descent only made up 3.5 percent of the Queens population as of the last full Census, in 2010, but they’re still here. And if you want to see firsthand what genuine German beer is all about, the adjacent Stammtisch Pork Store & Imports has quite the selection.

Next door to the Germans, both here and in the Old World, are the Poles. Maspeth and Ridgewood are their strongholds in Queens. It’s in the former that you can find places such as Babka Bakers, which is only two years old but offers Polish delights such as rozki, a pastry with chocolate cream and makowiec, a poppy-seed strudel. And it’s a portion of 56th Road that was ceremoniously named for Pope John Paul II, a Polish hero as well as a Catholic saint.

The sign that says “Pope John Paul II Way” isn’t just on a street pole here; many residents are so reverent they have duplicates of it hanging on their fences out front.

But this special edition isn’t just about Europe any more than the heritage of people in Queens is. If you haven’t been to Little Manila in Woodside, we’ll take you there.

See what’s cookin’ at Baby’s Grill & Restaurant, or head over to Jollibee if you want something on the go. And you can find just the right dessert at Red Ribbon Bakeshop.

Some articles go in-depth about family — a theme common to many of the stories, whether those about longtime Queens groups such as Italians or more recent arrivals like the Bukharian Jews. The Bukharians, who have transformed much of Central Queens in recent years, are facing a crisis, a rabbi tells us — one brought on by the increased freedom that comes with assimilation into America. The Italians dealt with that a century ago or

more, but many miss the traditional family dinner, often at grandma and grandpa’s house, that used to be a much more frequent event than it is now.

Meanwhile other Jews, those largely descended from Europe, continue mixing with other people much more than the Bukharians, with some converting to their ancient religion even as the next generation in some families becomes less observant.

Some people come to America and leave family at home, so they can make money and send it back for a better life, something discussed in the article on Filipinos.

Others, like the Indians who make up a large share of the group called “Desis,” have seen their share of the population in Queens rise, fall and begin to rise again. And others, such as the Guyanese in South Queens and the Asians in northern and Central Queens, are clearly expanding their cultural influence.

Together all the groups included here, and others that are not, make Queens County the most culturally diverse urban area in the world. It’s The World’s Borough, and we’re glad to celebrate so much of what it has to offer in these pages: “We the People.”

Peter C. Mastrosimone

Editor-in-Chief

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Irish THE EMERALD BOROUGH Eire’s culture still thrives in Queens

by Ryan Brady Although Queens is one of the most diverse places in the world, Irish culture has been very strong throughout its history. And as the luck of the Irish would have it, residents of the borough interested in participating in all things Eire need not look far.

The New York Irish Center, located on Jackson Avenue in Long Island City, offers many cultural programs that will make you feel closer to the Emerald Isle.

“I would say that you know the most native Irish people that live in New York City live in Queens,” the center’s executive director, Paul Finnegan, told the Chronicle. “It continues to always be kind of a landing pad.”

For those who were born in Ireland, have parents from there, or simply want to consume culture related to it, the center will not disappoint.

You can catch Irish movies and concerts or the Derry Londonderry Goes Global exhibit, which is about the immigration patterns from Derry, a city in Northern Ireland.

Recent performers at the center include Tara O’Grady , an Irish-American singer who specializes in a unique mix of blues, jazz, Celtic music and folk. On July 9, renowned accordionist Jackie Daly and the fiddle player Matt Cranitch will share the stage and play traditional Irish music.

Finnegan’s daughter is training with Shannon Gaels Gaelic Athletic Association, which plays at Frank Golden Park in College Point.

Gaelic football, a sport with similarities to rugby, basketball and soccer, is, in terms of

Kids play Gaelic football — an Irish sport with similarities to rugby, soccer and basketball — in a tournament organized by the Shannon Gaels Gaelic Athletic Association at Frank Golden Park PHOTO COURTESY SHANNON GAELS in College Point.

attendance, the most popular athletic activity in Ireland.

“Gaelic football is a very strong part of Irish cultural identity formalized in the 19th century as kind of an antidote to English soccer and rugby,” Finnegan, an immigrant from Galway City, said.

Shannon Gaels also has a July 5-8 Cul Camp — featuring Gaelic football, hurling and camogie (a nearly identical sport to hurling that women play) and Irish language lessons that kids between the ages of five and twelve can sign up for.

“Ninety percent of the players have one parent or two parents from Ireland,” Eamon Devlin, a coach for boys’ Gaelic football with Shannon Gaels, said. The club, he added, often has scrimmages on Sundays.

H istor y buf fs ca n find several Irish artifacts in the borough worth checking out.

At Calvary Veterans Park — a park owned by the city within Calvary Cemetery — along with the gravestones of thousands of Irish people, one can check out a monument to the Army’s 69th Regiment — also called the “Fighting 69th” or the “Fighting Irish” — an I r i s h h e r it a g e U. S . infantry unit from New Until September, Queens College is hosting “A Nation Rising: The York City that fought in 100th Anniversary of the 1916 Rebellion,” an exhibit about Easter the First Battle of Bull Rising, an Irish insurrection that preceded the creation of the Irish Run and other historic PHOTO COURTESY QUEENS COLLEGE military engagements.

Free State.

The structure, which was first displayed in 1868, was designed by the Irish sculptor Daniel Draddy. At the top of the stately column, there is a figure made of bronze signifying peace; surrounding it, one can see four life-size Civil War soldier statues standing on pedestals.

Although its soldiers suffered huge losses during the Civil War, the 69th Regiment remained as a military institution and the troops in it have fought in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

At Queens College’s Rosenthal Library, you can check out an exhibit called “A Nation Rising: The 100th Anniversary of the 1916 Rebellion,” about Easter Rising, an anticolonial insurrection in Dublin, and the Irish fight for independence. The exhibit will be open until September.

Residents of the World’s Borough can learn another renowned Irish tradition at the McManus School of Irish Dance.

“The dancing and the culture in general unifies,” Patricia McManus, an instructor at the school and its founder, said. The school gives classes in Long Island City and Sunnyside and has a program for toddlers called Jiggy Tots.

“My Sunnsyside location would have the most parents that are from Ireland and the kids are first-generation,” McManus, the daughter of Irish immigrants, said. And many of the children who go to the classes, she added, are “multiple generations back Irish Americans or partially Irish American.”

Although the biggest wave of Irish emigration to America happened as a result of the Great Famine in the 19th century, many still move to America from Ireland — the country experienced an outflow of emigration due to its economic recession — and settle in Queens, especially in Woodside and Sunnyside. Many of the carriage-horse drivers in Manhattan, whose industry was under mayoral fire, are transplants in Queens from Eire.

To help recent arrivals, the Emerald Isle Immigration Center — which has an office on Woodside Avenue — was created in 1988.

“We’re going to guide you along the way,” said Siobhan Dennehy, the executive director of the organization, referring to how the center helps people get U.S. citizenship.

Aside from the social services that it provides to immigrants from many countries — it has expanded to serve more than just the Irish since it was created — the center provides English-for-speakers-of-other-languages classes to immigrants and participates in a program with the Queens Economic Development Corp. to help them start businesses by “providing guidance training and assistance to people who maybe thought about setting up a business but had no idea how to go about it,” Dennehy said. The center also has a location in the Bronx.

But throughout Queens, the most ubiquitous symbols of Irish culture may be the borough’s bars and restaurants. And Bridie’s, a neighborhood tavern on Woodhaven Boulevard in Rego Park, may be just the place if you’re in the mood for one. continued on page 37

The Calvary Monument in the Calvary Veterans Park in Maspeth is dedicated to Union soldiers from the 69th Regiment, an Irish heritage infantry unit from New York City that fought in PHOTO COURTESY NYC PARKS the Civil War.

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LIFE IN LITTLE MANILA Asian Pacific enclave blooms on R’velt

by Laura A. Shepard From an island nation in the western Pacific, known for the metropolis of Manila and picturesque white sand beaches, Filipino Americans have made a home in Queens.

All three of the nation’s regions are represented in Queens and residents speak many of the 52 different dialects of Tagalog. There were 38,000 Filipinos in Queens as of the 2010 Census, more than half of New York City’s Filipino population. Filipinos are the fourth-largest Asian immigrant community in New York City behind Chinese, Koreans and Indians. There are other enclaves of Filipino immigrants in New Jersey, California, Texas and Florida.

The population is dispersed throughout the borough, but Woodside is a popular spot, as several restaurants, bakeries, banks and businesses are clustered on Roosevelt Avenue between 61st and 70th streets. The span is sometimes dubbed “Little Manila,” after the Philippines’ capital city.

At Fiesta Grill, Krystal Cafe, Baby’s Grill or Renee’s Restaurant, patrons dine on authentic foods, watch soap operas on Tagolog channels like GMA or TFC, and peruse copies of One Philippines or the Asian Enquirer.

Erwin Dizon immigrated to Woodside when he was 11 years old. His parents opened Renee’s Kitchenette and Grill at 69-14 Roosevelt Ave. in 1992, featuring the cuisine of Pampanga, a rural area with many rivers. The establishment was featured on the Cooking Channel show “Hidden Eats.”

Dizon said that he was the only Filipino in his class at PS 12, but the community has grown a lot in the past two decades.

When Jollibee, a popular Filipino fast-food joint with locations all over the world, opened at 62-29 Roosevelt Ave. in 2009, there were lines out the door for almost three hours.

The place is known for fried “Chickenjoy,” Filipino-style spaghetti, which is cheesy and sweet, and Palabok noodles. The menu also includes pies and pineapple, mango or boku pandan (a tropical fruit) flavored floats.

Elmhurst resident and Manila native Loren Mendoza’s favorite lunch is the burger steak.

“I come here [Jollibee] because it brings me back home,” she said. “New York is a lot like Manila; it’s also crowded so coming here was nice because there are only little adjustments.”

Heidi Te moved from Davoa to Elmhurst when she was about 7 years old.

“Jollibee’s reminds me of my country,” she said. “It’s friendly and safe here, but I miss my family and the food.”

Corona resident Katherere Escobar enjoyed her childhood in Olongapo City, a beach getaway in the Philippines. She lived in a big house with four families, including 10 other children.

“Growing up was fun and happy,” she said.

“I got to enjoy childhood and being a kid. It’s different here in the U.S.” Escobar joined her aunt, grandmother and several other family members in New York when she was 17. She felt welcomed by a whole community of friends and family in Corona.

She already spoke English, but felt shy at first.

One of the largest adjustments was coming from a homogeneously Catholic country, where people seemed to share beliefs and values to America, which is diverse. Escobar’s family is religious, particularly her grandmother. In the Philippines, she sang in her church choir and served several times a day, but in America, she is less religious.

Escobar says that finding familiar ingredients for traditional dishes isn’t hard as there is usually an aisle at Asian supermarkets dedicated to imports from the Philippines, like Datu Puti sugarcane vinegar. There’s also a great selection of indigenous foods, many of which are sweet or coconut-based, at the Phil-Am supermarket on Roosevelt Ave and 70th Street.

Datu Puti vinegar is a key ingredient in adobo chicken, one of the most recognizable Filipino dishes.

Most Filipinos say they decided to move to America for economic reasons. Jobs are harder to find in the Philippines and wealth is stratified: Many people live in poverty, in urban slums or remote rural villages, but there is also a wealthy class living in luxury high rises. Rich, international tourists stay at the four-star hotels and resorts.

“They have everything there. There is even a Trump Tower in Manila,” Elena Huseby joked.

Overall, Filipino Americans are well-educated and in 2013, 68 percent had bachelor’s degrees. Many are successful professionals: architects, doctors, nurses and teachers.

A large contingent of Filipinos in Queens are Overseas Filipino Workers, who come over to earn money to support their families back in the

Evangelina Sumagaysay enjoys a meal at Baby’s Grill & Restaurant, a popular Filipino eatery in Woodside. Below, Roselle and Robert, behind the monitor, Bawayan work at a business through which many Filipino Americans send money to their families overseas; and below left, ube (purple yam) cakes are a favorite at the Red Ribbon Bakeshop, also in Woodside. PHOTOS BY LAURA A. SHEPARD Philippines. The Philippine government’s Commission on Filipinos Overseas estimates that between 9 and 10 percent of their population is working abroad and that remittances contribute more than 13 percent of the nation’s GDP. Josephine Saarenas came to Queens 15 years ago and hasn’t returned to the Philippines.

“Here there is a lot of money if you work for it,” she said. “It’s easier to find jobs here as long as you’re not lazy and not picky. We are professionals back there, but we’ll come here and take any job that pays more.”

She noted that $1 U.S. is worth more than 40 Philippine pesos, so it pays to work in the U.S. and invest the money in the Philippines.

Parents often send money back for their children’s education, which can cost about 40,000 pesos a year.

Many struggle with the immigration process, obtaining employer sponsorship and bringing family members over. Without citizenship, many immigrants who cannot obtain student loans find American colleges too expensive, so some families send their children back to the Philippines for college.

Evangelina Sumagaysay came to Queens in 2006, after three years in California, where her mother lives.

She was a high school teacher in the Philippines and thought about applying for a teaching job in California, but she was deterred by a news report that a teacher had been shot in Los Angeles.

She then decided to join her sister in New York and works every day as a home health aide and housekeeper. She rents a single room without a TV because she’s barely home.

“I know how to be a caregiver and maid because in the Philippines we are taught to help our parents,” Sumagaysay said.

Her children live in Puerto Princesa, a beach city in the Philippines, and she’s been petitioning to bring them to America since 2004. She sends money to her family to help support a niece with cancer.

Roselle and Robert Bawayan work at a travel agency, remittance and cargo business on Roosevelt Avenue, where many people send money and packages directly to the Philippines. They came as children, joining their father in Floral Park, where there were few other Filipinos.

Roselle said she misses some relatives who are still in the Philippines, but she goes and visits for a month every year. However, by the end of that month she usually misses New York.

Filipino Americans are proud of celebrities like boxer Manny Pacquiao and Maria Mika Maxine Medina, who was crowned Miss Universe 2016.

The community turns out in force for the Philippine Day Parade in Midtown Manhattan at the beginning of June. Celebrations include dancing the tinikling and wearing the national costumes, the barong Tagalog for men and the kimona for women.

Parties are large and festive and the community socializes at picnics, barbecues and beach outings.

“We love to dance, have singalongs and we love parties,” Huseby said. “We love to have a Q good time.”

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FOOD, CLUBS, AND MORE

Pieces of Poland right here in Queens

by Suzanne Ciechalski For many in New York City, Greenpoint is synonymous with Polish-American culture.

However, there’s no need to trek to all the way out to Brooklyn to dive into Polish culture when our very own Queens is brimming with it.

Take, for instance, Babka Bakers in Maspeth. Owner Tom Madalinski, who is Polish himself, opened up the bakery in 2014, and it’s been serving up sweets and freshly baked breads ever since.

But perhaps what makes this bakery stand out the most is its old-world authenticity. Madalinski imports nearly all of the ingredients used in his store from Poland.

“Poland is one of the few countries that banned GMOs, so, personally I was always very health-conscious with what I put into my body, so when we were looking at the products that they offered in America, I wasn’t really convinced by the quality,” he said. “A lot of the recipes we have are Polish and German bread recipes, so the product comes out way better with the ingredients from Europe.”

Some of the Polish treats that can be found at Babka Bakers include rozki (a white poppyseed pastry with honey and chocolate), keks (fruitcake), makowiec (a poppy-seed strudel) and of course, babka. One of the most popular items, however, is the bread.

“When it comes to the bread, personally, I haven’t really found another bakery that makes a similar product to ours,” Madalinski said.

All of the breads made at Babka are sourdough, which is good for digestive health.

Madalinski pointed out that even customers with celiac disease can indulge in some of his breads without having an issue, thanks to the ingredients.

“The breads, I think, are honestly what stands out the most,” he added.

Madalinski said he makes the bread fresh every day, seven days a week. The bakery’s hours are from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., but he’s usually there later.

“I always tell my customers: If the gate’s up, knock on the door, I’ll let you in and you can get some bread,” he said.

The deli counter at Syrena Market boasts tons of classic Polish deli meats including kielbasa.

PHOTO BY SUZANNE CIECHALSKI

But Polish baked goods aren’t the only things available in Maspeth.

You can take a short walk from Babka Bakers down to Syrena Market Corporation, located on 56th Road, to fulfill all of your Polish grocery needs.

According to owner Alan Ahedrov, the store has been on the same corner for 21 years.

At Syrena, the shelves are lined with Polish products — practically everything, from the candy to the ketchup, is Polish.

Behind the store’s long counter sits an array of deli meats like kielbasa domowa, a smoked sausage that is a Polish classic.

In the back of the store is a refrigerated aisle loaded with products like different types of fresh pierogi — cheese, spinach, cabbage, and fruits and cheese are some of the fillings that are offered, just to name a few.

Ahedrov said that the store offers mostly Polish and German products, and that most of the customers are European.

Outside of this classic Polish market rests two street signs — one that reads “56 Rd” and another that says “Pope John Paul II Way.” Back in 2014, 56th Road was co-named “Pope John Paul II Way” after the Polish Pope who served the international Catholic community from 1978 through 2005.

Before becoming pope, the future St. John Paul the Great spent time at Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church in Maspeth.

Now, two years later, the street is lined with replicas of the sign, mostly hung up on people’s fences, giving off a vibe of admiration and respect for the Polish leader, born Karol Józef Wojtyła.

Holy Cross Church, according to its website, opened its doors in 1913, and has served the Polish community since.

The church holds Mass in both English and Polish throughout the week, and on the weekend.

According to a secretary for the church, there are roughly 4,600 members at Holy Cross, and about 1,500 people attend Polish Masses.

The church also offers Polish language and culture classes, in which students learn Polish traditions, Polish history and Polish culture, among other things.

Students also put on performances in the church before holidays, including Polish Independence Day, Nov. 11.

Aside from the performances and classes, the parish also holds a Polish cultural festival each year. This year’s is set to take place at the end of August.

And while Maspeth is considered one of the largest Polish enclaves in Queens, Ridgewood is also home to many Polish Americans.

Resident Weronica Kwiatkowska, a columnist for the Polish magazine Kurier Plus, started her book discussion club, “Ridgewoodteka,” in

Weronica Kwiatkowska poses with a few Polish titles for Ridgewoodteka above; and Babka Bakers owner Tom Madalinski behind the counter of his bakery in Maspeth.

PHOTOS BY SUZANNE CIECHALSKI, EXCEPT ABOVE, COURTESY WERONICA KWIATKOWSKA

January 2015.

The name Ridgewoodteka is a combination of the neighborhood name and the Polish word for library, which is “biblioteka.”

“I’m the one who runs the meetings, so I always make a little introduction, I tell about the topic, I talk about two or three titles I always have with me, and then other people who come — I wanted them to be really involved — they come and they also talk,” Kwiatkowska said.

The club meets every two weeks at Topos Bookstore Café on Woodward Avenue.

“In the very beginning I didn’t know how I [was] going to run it, because I was thinking: Usually [at] book clubs, people read the same book and they talk about the book, discuss about the book,” she said.

Kwiatkowska decided that the main focus of the meetings would be on different subjects in literature, along with the books people are reading.

Some subjects that have been discussed include friendship and psychotic disorders, and how the subjects relate to different authors or characters in books.

Referring to the club’s second year as its “second season,” she said, “It’s still moving, still going and we have maybe 10 to 12 people [who] are always there, plus every time someone new is coming.”

All the books that are read are written in Polish; even American titles. Kwiatkowska said that EK Bookstore, a Polish bookstore, donates

some books to the club.

She said that many people travel for the book club, and emphasized the fact that she wants to have readings with authors from Poland, but that it’s difficult because a similar thing exists in Greenpoint, which is known for its Polish population.

“Everybody thinks that in Greenpoint, the audience is bigger, more Polish people live there, more Polish people maybe are still interested in art and culture, so they say it’s better to go to Greenpoint,” she said. “For Polish people from Poland, Greenpoint is like a sign, a symbol of Polish community in New York City, but I want to change it, because I think many Polish people live right now in Ridgewood.”

Aside from the social scene, it’s easy to get your hands on the latest news in Polish. One of the most popular Polish newspapers, Nowy Dziennik, is distributed in Queens.

It was once a daily newspaper, but became a weekly, according to one of its editors and reporters, Aleksandra Slabisz. continued on page 37

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Indo-Caribbeans are making their mark

by Anthony O’Reilly When Richard David moved from Guyana to Queens years ago, his classmates were perplexed by his ethnicity.

“They didn’t know where Guyana was,” David said. “They asked, ‘Are you black, are you Indian?’”

Kenrick Ross, a Guyanese native and New Jersey resident who heads the Richmond Hill-based Indo-Caribbean Alliance — which provides resources to the Caribbean community — said up until a few years ago most Americans’ knowledge of Guyana was limited to the Jonestown massacre.

“That was really offensive,” Ross said.

It’s safe to say that general awareness of Guyanese culture has grown since then — mostly due to the fact that it has established a large footprint in the World’s Borough.

Just take a trip down to Liberty Avenue in Richmond Hill, which is often called “Little Guyana.”

“In the last 11 or 12 years or so there’s been more new businesses owned by Guyanese Americans popping up on Liberty Avenue and in South Ozone Park,” said area activist Mohammed Amin.

Posters can be found in windows and on lampposts advertising an upcoming event benefiting a cause in Guyana — a South American country bordered to the west by Venezuela, to the east by Suriname and to the south by Brazil — or in Queens.

The Indo-Caribbean Alliance, located on Liberty Avenue, looks to provide resources to the evergrowing Guyanese community. Located next door is Singh’s Roti Shop, a popular site for traditional PHOTOS BY ANTHONY O’REILLY Guyanese food.

David said that’s one of the reasons he joined the advisory board, for which he now serves as co-chairman of its Economic Development Committee.

His co-chairman, Matthew Singh, is also Guyanese, as is the board’s chairman, Raj Rampershad.

“I wasn’t even looking at it as me being Guyanese,” David said of his decision to join CB 9. “I was looking at it from my own neighborhood and noticing that you just don’t see the concerns we care about at the table. And I try to be the voice for Southeast Queens.”

Amin felt a similar lack of representation as a gay Guyanese man.

“There’s a lot of homophobia in our culture,” he said. “It’s in our music, it’s in our religion.”

That’s why Amin last year founded the Caribbean Equality Project, a Queens-based advocacy group fighting for tolerance toward the LGBT community. The group recently held a fundraiser to benefit the families of the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando.

As Ulrich pointed out, the Guyanese are not unlike most other immigrant groups in that they came to America in search of better economic opportunities.

And like many other success stories, those immigrants started with almost nothing.

Take for example Alex Bernard’s grandmother, who sold Guyanese sandwiches out of her Far Rockaway home starting in 1976.

“She would go out in the morning and buy bread from the Dominican bakery,” Bernard said.

As demand for homemade Caribbean food grew, the home-based business turned into what is now known as Sybil’s, a Guyanese restaurant and bakery with locations in Queens and Brooklyn.

To this day, the restaurant remains a hot spot for those looking to get a taste of traditional Indo-Caribbean fare — especially for those traveling from Guyana.

“Because we’re located close to the airport it’s usually their first and last spot,” said Bernard of the eatery’s 132-17 Liberty Ave. location.

But it’s not just Guyanese natives looking to get a taste of goat curry or bake and saltfish (a salty fish, similar to cod).

“Although Indo-Caribbean people are our main clientele, we get all sorts of people coming in here,” Bernard said.

Another popular location is Nest Restaurant, at 125-17 101 Ave. “It’s a really great place with good food, and also owned by Guyanese people,” David said.

Ross said Nest frequently hosts events for his group. He also recommended Singh’s Roti Shop, at 131-18 Liberty Ave., right next door to the ICA. Want to learn more about the Guyanese community?

There are dozens of radio shows and publications dedicated to covering all things Indo-Caribbean, including Caribbean Life and Guyana Times.

The ICA is also hosting an information series with the Queens Library to promote Q Indo-Caribbean culture.

19 TH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF QUEENS • 2016

Sybil’s stands as one of the longest standing Guyanese restaurants in Queens.

“Guyanese culture has really grown in the last 10 to 15 years,” David said.

Ross added, though, that most Americans are likely to be in regular contact with someone of Guyanese heritage.

“They probably have an employer or coworker or landlord or tenant who calls themselves Guyanese,” he said.

There are more than 80,000 Guyanese in Queens alone — the second-largest immigrant group in the borough, mostly concentrated in Richmond Hill, Ozone Park and South Ozone Park. Citywide, they are the fifth-largest immigrant group.

For Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park), whose constituency includes thousands of Indo-Caribbean people, there couldn’t be enough of them.

“We’ve seen more and more families seeking economic opportunity and a good quality of life,” Ulrich said. “I take great pride in representing so many of them. I wish there were more of them.”

Despite a large presence in the borough, the Guyanese are one of the only immigrant groups that has yet to see one of their own elected to public office in the borough.

That is something that is likely to change very soon, as Guyanese Americans have come together in recent years to make their voices heard in political and civic circles.

“They’re already a potent force,” Ulrich said. “They’re meeting with all the right people, making all the stops in the communities and the mandirs.”

Ross, though not a resident of Queens but civically active in it, said the Council elections next year present “real opportunities.”

“I think the 2017 election cycle we could see one, or maybe more, Guyanese people with real potential make a challenge,” he said.

Ross and Ulrich noted that there are already massive campaigns underway to register more Indo-Caribbean people to vote and to get them involved in campaigns, including at the ICA. Ross noted, however, that the concept of county parties — which usually pick the candidate they want to see take over a specific seat and heavily push for them — running the elections is a foreign concept to most Guyanese people.

“That’s something that a lot of people have to learn,” he said.

According to David, who himself serves as a member of Community Board 9, which represents Richmond Hill and Ozone Park, the rising number of politically and civically involved Guyanese Americans is a result of the population feeling as if its needs have gone unaddressed.

“Even though we own most of the real estate or pay most of the property taxes in Richmond Hill and Ozone Park, government is absent in our community and in our lives,” David said.

“One of our City Council members [Ruben Wills] hasn’t been to work since February.”

Page 13 QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, June 23, 2016

‘A POTENT FORCE’

19 TH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF QUEENS • 2016

QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, June 23, 2016 Page 14

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Puerto Ricans and Dominicans

by Mark Lord For several blocks heading east from Woodhaven Boulevard along Jamaica Avenue in the borough’s Woodhaven section, there is a distinctly Hispanic flavor — in the passersby speaking Spanish on their cell phones, in the multitudes of food places with names like El Rancho Cibaeno and Pollos Dona Maria, in the groups of men hanging out in front of a local mini-mart, letting known their appreciation of a woman walking past in short-short shorts and revealing blouse.

“When the Dominicans and Puerto Ricans hang out, you can hear they’re outside. They talk loud,” observed Maricelys Barreto, an area resident of Puerto Rican ancestry out this week for an early-morning stroll with her two young children.

Yes, Boricuas and Dominicanos will likely be forever linked by the closeness of their home islands in the Caribbean, but also forever locked in a friendly rivalry over everything from who’s got the best music to whose typical dishes are the most savory.

But, when it comes down to it, the two groups seem to have more in common than either might care to admit.

This borough has its fair share of both Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. According to CUNY’s Center for Latin American, Caribbean & Latino Studies, New York has the largest Puerto Rican population of any city in the world; and more Dominicans live here than in any other city in the world, except for the Dominican capital, Santo Domingo.

The center reported that as of this year the Hispanic population in Queens was approximately 613,750, or 27 percent of the total, the second largest group behind whites.

Statistics suggest the Dominican population has been gaining on the Puerto Ricans here, giving rise to yet another point that might spark some good-natured ribbing.

But of ut most importance in the cu lt u res of both groups is taking care of their own.

Take Rosie Rodriguez, who arrived in New York in 1978, having come from her native Santiago,

A FRIENDLY RIVALRY

Food, music — but always family first the second largest city in the Dominican Republic, speaking “nada de Ingles,” or no English whatsoever.

After Rodriguez got married — to an American who was born in Flushing — in 1981, the couple settled into a modest apartment in Forest Hills. With two bedrooms and a single bathroom, it would not seem to lend itself to having a lot of stay-over company.

For the past few years, though, three generations have been living there under one roof: Rodriguez and her husband, Michael, their 22-year-old son, A.J., and Rodriguez’s 93-yearold father, Augusto. Rodriguez’s mother had been living there as well, until she passed away two years ago.

As in any mother-daughter relationship, there were some disagreements, most of them minor. “I arranged the kitchen the way I wanted,” Rodriguez said, “then she would rearrange it the way she wanted.”

While their home was always open to guests, the couple noted some definite differences in how the visitors would arrange their arrival.

Michael’s parents would call three months in advance and indicate they’d be staying for a couple of days. Not so with the other side of the family.

“When my parents used to come years ago, they would call the day before: ‘We’re coming!’” Rodriguez said. And it was always for an indefinite — often extended — period of time.

“It was a culture shock for me,” Michael admitted.

They’re far from alone in their living arrangements. Born in Ridgewood of Puerto Rican descent, Christine Luz Rivas, 26, now lives in Middle Village with her mother and her grandmother, or “my abuela,” as she calls her.

“I didn’t get to spend a ton of time with her growing up,” Rivas said. “When I was born, she was already back living in Puerto Rico, so I didn’t meet her until I was already out of high school. She means a lot to me.”

Rivas said she understands Spanish “a lot better than I speak it.” Similarly, her grandmother understands English better than she can speak it. “We make ourselves understood.”

Manny and Aurora Torres live by themselves in a home in Rego Park since their daughter married and moved away, but it is likely their Puerto Rican heritage that has inspired them to remain close to their families. Aurora’s mother, now 96 years old, still able to fend for herself, lives a couple of blocks away.

And, of course, the couple keep a close eye on her. Manny even does the food shopping for his mother-in-law.

It comes from an example that had been set for Manny since his youth. He explained of his family, “When they all started to migrate [to New York] in the late ’40s, they all lived in the same building.”

Family has always been important to both Manny and Aurora, especially at holiday time.

Though they were both born in Manhattan, and Aurora has never lived in Puerto Rico, they live by many of the Puerto Rican traditions.

Clockwise from above, Rosie Rodriguez of Forest Hills, with her son, A.J., husband, Michael, and father, Augusto; Christine Luz Rivas of Middle Village with her “abuela,” Elisa Chico-Melendez; Aurora and Manny Torres of Rego Park; El Rancho Cibaeño, a Domincan-owned eatery in Woodhaven; and the Puerto Rican flag proudly flying on a home, also in Woodhaven.

PHOTOS BY MARK LORD EXCEPT RIGHT, COURTESY PHOTO

“The food, the salsa music, we always listened to Spanish music at home,” Aurora said.

“My mother always cooked the Puerto Rican dishes, arroz con gandules [rice and beans], pernil [pork shoulder], coconut desserts.”

And Christmastime, they said, was primarily about getting together with family. Going to midnight Mass and a lot of house parties were always on the agenda.

“My father did most of the cooking,” Manny said. “He had a restaurant in Puerto Rico.”

One of their greatest sources of pride comes from “the warmth of the Puerto Rican people,” Aurora said. “We’re a friendly culture. We open the house to you.”

Kristen Zapata, 36, finds himself in a rather unusual situation, having been born in Santo Domingo, where he spent the first three years of his life, but then being raised primarily in Puerto Rico. Eventually he moved to College Point, where he lived for most of the 1990s.

“I’m very, very Puerto Rican,” Zapata said.

“I speak to my Dominican family, but I’m not very close to them.” He said he has passed down his Puerto Rican culture to his five children, ranging in age from 7 to 14.

He describes his command of the Spanish language as being “bien Boricua,” or real Puerto Rican, “with my accent and the words I use.”

With his background, Zapata has had the opportunity to make firsthand comparisons between the two cultures.

“There has been a heavy Dominican migration to New York,” he said. “They’ve really overtaken us.” Comparing the two groups, he said, “There’s this notion that Dominicans are about 7 to 10 years behind Puerto Ricans. I’ve actually experienced seeing that, in the culture, in the technology ... the whole cultural

migration. Dominicans came [to New York] 30 years later [than the Puerto Ricans].”

But Zapata has noticed there has been “a big boom of Dominicans in recent years.”

He was quick to point out, however, that “there really is no rivalry. It’s just talking smack about one another. Personally, I think Puerto Ricans cook better.”

But even Zapata had to admit, “Dominicans are very good at business. They’re quick at getting what they want and what they need.

They’re very proactive. Puerto Ricans are more relaxed.”

He even went so far as to say of the Dominicans, “They’re definitely better baseball players Q than we are.”

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HERE FROM THE START Germans No. 1 U.S. national group still in Qns.

tains a history of the German immigrants who purchased the house in 1881. “German immiAt the most typical of summer escapes, the Great Amerigrants [came] seeking opportunity can backyard barbecue, you wouldn’t be hard-pressed to find while leaving behind hardships burgers, hot dogs and beer. And these items can all trace their since the first years of the 1700s,” origin back to the German culture in some way. said Debby Silverfine, director at Burgers come from Hamburg (though this claim is subject Voelker Orth. Silverfine also to some dispute), hot dogs from common Frankfurt street pointed out that beyond the many food and, while the origin of beer is tied to the discovery of craftsmen and technicians who agriculture, the most common American lagers are all offcame over to work at factories such as Astoria’s Steinway & shoots of the pale lager, which originated in the Spaten brewSons piano manufacturing, “over 800 German newspapers ery in Bavaria. were published in the United States, like the ones that brought In many ways, German culture is American culture. financial success to Conrad Voelker.”

German assimilation into the American way of life has German immigrant and College Point benefactor Conrad been so successful that it is at times hard to discern where one Poppenhusen established the Poppenhusen Institute in 1868. begins and the other ends. Tellingly, of the 46,047,113 Americans of German ethnicity in the United States, 98.6 percent of A sign on one of the beams in Zum Stammtisch’s main room reads in Its charter sought to improve the lives of all residents, “irrethem are native born, according to U.S. Census Bureau data German, “Live well, laugh often, love much.” The Glendale staple was spective of race, creed or religion,” and included the commufrom 2014. They comprise the largest national ancestry group founded by the late John Lehner, whose portrait is behind the bar, and nity’s first library, German singing societies and the first free in the United States.

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And when the paddlewheel steamer General Slocum The relationship between the German people and America burned on the East River in 1904, many of the 1,021 mostly wood in 1956, proceeding down Myrtle Avenue. goes back a long way. The first German settlement in AmeriGlendale and Ridgewood, which share a ZIP code, are the two German Americans who died on board were buried in Lutheran, ca dates back to 1683, and eventually became Germantown, Pa. In addition to the Hessians who fought for England in the Ameri- neighborhoods in Queens most readily identified with the Ger- now All Faiths, Cemetery in Middle Village.

Today, only 11 percent of Glendale and 3.6 percent of Ridgecan Revolution, there were Prussians fighting on the Patriot side, man culture. Germans who worked at what were once numerous notably Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben, inspector general of the breweries in Bushwick settled the area heavily, but the group was wood claim German ancestry, but these numbers are still enough to make German Americans the second- and third-largest Continental Army, for whom a parade is held in Manhattan widely dispersed throughout Queens and the rest of the country. continued on page 37 In Flushing’s Murray Hill, the Voelker Orth Museum mainevery September. The first of these parades was held in Ridge-

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A LIVING LEGACY African-American roots deep in Queens

by Michael Gannon Ask Andrew Jackson for his views on how Queens and black culture have shaped and influenced each other, and he’ll tell you there is no one or short answer.

But Jackson, who will be stepping down at the end of the month after 36 years as executive director of the Langston Hughes Library in Corona, doesn’t mind sharing his time on the subject.

“We’ve been here since the days of slavery,” Jackson said. “In those days, your background depended on which country had colonized an area, and which way you came by the slave trade, through the Caribbean, Central or South America. You could be African but British; African but French; or African but Dutch.”

In more modern times, African Americans from the South had a distinct period that marked a massive influx to the city — the Great Migration — much like Irish, Italian, German and Jewish immigrants to New York came in waves in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, “In the 1950s,” he said. “That’s when my parents came from Mississippi. They moved to Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn. Then in 1951 they moved to Elmhurst.”

Rishi Nath, a mathematics professor at York College in Jamaica, said the Southeast Queens, Long Island City and Elmhurst regions long have been centers of the black community.

“When Malcolm X’s home was firebombed [in 1965] he was living in Elmhurst,” Math said.

“And when you talk black culture in Queens today, you’re also talking about Indo-Caribbeans and immigrants from Africa,” he added.

Nath has written extensively about Queens’ contributions to rap music and hip-hop culture. And that was nothing new. A veritable hall of fame of jazz and blues legends such as Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, John Coltrane and others lived in or around Ja m a ic a , St . A lb a n s a n d Addisleigh Park.

“I never realized until I was older that Louis Armstrong lived in my neighborhood,” Jackson said. “But he was on the road all the time, and when he was home, it’s just where he lived. Nobody made a big deal about it.”

Nath said the rap and hip-hop movement originated in the Bronx, but quickly caught on with the Jamaica and Long Island City areas both vying for supremacy.

“Then you had Run-DMC from Hollis, which was really the first group from the genre to be successful and accepted as a crossover act,” he said.

Nath said there is spirited debate among music scholars about whether Queens’ rap and hip-hop culture has direct DNA links with its great jazz history or if the geographic concentration of talent in both genres is a coincidence.

“It’s a natural question,” he said. “There is

Andrew Jackson of the Langston Hughes Library, above, a repository of resources chronicling African-American history. At right, a mural at the St. Albans LIRR station commemorates legends of jazz and the blues who once called the neighborhood home.

Below, P.R. of Burgandy’s Cafe in Jamaica says soul food is far more than just the sum of PHOTOS BY MICHAEL GANNON its ingredients. evidence to support both.”

On the one hand, while the greats of decades past lived in the neighborhoods, performing in New York City generally meant Manhattan.

On the other hand, he added, LL Cool J, who grew up in Hollis, is the grandson of a jazz saxophonist. Nas is the son of a jazz musician.

Albert Johnson, known professionally as Prodigy of the Queens group Mobb Deep, is the son of Fatima Johnson of The Crystals, and grandson of musician Budd Johnson, who performed with Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Billie Holiday and Earl Hines.

Jackson also goes by the moniker Sekou Molefi Baako, names given to him by a touring African musical troup meaning “warrior,” “He keeps tradition,” and “firstborn.” He said that while many traditions and even whole languages from black residents’ African ancestors have been lost over the centuries, their deep spirituality has been passed down, as evidenced by churches.

In a conversation with the Chronicle last year, state Sen. James Sanders Jr. (D-South Ozone Park) estimated that there probably are 400 houses of worship in his district alone.

Jackson does not believe that is an accident.

“In African culture, life is a gift from the Creator,” he said. “The Creator makes everything possible. ... Religion, the church, got us through slavery. It got us through the civil rights era.”

The migration from the South brought with it cuisine that had not been largely prevalent in the North. Multiple sources say soul food is

largely Southern cooking. But some on-line sources say the term includes a sense of family or community, a view taken by Malcolm X. P.R., who has owned the Burgandy Cafe on Hillside Avenue in Jamaica for eight years, shares that belief.

“A lot of people confuse soul food with Southern food,” P.R. said. “I serve 14 different kinds of wings. I’m proud of my ribs. I started a restaurant because I like to entertain. I love when school kids come in on lunch break. I love when people come in after a big game or one of the big fights.”

He did say soul food cannot ever be bland.

“You need to use spices and seasonings that don’t overwhelm each other,” he said. “There’s no trick to it. Just use discretion.”

Finally, said Jackson, the mass immigration brought a need and desire for institutions to advance the research, preservation and teaching

of black culture.

Hence, the Langston Hughes Library, which opened in 1969 as a community-run library.

“This history was not taught in schools,” Jackson said. “Materials were not available at other libraries.”

While it was not taken into the Queens Library system until 1987, it always had the support of the library system and city officials.

Langston Hughes began collections of books, documents, art and other exhibits. Now it includes DVDs, community programming and other materials.

Jackson does not think it is a coincidence that a flurry of institutions began to spring up.

“We started in 1969, and we’re still here,” he said. “Carl Clay started the Black Spectrum Theatre in 1971, and they’re still here. John Watusi Branch started the Afrikan Poetry TheQ atre in 1976, and they’re still here.”

C M CEL page 19 Y K

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STILL A PROMISED LAND? Jews Changing times for Jewish families

by Mark Lord Among the Chasidic, Conservative, Modern Orthodox and Reform Jews living in the borough, all of whom, along with those who are nondenominational and those who consider themselves partially Jewish, combine to form the fabric of the Jewish community, is Judith, a long-time resident of Hillcrest.

Following a tradition that she remembers from her youth, Judith, who wished to be identified only by her first name, welcomes practically the entire neighborhood to join her family for their annual Passover Seder, a Jewish ceremonial dinner in commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt.

Judith said her parents, believing that all who are hungry should come and eat, always celebrated the holiday in a big way, and so it is now in her family’s household.

“It started with my kids bringing home friends,” Judith explained. “They just kept coming.” When her daughter, one of two children, got older, she would bring home her college friends.

“A lot weren’t even Jewish, but they were delighted to come,” Judith said.

The gathering seemed to grow each year, reaching an all-time high of 27 guests. And Judith was quick to point out that while “my husband is in his glory leading the service,” she does all the cooking herself. “We have a lot of tables. We just manage,” she explained.

Judith, 66, grew up in Forest Hills when “the neighborhood used to be much more homogeneous. Most of my classmates [at Forest Hills High School] were Jewish. A lot of our teachers were Jewish. You didn’t have the feeling of being a minority or in any way oppressed.”

In fact, she recalled that at the time, “There were a lot of people walking around with numbers on their arms.”

Those survivors of the Holocaust “reminded us we were lucky to be living in America. We felt very American,” Judith said.

Nowadays, Judith, who describes herself as being “Conservadox,” somewhere between Conservative and Orthodox, feels more like a member of “a privileged minority,” a people who can point with pride to the “enormous accomplishments” of some of their own, while feeling, at the same time, somewhat imperiled.

It is a feeling, she said, that comes with the negative sentiments toward Israel today, coupled with the rising anti-Semitism both in America and in countries around the world.

“In the last 50 years, we’re feeling a little

more vulnerable,” she admitted. “There’s a sense of constantly passing the way lightskinned blacks used to pass for whites. You keep a third ear out. That’s a weird outsider feeling.”

Judith described her current neighborhood as being one-third Jewish, one-third Asian and one-third Muslim.

Living in a such a diversified area has certain advantages, she said. For one, Judith has no trouble finding kosher supermarkets, one of her favorites being Aron’s Kissena Farms, a few blocks from her home.

Her husband, Hesh, is from an Orthodox family, and they follow many of the religion’s traditions.

“We don’t cut our hair during the Omer,” Judith said, a reference to the period between the Jewish holidays of Passover and Shavuos.

And when her mother passed away, she observed the traditional mourning period of an entire year, not listening to music or going to the movies. And she sat Shiva for seven days, sitting only on a low stool or box while receiving condolence calls, a practice that symbolizes the mourner being “brought low” following the loss of a loved one.

Both of Judith’s children have gotten married in the last few years, each adding diversity to the family tree.

Her daughter, Kat, married an AfricanAmerican man named Jason, described by Judith as being “probably the best Jew in the family”; in fact, he actually converted and now identifies himself as black and Jewish.

Judith’s son, Alex, married Joy, a woman from an Italian family; the couple recently had a bris, or ritual circumcision, for their newborn son, presided over by a mohel, a Jew trained in the covenant of circumcision. The young couples plan to follow Jewish traditions.

Steeped in those traditions is Esther Schachne, an Orthodox Jew living in Fresh Meadows.

“On Sukkos [one of the three Pilgrimage Festivals], you’ll see sukkot [walled structures covered with s’chach, or plant material such as palm leaves] all around the neighborhood,” Schachne said. And there are plenty of good kosher restaurants, she added.

A favorite, for dairy, is Cafe Muscat on Union Turnpike. “It’s similar to the cafes in Israel,” Schachne said, adding, “They have extensive menus with big portions of fish, pasta, salads. It’s funny, but a lot of kosher restaurants also have sushi.”

For a meat meal, Schachne opts for Hapisgah, a steakhouse also on Union Turnpike. She is a particular fan of the restaurant’s shish kabob and many grilled foods.

“The main difference between this restaurant and those in Israel is here you pay in dollars and there you pay in shekels,” she said.

Since retiring as a public high school English

Clockwise from above, Hillcrest resident Judith shops at one of her favorite supermarkets, Aron’s Kissena Farms; her son Alex, his wife, Joy, and their newborn son; Esther and Gary Schachne on a trip to Israel; and some of the selections at the Marathon Jewish Community Center gift shop in Douglaston during a recent Chanukah season.

PHOTOS BY MARK LORD EXCEPT CENTER, COURTESY PHOTO

teacher, Schachne visits Israel about three times a year. Two of her children have settled there.

“Many members of our temple have children living in Israel,” she said. “They’ve grown up and become more religious, more right-wing than their parents were.”

Over the years, Schachne has seen her neighborhood become more culturally diversified, with a larger presence of Asians and Bukharians.

She said she recently attended an event sponsored by Congresswoman Grace Meng (D-Flushing) at Queens College on the Jews in Shanghai, China. “Both groups seemed to jell very well together,” Schachne observed.

“Queens is such a diverse borough. People are accepted for whatever they are,” she added.

Flushing resident Robert Monches, who moved to the borough with his family when he was an infant, describes himself as a Conservative, but “I really don’t practice much since my parents died. It started getting smaller and smaller as far as observing. My kids aren’t really religious.”

Known as Munch to many of his friends, he admitted he lost a lot of faith after his wife, Karen, died a few years ago at the age of 58.

His children, now adults, “have their own minds,” he said. “They seem very disinterested

in religion in general,” though, he added, “They know they’re Jewish.”

Munch recalled that his son, Gary, had been preparing for his bar mitzvah, a rite of passage when a boy comes of age at 13 and is recognized in Jewish tradition as having the same rights and responsibilities as a full-grown man, when fate intervened. Gary was hit by a car, and he never finished the necessary studies.

Gary, now 31, hopes to one day celebrate his bar mitzvah, indicating, “There are aspects of religion I agree with and aspects I don’t.” One thing he believes strongly: “There is one God, whatever you want to call that God.” Munch explained that “my friends were all different religions. I was brought up to be openminded,” a trait he said he learned from his mother. “I was used to living with all kinds of people since I was a little boy.”

His daughter, he said, “is going with an Hispanic/Catholic man. They’ll probably get married some day.”

He admitted concerns over how they might raise their children, but realizes, “I can’t dictate to them what to do. It’s strictly up to them.” Q

C M CEL page 23 Y K Page 23 QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, June 23, 2016

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A CULTURAL EXPLOSION East meets West in northern Queens

by Christopher Barca Northern Queens neighborhoods like Flushing and Bayside are known both across country and the world as bustling hubs of AsianAmerican culture and cuisine, some spots resembling cities like Seoul, Beijing or Taipei more than New York City.

But just two decades ago, Rep. Grace Meng (D-Flushing) vividly remembers being one of the few Asian st udents in elementar y school and feeling humiliated whenever her mother packed her a lo mein or dumpling lunch.

“I was so embarrassed because no one knew what I was eating,” said Meng, the state’s first-ever Asian-American representative in Congress. “People were not familiar with Asian foods. I always begged her to pack me peanut butter and jelly.”

Her best friend growing up was the daughter of Greek immigrants, and it wasn’t until middle school when she began making friends with other Asian-American kids.

But as Meng approached high school, she noticed more more Chinese restaurants opening, including Uncle King’s at the corner of Roosevelt Avenue and Union Street where her father, later Assemblyman Jimmy Meng, worked.

That slow influx of Asian eateries was the beginning of the migration toward Queens by Chinese and Korean im migrants, with countless new apartment buildings and businesses opening by the turn of the century.

While it wouldn’t be outrageous to expect animosity between newer and longtime residents as the area’s startling transition went into overdrive, Meng said there were some passi ng com ments about her nationality in school but Asians, as a whole, were spared being targets of prejudice.

“There were people who felt uncomfortable with the influx of Asian Americans,” she said. “I don’t think people had bad intentions, but it was just frustrating for them.”

Regardless of any racial tensions that may exist, neighborhoods like Flushing, Bayside, Elmhurst and Corona continue to flood with eastern Asian immigrants.

By the time of the 2010 U.S. Census, over 510,000 Asian Americans, representing 23 percent of the borough’s population, called Queens home.

That number has grown to 26 percent, according to 2014 estimates, with a whopping 40 percent of the city’s Chinese population — nearly 400,000 people — living in the easternmost borough’s western and northern neighborhoods.

Around 60,000 are of Korean heritage, with the vast majority of them residing in Flushing.

Despite their relatively recent arrival, Asian Americans are leaving quite the foot pr int in all aspects of urban life.

The 165,000-square-foot New World Mall on Roosevelt Avenue is the largest Asian-themed shopping space in the northeast according to its website, serving as the main attraction within a highly

A family crosses Roosevelt Avenue to spend the afternoon shopping at Flushing’s internationally known New World Mall, the largest such Asianthemed venue in the northeast.

trafficked, predominantly Chinese and Korean business district.

Flushing Town Hall on Northern Boulevard has become one of the more popular arts and performance centers in the city, with throngs of people descending on the space each week.

Mosques, Hindu temples and both Roman Catholic and LatterDay Saints churches have sprouted up, each drawing hundreds of worshippers.

While some New Yorkers may see such a foreign-looking area as unappealing, even daunting, Meng said immigrant-heavy neighborhoods like Flushing and Elmhurst are blessings for the city as a whole.

“If you go around Downtown Flushing on the weekend, you see a lot of non-Asians,” she said.

“They’ve come here primarily to try different restaurants and experience the culture. That’s something we saw very little of growing up here.”

When it comes to observing new cultures, one Flushing resident helping br ing people to Queens is Dong Hyun Kim, founder and director of the Queensboro Symphony Orchestra.

Born and raised in Korea, Kim moved to Flushing in 1995 despite knowing little about the neighborhood. But as northern Queens became more heavily Asian, he said, the notoriety of area neighborhoods began to grow in countries like Korea and China.

“I didn’t know anything about Flushing and Queens before I came,” Kim said. “Nowdays, a lot of people in Korea know that there is a huge Korean community in Flushing.”

While the orchestra plays a variety of classical pieces at Flushing Town Hall, the musicians are predominantly of Asian descent. This gives new immigrants a chance to integ rate themselves into the neighborhood, immediately putting skills acquired at the encouragement of their parents and their culture to use.

“It looks like each of the Korean and Chinese families try to give their children music lessons,” the music director said. “There are a lot of Asian students in public school orchestras and bands.”

In addition to shopping and music, another aspect of Asian cult u re recently t r a n spor t ed to Queens has been the night market.

Run by John Wang, the Queens

Shoppers browse over a selection of fruit outside one of the many popular open-air markets on Main Street in Flushing, the borough’s biggest hub of PHOTOS BY CHRISTOPHER BARCA Asian-American culture and cuisine.

International Night Market — now in its second year of operation in the New York Hall of Science parking lot in Corona — draws thousands of people each summer Saturday night.

According to Wang, whose grandparents hail from China, nearly 90 percent of applications for the inaugural market last summer were filed by Asian vendors.

That number has dropped to around 50 percent in the night market’s second year, but Wang said he still has to turn down some applications from Asian vendors.

“They’re very popular. Some of them have been around for I would guess thousands of years,” Wang said of such events in Chinese and Korean cities. “But night markets have been popping up in North America, especially in California and Vancouver.”

While an Asian night market is not something he specif ically wants to recreate, Wang said his event has received tremendous press coverage in places like China, Japan, Korea and Hong Kong.

“We’ve been featured in Japan and Taiwan,” he said. “We’ve had more than a couple people from Hong Kong, which has a really famous night market, come and say, ‘I read about it in Hong Kong and wanted to come check it out.’”

“In East Asian countries, it’s a big thing. That’s what people do at night,” Meng added of the night market. “It’s a huge part of the culture and it’s been very interesting to see him bring that to Queens.”

As the “very exciting” integration of Asian-American culture and dining into the very fabric of Queens continues, Meng said the borough will only become more welcoming for future immigrants.

After all, she packs her own kids Asian food for lunch without fear of embarrassing them in front of their friends in the cafeteria.

“My sons, when they go to school, they don’t have to be made fun of anymore if they’re bringing Asian-American food,” she said.

“It’s exciting to see them be able to share their culture with their classQ mates.”

C M CEL page 25 Y K Page 25 QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, June 23, 2016

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RETAINING THEIR FAITH Serb Orthodoxy connects a culture

by Matthew Bultman As a 20-something living in Serbia in the late 1980s, Goran Milutinovic faced a difficult decision.

The region was going through a tumultuous period of conflict and political turmoil in the buildup to the Yugoslav Wars. Like other men his age, army service was mandatory for Milutinovic.

But he didn’t want to go to war, at least not this war. So, at age 27, he decided to come to the United States.

“It was a very hard decision,” he said. “When I came here, I didn’t know anybody. I didn’t speak English.”

Since the civil war and breakup of the former Yugoslavia, many young people from the Balkan region have come to New York City, seeking work and education. There are an estimated 6,000 Serbs in the city, largely concentrated in neighborhoods like Astoria and Ridgewood.

Like many Serbs who came to Queens as young adults in the 1980s and ’90s, life is very different now for Milutinovic. He runs Gory’s Place, a popular breakfast spot on Myrtle Avenue in Ridgewood. He is also president of the Serbian Association of New York, a social club that was founded in 1992 to give the growing Serbian population here a place to socialize and come together.

“In this country, you can make a living if you work hard,” Milutinovic said. “It’s all about discipline and hard work.”

Despite the changes, faith remains an important part of the culture for many in the community, said Lidija Nikolic, who was in her 20s when she came to the United States. Many of those

People come from far and wide to get fresh cevapi, a minced meat dish popular in the Balkans, from Adriatic Meat in AstoPHOTO BY MATTHEW BULTMAN ria, where John Catlak packs it up. born and raised in New York have retained their ethnic Serbian background, she said.

“For the most part, they have continued down the path of Serbian Orthodoxy,” Nikolic said. “It’s a connector to tradition and culture.”

The Serbian Association, which sits on an island where 65th Place meets Cypress Hills Street in Glendale, is another connector for the Serbian community in Queens. It sponsors a soccer

team and has dances on different nights during the week. Serbian programs play on a television near the bar, where visitors can order slivovitz, a brandy made from plums.

Down the road, at Bosna Express, you can find pljeskavica, a spiced meat patty considered a national dish in Serbia. Over at Adriatic Meat in Astoria, you can buy fresh cevapi, a grilled dish of minced meat that is also popular in the Balkan region.

On a recent morning, John Catlak was packing several of the small, finger-sized sausages into a container. Catlak said people visit the shop from as far as New Jersey and upstate New York to find cevapi.

“We sell a lot of these things,” he said. “You can make it on the grill, in a pan, in the oven. It’s preseasoned and has a nice flavor.”

For years another anchor of Serbian life in New York had been the St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Cathedral on West 25th Street in Manhattan. The 161-year-old cathedral was reduced to a charred shell after it caught fire following an Easter service earlier this year.

Nikolic, who is on St. Sava’s executive board, said the church was both a spiritual refuge and a cultural hub for Serbs throughout the region. For many, it was also a connection to their old country and to the family and friends they left behind.

“For many of us in the Serbian community, the congregation is the only family we have in New York, and in many cases, all the U.S.,” she said.

The emotional attachment many felt to the cathedral can be continued on page 39

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QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, June 23, 2016 Page 28

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HELLENIC HERITAGE Greeks Greek culture alive and well in Astoria

by Michael Gannon Dino Delos observes a lot about Astoria from a sun-drenched bench on 31st Street at the end of the N-Q elevated trains.

He came to the United States from Greece “a long time ago ... The other day it was cold out and people put on jackets. I didn’t wear one. I was born in the mountains.”

Greek culture is not so much on display in Astoria as it is a part of the landscape, the fabric of the neighborhood, be it the blue and white flags, the restaurants and bakeries along the 31st Street corridor and cross streets or the bilingual signs on everything from grocery stores to real estate agencies.

The first waves came in the 1960s, and, Delos said, were entrenched by the mid-1970s.

“They used to be in Manhattan — there were a lot of clubs and restaurants,” he said.

“Then we came to Astoria. St. Demetrios was the center of the neighborhood, working with other churches.”

The Greek Orthodox Church remains a center of activity and community in Astoria, according to the Very Rev. Archimandrite Ierotheos, abbot of the Monastery of St. Irene Chrysovalantou on 23rd Street.

“The church is very important,” Ierotheos said, speaking through an interpreter, “to residents, immigrants, everyone who is Greek Orthodox. We have services in Greek; Saturday school; Sunday school; pre-K. And we have community philanthropy for the people of Astoria.”

Delos said many of his fellow Greeks have begun moving to places like Whitestone, and other ethnic groups, such as those from India, have become more of a presence.

Athens Square, a park located at 30th Avenue between 29th and 30th streets,

offers a glimpse of that.

Numerous ethnic groups, including those from Southern Asia, regularly fill the shady park of just under one acre with the feel of an amphitheater.

Its most commanding features are a bronze sculpture of Socrates near three Doric columns, behind which the flags of the United States and Greece fly from adjacent poles.

While some of the other sculptures in the park are Greek-inspired, the website of the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation says one is the genuine article. In 1998, Mayor Demetris Avrimopoulos of Athens presented the city with a replica of Piraes Athens, the original of which is est i m at ed to be f rom around 350 BC. It’s just one of the things that has Delos saying any resident from his native land would treasure his or her new surroundings.

“They feel at home,” he said.

Three of Astoria’s highestprofile elected officials — Councilman Costa Constantinides, state Sen. Mike Gianaris and Assemblywoman Aravella Simotas — are of Greek descent.

During soccer’s World Cup playoffs in 2014, many communities in the World’s Borough were visited by late night talk show host Conan O’Brien in the presence of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a puppet operated and voiced by New York City native Robert Smigel.

Astoria was no exception when Greece’s national team hit the pitch, Triumph with camera crew in tow crashing parties on Astoria’s street corners and in its bars, mocking soccer in general and poking fun, as he did throughout Queens, at the neighborhood’s idiosyncracies.

The bit, which can be viewed on YouTube, concluded with a man at a party acknowledging that he is of Greek heritage, leading the puppet to ask, “So which diner do you work at?”

Jokes aside, the neighborhood is proud of its native culinary offerings, and aromas emanating from restaurants, cafes, bakeries and pushcar ts are a t reat in themselves.

George Koutziduchas, a veteran waiter at Stamatis on 23rd Street, said diners can enjoy authentic Greek food far more easily than those who first moved to the area.

Above, Socrates in Astoria’s Athens Square Park. At right and below clockwise, the Very Rev. Archimandrite Ierotheos, abbot of the monastery of St. Irene, St. Demetrios Cathedral and St. Catherine & George Greek Orthodox churches. At lower left, moussaka, a delicacy made from potatoes, eggplant and PHOTOS BY MICHAEL GANNON, AND, ground beef.

BELOW LEFT, A-MARGA / FLICKR

“What makes authentic Greek food is authentic ingredients,” he said. “With imports you have more of that than many years ago.”

Delos, though proud of the popularity of Astoria’s Greek restaurants and their cuisine, admits to being a purist.

“It’s the different water,” he said of New York City. “I buy Greek coffee and it tastes different. If you want authentic souvlaki, Q you have to go to Greece.”

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QPTV PSA Commissioner Penny Abeywardena New York City Mayor’s Office for International Affairs The New York City Mayor’s Office for International Affairs works to foster positive relations and encourage collaboration between the international community and New York City’s agencies and local neighborhoods. It is focused on sharing New York City’s policies and best practices globally, responding to requests from foreign governments, the United Nations, and the U.S. Department of State.

In 2015, the Office launched NYC Junior Ambassadors (NYCJA)- an exciting initiative focused on engaging 7th graders in all five boroughs of New York City to see themselves as global citizens through a connection with the United Nations. NYCJA seeks to expose a diverse array of teachers and students to the United Nations as a tool for teaching and learning in a variety of fields – from science to arts to civics.

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Queens Arabs hail from many nations

The Jamaica Muslim Center is one place Queens Arab Americans of the Islamic faith can go to PHOTO BY MICHAEL GANNON worship and for other services. that include a large number of recent immigrants, the organization believed that fear that interaction with the government might lead to information being used against the immigrant was leading many to shun participation in the Census.

A group that seeks to serve recent immigrants is the Arab-American Family Support Center, which identifies itself as the first and largest Arabic-speaking, trauma-informed social service organization in New York City, although its staff speaks a total of twelve languages. With offices in Long Island City and Brooklyn, it provides literacy, youth and legal services, as well as health and anti-violence programs, among others.

Specifically, the nonprofit offers individual and family counseling, crisis intervention and conflict resolution, as well as parenting skills, training and referrals for entitlements, benefits and services. The group also engages in advocacy.

Census figures have shown a large number of Arab Americans living in the neighborhood of Steinway Street in Astoria for the past few decades. Those include people who immigrated from or descended from the people of Lebanon, Morocco, Egypt and Syria.

Starting in 2011, Queens saw a sharp rise in the number of Egyptian immigrants because of the Jan. 25 Egyptian revolution. The increase was especially strong among Coptic Christians, who moved into Ridgewood.

Steinway Street has traditionally been considered to be a “Little Egypt” neighborhood, but Arab Americans have also settled in concentrations in Woodside, Corona and Ridgewood.

As many Queens neighborhoods exhibit broad diversity, Arab families can also be found throughout the borough, including in Jamaica, Flushing, Forest Hills and Jackson Heights.

The hookah bars where those of Middle Eastern descent have popularized the smoking of shisha, a syrupy mix of tobacco or herbs, are also found across Queens.

One popular restaurant with Middle Eastern food is Duzan Mediterranean Grill, a casual eatery on Steinway in Astoria with dishes featuring falafel, hummus and shawarma.

In worship as in food, Queens Muslims tend to congregate with people who share the same national background.

The Masjid el Iman on 25th Street in Astoria attracts Egyptian Muslims, while the Masjid Al-Hikmah on 31st Avenue serves the Indonesian Muslim community. Across the borough, the Jamaica Muslim Center, also known as the Masjid Al-Mamoor, provides worship and other services on 168th Street.

Islam is by far the dominant religion in the Arab world, though some Christians, Druze and others remain. In Queens, the most noticeable groups among Arabs are Muslims and Coptic Christians.

Queens Coptic Christians are served by several Ridgewood churches as well as St. George Coptic Orthodox Church in Astoria, which held its first service in 1994. Ridgewood’s St. Mary & Antonios Coptic Orthodox Church was noted for welcoming a large number of Copts who left Egypt to escape religious persecution after the revolution.

One place where Arabs and Muslims from a variety of national backgrounds come into closer contact is at the Razi School. The nonprofit school includes grades from pre-K through 12th and says it educates students from 24 different nationalities. The school also joins in the wider community, with its website noting participation in the Catholic Schools Science Fair, the Non-Public Schools Mathematics League ConQ test and other competitions.

19 TH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF QUEENS • 2016

given its general popularity in recent years, is likely to be found on Queens dinner tables of The Queens Arab population of course has many cultures.

Hummus, the chickpea and sesame seed as one of its defining characteristics the culpaste; shawarma, a shaved spit-cooked meat; ture’s dominant religion of Islam.

Individuals interviewed by the Queens and falafel, deep-fried fritters or balls of Chronicle say they feel more in common cultur- mashed peas. are staples of Arab and Middle ally with their national cohort, those who were Eastern foods, such as those from Syria and either born in the same country in the Arab Lebanon.

The importance of the common language of world or descend from Americans of the same Arabic shouldn’t be underestimated. ancestral homeland.

“I grew up listening to the Arabic Channel,” But as with people in general, a common language, Arabic, and shared customs around food said one woman who grew up in America and seem to help form connections among peoples identifies as culturally Egyptian because her from a wide variety of nations and backgrounds parents were from Egypt.

Arabic language was her only source of refhere in the world’s most diverse borough.

During this month of Ramadan, which erence, the woman said, and as she became began on Sunday, June 5 and ends on Tuesday, older, she found it difficult to understand or July 5, many Queens residents who identify as relate to American popular music.

Despite the high cost of housing in New Arab will be eating a predawn breakfast before observing a daytime fast, then breaking that York City, multigenerational living isn’t the fast at 8:30 p.m. with the cuisine of their former default plan for Arab families. Usually, young people get married and set up their own or ancestral homeland.

According to a few Arab and Egyptian households.

The total Arab population in the United Queens residents found at Leli’s Bakery in Astoria on 30th Avenue this week, for Egyp- States as of 2013 was 1,517,664, up from about tians, that means an evening fast-breaking meal 1.2 million in 2000, according to the U.S. Cenheavy on sweets, including basbousa. The sus’ American Communities Survey. “Arab” is sweet cake is made with semolina or farina and defined as people of Algerian, Bahraini, Egypsoaked in simple syrup, then topped with tian, Emirati, Iraqi, Jordanian, Kuwaiti, Lebanese, Libyan, Moroccan, Omani, Palestinian, walnuts.

For Moroccans, the fast might be broken Qatari, Saudi Arabian, Syrian, Tunisian or each evening with harira, a soup made with Yemeni descent.

The Census Bureau’s Egyptians are a bit of vegetables, pureed lentils and chicken. A man who identif ies as Moroccan American a special case. Modern Arabs and Egyptians explained that breaking the fast with soup gives do share the Arabic language. But Arabs are the body something lighter to digest after a full defined as a heterogenous group of Semitic people from the Arabian peninsula, Middle day of not eating.

Other Moroccan dishes likely to be found on East and North Africa who all share the same Ramadan tables in Queens tonight include language, Arabic. Egyptians are defined as a tajine, a slow-cooked vegetable and meat dish. non-Semitic people, and though they speak Also, couscous — granulated North African Arabic, neither group considers Egyptians to semolina bearing a resemblance to rice which, be Arabs.

In Queens, the 2010 Census showed 10,008 people aged 5 and older speaking Arabic at home as the primary language. That makes up a small percentage of the population, at 0.48 percent, but obviously doesn’t count those people who identify as Arab but speak a different primary language at home.

There has been some doubt that the Census Bureau accurately measures all Arab citizens and residents. In 2010, the American Mideast Leadership Network worked with a variety of institutions, including the Razi School in Woodside, to encourage The Silk Hookah Lounge in Bayside is one of many spots in Queens the parents of its students to where people can smoke shisha, a cultural tradition among Arabs, participate in the Census.

As with many groups PHOTO BY RICK MAIMAN as well as other groups.

by Victoria Zunitch

Page 31 QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, June 23, 2016

A LANGUAGE IN COMMON

19 TH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF QUEENS • 2016

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TANGO AND TRADITIONS Latino culture alive and well in Qns.

by Christina Cardona As you stroll down 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights, you come across stores with yellow, red and blue Colombian flags hanging out of their windows, fluttering in the breeze. You can also see “the oblea lady” making and selling obleas out of her cart on the street. An oblea is a traditional Colombian dessert that is dulce de leche, a spread similar to caramel, sandwiched between two thin wafers.

Jackson Heights is not the only neighborhood in Queens where you can see and take in the essence of Hispanic culture. There are more than one million Hispanics spread across the borough, with an especially heavy Latino population in Corona and Elmhurst as well.

“I love it here, it made the transition from Colombia to New York easier because of the community,” said a Jackson Heights resident who chose to remain anonymous for this article. “We are able to get our food from home here. And it is a better environment for our kids, things are hard in Colombia” When people walk through any Hispanic neighborhood, they come across overly friendly residents speaking to one another in their native tongue on the street. They see people sitting together, laughing and offering each other food. “Comiste?” is something that is said a lot, which translates to “Did you eat?”

They might offer traditional breakfast snacks such as buñuelos, which are fried dough balls made with cheese, or pandebonos, which is Colombian bread made with cor n f lour and cheese.

Speaking of food, Jackson Heights has an abundant number of traditional Hispanic restaurants that are welcoming, even to those who can’t speak Spanish. Pollos a la Brasa Mario is a steakhouse with multiple locations; there is one at 83-02 37 Ave. This traditional Hispanic restaurant serves up Colombian and Latin American favorites for a great price.

The eatery serves traditional dishes such as bandeja tipica, which consists of almost every traditional Colombian food. It is served with rice and beans, ground beef, a Spanish sausage called chorizo, sweet plantain called maduro, a traditional corn cake called arepa, a slice of avocado, a fried runny egg and a piece of fried pork belly called chicharrón.

Walk a few blocks down to Northern Boulevard and come across El Palacio de los Cholados, located at 83-18 Northern Blvd. This place is all about the traditional Colombian dessert, the cholado. A cholado is a shaved ice beverage that is drenched in raspberry and passion fruit syrup, chopped strawberries, mango and grapes, covered in coconut flakes, condensed

Clockwise from above, Azul Ibañez and Ruben Porto heat up a recent performance of AfroTango at the Thalia Hispanic Theatre in Sunnyside; the honorary renaming of 82nd Street at 37th Avenue in Jackson Heights; El Palacio de Los Cholados on Northern Boulevard; the traditional Colombian dessert it specializes in; and a traditional grilled meat dish at La Fusta Steakhouse in Elmhurst.

PHOTOS BY CHRISTINA CARDONA EXCEPT ABOVE, BY MICHAEL PALMA / THALIA HISPANIC THEATRE

milk and maraschino cherries. It is a neighborhood favorite and people come from far and wide to Jackson Heights for their cholados.

If one is looking to watch a salsa show or to listen to Latin American music one place to go to is Sunnyside, there you can find the Thalia Hispanic Theatre, located at 41-17 Greenpoint Ave. Thalia is the first and only bilingual Hispanic theater in Queens.

“It’s necessary to have a Hispanic theater in order to be in touch with Hispanic heritage and the culture of all of our countries,” said Angel Gil, Thalia’s executive and artistic director and producer.

The theater has been here for 38 years and has put on over 200 productions and won 192 awards for artistic excellence not only locally, but also worldwide.

Cuban actress and director Silvia Brito established the Thalia Theatre in 1977. According to Thalia’s website, Brito wanted to meet the neglected cultural needs of the borough’s diverse and growing Hispanic community. And what started as a community theater became a world-class institution overtime.

“At that time, there was nothing around here,” Gil said. “Everyone thought she was crazy, but she was a visionary, there was a need for a Hispanic theatre in the community.”

Gil said that Thalia caters both to the older generations, so they can be in touch with their culture, and the younger generation, who might only speak English. This way it serves all ages.

“We serve the Hispanic community first, but not only,” Gil said. “It’s important for us that all other communities understand what Hispanics are about.”

He said that the theater helps promote a better understanding of people, no matter what country they are from, especially to breakdown the Latino stereotypes.

“Hispanic stereotypes are maids, bus boys or kitchen people,” Gil said.

“It is important to show the biggest Hispanic writers and composers because they are able to show the level of culture the Hispanics have.”

Thalia is now running its production of “Apartment for Sale (Tenant included),” a comedy written by contemporary playwright Juan Carlos Rubio. It is about human relations, living space and quality time, and stars awardwinning actors Soledad Lopez, Basilica Bliachas and Jesus Martinez.

The show runs in both English and Spanish, but only through June 26. The next show is Friday, June 24 at 8 p.m. when it will be presented in English, as it will be again Saturday at 3 p.m. Spanish shows are Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m.

Tickets are $25. For more information, go online to thaliatheatre.org.

Many immigrants from Latin America come to America for more opportunity. This was the case for the family of state Sen. Jose Peralta (D-East Elmhurst), who immigrated

from the Dominican Republic to New York.

He was the first Hispanic from Queens to win an election to serve in the state Assembly.

“My election to Assembly was a historic moment for our state, but it was also a moment that brought great challenges and even greater responsibilities,” Peralta said. “It was a Jackie Robinson moment. Being the first Latino elected to the Assembly representing Queens came with the necessity and the obligation of working harder and trying to set higher standards for others to follow. The same occurred when I was the first Dominican American to be elected to the New York State Senate.”

Hispanic culture all around Queens is alive and has a lot to offer — food-wise and musically most obviously but in countless other ways too. The Colombian scene is so prominent in Jackson Heights that a section of 82nd Street is ceremoniously named “Calle Colombia Way” — “calle” being Spanish for “street.”

“Queens is the most diverse borough in New York City, and the district I represent now in the state Senate is the most diverse in Queens,” Peralta said. “And it is our diversity that makes my district and the borough stronger, a place where families put down roots. Queens is truly a magnet for hardworking, immigrant families who seek a better live and want to make the American Q Dream a reality.”

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REACHING A CROSSROAD

Bukharian Jews

‘Freedom is a double-edged sword’

their rulers and neighbors alike.

According to the Bukharian Jewish Center of Kew Gardens Hills leader, the first of three major migrations from their homeland occurred in 1924, as thousands fled Soviet communism for better lives in Palestine.

However, it wasn’t until the early 1970s — when the Soviet Union finally loosened its notoriously tough immigration laws — and again in the early 1990s when Islamic fundamentalism took hold in Uzbekistan that the Bukharian families moved by the thousands to Queens. “This is unprecedented in our community,� said Nisanov, whose family moved from Central Asia to Queens via Italy when he was 9. “For the first time, we have four or five generations of Bukharian Jews living within a 10-mile radius.�

An estimated 50,000 Bukharian Jews call Forest Hills and surrounding areas home today, earning Central Queens the nickname “Queensistan� in some circles.

According to Rego Park resident Imanuel Rybakov, an adjunct professor of Jewish studies at Queens College, the Bukharian community is by nature a tight-knit one, which explains why so many of the sect’s

by Christopher Barca The Bukharian Jews f leeing Central Asian en masse throughout the 20th century could have settled anywhere in the world.

But the first wave of immigrants chose Central Queens, first occupying swaths of Forest Hills and Rego Park before expanding eastward into neighborhoods like Kew Gardens Hills, Fresh Meadows and Jamaica Estates in recent years.

Why here? According to Rabbi Shlomo Nisanov, the leader of Kehilat Sephardim of Ahavat Achim in Kew Gardens Hills, the answer is a lot simpler than one might think. “I think the reason why people came to Queens is because of the proximity to JFK Airport,� Nisanov said with a chuckle. “The suburban attitude. Queens has more action than Long Island but less than Brooklyn or Manhattan.�

Centuries before descending on the United States, this sect of Jewish worshipers called what is now Uzbekistan home.

But starting with the invasion by nomadic Islamic tribes in the early 16th century, the Bukharians became the subject of persecution, oppression, suspicion and disdain by

members reside in the same neighborhoods. “Many of us are related. Many of us come from the same cities originally,� Rybakov said. “It’s a Jewish tradition to help each other and that led to the settling of so many families here.�

The northern section of Forest Hills along the Grand Central Parkway is arguably the biggest hub of Bukharian culture in the city.

Up and down 108th Street, shops and restaurants like the For t una Grill ser ve Bukharian food while residents flock to the Beth Gavriel Bukharian Jewish Center at 66-35 108 St. for various kinds of ethnic programming and community activities.

But as families grow and younger generations of Buk harians reach adulthood, Nisanov said he sees more and more people moving away from Forest Hills and farther out into Queens and Long Island. “There’s not much more space in Forest Hills,� he said. “We’re not moving to New Jersey yet, but that will happen.�

While the need to expand away from Forest Hills itself isn’t a worry, Nisanov said the sect is facing a different crisis, its first since Bukharians moved to the United continued on page 39

The Fortuna Grill on 108th Street in Forest Hills is one of the many Bukharian Jewish eateries along the strip. Nearly 50,000 members of the religious sect call Central Queens neighborhoods their home. PHOTO BY MARK LORD

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CONGRESSMAN

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Page 35 QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, June 23, 2016

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QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, June 23, 2016 Page 36

C M CEL page 36 Y K

A CHANGING SOCIETY

Staying together throughout the years

by Anthony O’Reilly Decades ago, Italian flags, delis and restaurants along Cross Bay Boulevard and 101st Avenue were an inescapable sight.

“Italians were instrumental in building this area brick by brick,” said Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park), who is of Italian descent.

And although the Italian businesses on those corridors still display their colors proudly, their numbers have dwindled.

“There’s nowhere near as many as there were when I was growing up,” the councilman said.

State Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) noted that many of the Italians who grew up in the area have started to move elsewhere in the city and country.

“In the old days, you moved here because you knew that people of the same ethnicity also lived in Howard Beach and Ozone Park and that’s where you stayed,” Addabbo said. “Take for example my father. He was born, grew up and died all within a one-mile radius. You don’t see that anymore.”

For Rosemary Ciulla-Frisone, a community activist involved in Italian-American organizations across Queens who lives in Howard Beach, the number of her people is not the only thing slowly leaving the area — it’s also the culture that she grew up with.

“In today’s society, you get these younger people who just aren’t interested in getting involved with these cultural groups,” said Ciulla-Frisone, a member of the international Sons of Italy group and the Italian representative for the Queens General Assembly. “Either that or they just don’t have the time to get involved.”

The membership of the Italian cultural groups, Ciulla-Frisone said, today is mostly made up of “the old-timers.”

“They’re trying to keep that culture alive,” she said.

Italians came to New York in waves during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, along with other Europeans such as the Irish and Germans,

who had started immigrating earlier.

Once they made their way through Ellis Island, many Italians made their way to Ozone Park, Howard Beach or parts of Brooklyn and Middle Village — and still call those neighborhoods home.

Corona, now a heavily Hispanic area, also once boasted a large Italian population. A neighborhood park on Corona Avenue between 51st and 52nd avenues is still to this day colloquially referred to as “Spaghetti Park,” a place where Italians could gather and play bocce ball, a sport that originated in Ancient Rome.

Director Charles Picerni, a Corona native and first-generation Italian American, is set to release an independent movie called “Spaghetti Park,” which tells the story of a Corona resident who faces family trouble when he decides to join an area mob.

It’s no secret that Italians face a stereotype that many of them either belong to or were once part of the Mafia — John Gotti, arguably the most famous mafioso, was based in Howard Beach and Ozone Park.

Joseph De Candia Jr., son of the man who was commonly known as Mr. Howard Beach, wants everyone to know that’s a stereotype that needs to be done away with.

“It’s no secret that it happened and it’s no secret that it happened here,” De Candia said.

“But the Italian-American community has done much more good.”

Take for example Joseph De Candia Sr., who was born in Italy. The owner of Lenny’s Clam Bar, Roma View Catering Hall and Joe’s Pizza, all on Cross Bay Boulevard, made it his life’s mission to give back to people.

“That’s what he loved to do,” De Candia Jr., who now runs his late father’s culinary empire, said.

His father was the founder of the international Society of Sts. Cosmas and Damiano, which holds fundraisers to raise money for the Make A Wish Foundation, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn,

Despite changing demographics, Italian heritage is proudly put on display every year on Cross Bay Boulevard as the Columbus Day Foundation hosts the Columbus Day Parade. A row of Italian FILE PHOTO cars, mostly Ferraris, with a Maserati out front, started the festivities in 2015.

Clockwise, photos of celebrities who have dined at Lenny’s Clam Bar adorn the walls of the Howard Beach restaurant. Sts. Cosmas and Damiano inspired the work of Italian native Joe De Candia Sr. Prima Pasta has been offering authentic Italian fare for years.

PHOTOS BY ANTHONY O’REILLY / EXCEPT BELOW; FILE PHOTO

Long Island and more.

In the three decades since the society was founded, millions of dollars have been donated to those groups.

De Candia named the society after the saints because he prayed to them when he was greatly ill as a child in Italy. The two, who were martyred, are patron saints of medicine and healing.

He had statues of the two saints made in Italy and shipped back to Howard Beach. They now stand in Our Lady of Grace and in an outdoor shrine at St. Helen Roman Catholic Church.

The younger De Candia also highlighted the hardworking spirit of Italian Americans, including his father. Many of them, he said, came to America and immediately found jobs where they could prosper.

“He came here and worked in restaurants and the pizzerias,” he said.

The Italian native worked his way up the ladder to success before eventually opening Lenny’s, which at one time had 14 locations in New York City. He also owned six Tony Roma franchises.

Addabbo noted that his grandfather had a similar attitude.

“Dominic Addabbo took any job he could,” the senator said. “Selling fruit, mixing cement.

Whatever it was, he did it.”

Because many Italians worked long hours during the week, Sunday was usually the only day the entire family could come together and continued on page 39

C M CEL page 37 Y K

continued from page 6 “If you want to go to a bar-bar, it’s always an Irish bar,” Bridies’ manager, Sebastian Parada, said. The establishment, he added, serves Irish food like shepherd’s pie and beef and barley soup.

On 72nd Avenue in Forest Hills, you can check out the Irish Cottage, an Irish pub owned by a woman from Donegal that has been open since 1960.

And for pub lovers who also can appreciate a great burger, Donovan’s — a bar in Woodside that is a regular on lists for the best burgers in the city — may be just the Q place for you.

The Polish continued from page 10 In existence for 46 years, Nowy Dziennik covers a wide range of topics, from American news, to metro news, to Polish news.

“For our readers, for many of them we are the window to Poland,” Slabisz said in a phone interview.

Slabisz said that at its start, many of the paper’s readers were immigrants from Poland, and that Nowy Dziennik served as guidance for those new to the United States.

“For many years Nowy Dziennik was sort of a guide for those immigrants, a guide on

THE K IWANIS CLUB OF HOWARD BEACH Joins with

The Queens Chronicle in Celebrating the Great Borough of Queens Bridie’s, a neighborhood Irish pub in Rego PHOTO BY RYAN BRADY Park.

how to get by in America,” Slabisz said.

She added that now, many of the paper’s readers have grown roots in the United States, which is part of the reason why the paper has become more focused on in-depth reporting when it comes to the news that is of most interest to its readers.

“We still provide the guidance, but we also try to provide food for thought,” she said.

This is just a smattering of the Polish cultural aspects found in Queens. But, it goes to show that whether you’re a Polish American looking for a slice of home, or just interested in the culture, you can find everything Polski that you might need right here in “The Q World’s Borough.”

Page 37 QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, June 23, 2016

Irish culture

54 Years of Proud Community Service in Howard Beach.

Kiwanis International Celebrating 101 Years 1915 - 2016 Joe De Marco, President Bobby LoCascio, Vice President ©2016 M1P •HOWK-069880

They still speak German here

The Stammtisch Pork Store’s offerings include many hard-to-find German beers.

PHOTO BY NEIL CHIRAGDIN

of their meat stock comes from the Forest Pork Store, located in Ridgewood, which now only does wholesale, and the store makes many sausages, sauces, pickles and salads on its own. The shop also offers many hard-to-find goods imported from Germany, as well as a wide range of German beers.

“There are still soccer groups and German dance clubs,” said Lehner, though he acknowledged that their numbers were dwindling. For Zum Stammtisch’s local regulars, the restaurant will remain a taste of home — and in the meantime, Lehner is happy to extend the German food experience to anyone looking for it.

Said Lehner, “you know, when I go out to eat, one of my favorite things is sushi ...

Q variety is good.”

Assemblywoman

ALICIA HYNDMAN – 29 th Assembly District –

232-06 Merrick Blvd., Springfield Gardens, NY 11413 718-723-5412

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19 TH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF QUEENS • 2016

continued from page 16 enclaves within the two neighborhoods, according to Census data. Both neighborhoods have seen an influx of immigration among Eastern Europeans and Hispanics.

But at Zum Stammtisch, a restaurant founded by Bavarian immigrant John Lehner in 1972, it’s easy to trace Glendale’s roots.

Sidle up to the bar, and while you pick between the pilsner and hefeweizen, you are still apt to hear German being spoken among patrons and waitresses alike. The menu offers a number of hearty German staples, including sauerbraten (a pot roast that’s been marinated for over a week) and the ever-popular jägerschnitzel (a massive veal cutlet covered in mushroom gravy).

Nowadays, the restaurant is run by brothers Hans and Werner Lehner, who both grew up working in the front and back of the house respectively under their father’s tutelage.

Werner Lehner remembers a Glendale with “old grandmas scrubbing the stoop outside” and “quite a few more dancehalls,” but embraces the neighborhood as it is today.

“It’s very much more diverse and a comfortable place to live. Different cultures coming in makes things more interesting,” said Lehner.

The Lehner brothers opened the Stammtisch Pork Store in 2011, after a number of butcher shops and delicatessens in the area had closed. “We saw there was a need in the neighborhood,” said Lehner. Ninety percent

Proud to represent the 29th Assembly District serving the communities of Laurelton, Rosedale, Springfield Gardens, St. Albans, Hollis and Jamaica

19 TH ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF QUEENS • 2016

QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, June 23, 2016 Page 38

C M CEL page 38 Y K

LINKIN’ SUBCONTINENTALS

India and neighbors, together in Qns.

by Victoria Zunitch Immigrants and people descended from countries on the Indian subcontinent, a group known collectively as “Desis,” make up one of Queens’ smallest ethnic groups but also one that is longstanding and prominent culturally.

Desi is a term for not only the people but the cultures and products of the Indian subcontinent. Those nations include India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

The population trend for the largest subgroup of Desis, Indian immigrants and people of Indian descent, has been in flux in recent decades.

As recently as 2006, the Indian population of Queens was pegged by the U.S. Census Bureau at 377,696. By 2012, that number had shrunk to about 134,173, but it has been growing again.

The most recent American Communities Survey by the Census Bureau, in 2014, showed 144,896 people of Indian ancestry living in the borough.

When Indians immigrate to the United States now, they still come to Queens in certain numbers but less often than in past years, said Jantibhai Patel, a store manager at Patel Brothers grocery on 74th Street in Jackson Heights.

“Not like before,” Patel said. “Now, more Long Island and New Jersey,” he said.

Patel is not related to the store’s owners, and he noted that the surname is a common one in India, similar to Smith in the United States. The Chronicle spoke with a handful of his colleagues, also named Patel and also no relation to either Jantibhai Patel or the store’s owners.

The store is part of a chain that sells Indian food, beauty products and spiritual items.

A report compiling U.S. Census data from several years on New York City’s Indian-American population by the Asian American Federation cited numerous Queens neighborhoods as

host to large Indian-American populations.

They are South Ozone Park, Richmond Hill, Jackson Heights, Jamaica, Bellerose, Queens Village, Glen Oaks, Floral Park, New Hyde Park, Briarwood, Jamaica Hill, Elmhurst and Flushing. Patel said no one neighborhood can be considered to be “the” Indian community for Queens.

Yet Jackson Heights, which was at one point a center of the borough’s Indian and Desi population, earning it the name “Little India,” can still lay claim to the title as a cultural and commercial hub of Desi life in Queens.

Jackson Heights has a plethora of shops selling Indian-style clothing as well as Indian and Desi restaurants and other businesses.

As with many immigrant groups, the customs and costumes of a homeland can become a bit frozen in time in America. One publicityshy attorney told the Chronicle that when she visits India, she often wears a sari to formal or semiformal events, just as she does in America.

But in India, she frequently gets questions about why she is wearing a sari from other women, who are often all wearing Western dress.

“I don’t care,” she said.

The Jackson Diner is one of the best-known Indian restaurants in Queens. The casual eatery offers buffet, table service or takeout and is frequented by a solid mix of the diverse population of Queens.

The typical American first taste of Indian food is often tandoori, food cooked in a cylindrical clay or metal oven. Samosas are also popular; the pocket sandwiches are the Indian version of dumplings, empanadas or pierogi.

Another popular choice is palak paneer. Paneer is a mild-tasting, unaged curd cheese. Palak paneer is cooked with a creamy curry-sauced spinach, making a healthy, smooth-textured hot casserole-style dish.

“They are all religious,” Patel said of the

At the annual Phagwah festival in Ozone Park and Richmond Hill, celebrants throw brightly hued powder on one another to celebrate Holi, the Hindu Spring Festival of Colors. PHOTO BY STEVE FISHER

Jayanti Patel, right, a manager at the Patel Brothers grocery in Jackson Heights, and Alkesh Patel (no relation) of the snacks department, before the most popular brands of whole wheat PHOTO BY VICTORIA ZUNITCH flour and rice that the store sells. fellow Indian and Desi people he meets in Queens and at his store. Many families live in multigenerational households, he said. The main religion is Hinduism, reflecting the large Hindu population in India, but there also are Buddhists, Muslims, Sikhs and Jains.

Although some of those religions have vegetarians as members, Patel said he sees a fairly small number in his store.

The most prominent Hindu temple in Queens is the Hindu Temple Society of America, incorporated in 1970 and completed at its present site on Bowne Street in Flushing in 1977. The temple has a very popular canteen in the basement, which sells high-quality and popular Indian dishes on a cafeteria-style line, with cafeteria-style seating.

The atmosphere in both the temple and the canteen is warm and welcoming, especially to non-Hindu visitors who are just curious. The granite temple’s main shrine is dedicated to Lord Ganesh, one of the most important deities in Hinduism, who is known by his elephant head.

Every year, Jackson Heights hosts a Diwali Mela, or festival, on a Sunday. Diwali is Hinduism’s Festival of Lights and its New Year. The area is lit up with white lights during Diwali, and on the day of the Mela, merchants set up booths to sell products and food while local dancers and musical artists perform.

Families light lamps, with some burning candles in the house all night long, attend fireworks and celebrate a feast with family.

The holiday represents the triumph of good over evil. The hero of the Diwali story, Prince Rama, is said to have rescued his wife Sita from the demon king Ravana. The story says that

after 14 years of waiting for Rama to return, a woman lit a small lamp in her window to light the way home for him. Others saw her lamp and followed her lead, until the entire kingdom was filled with the light that showed Rama and Sita the way home.

Another holiday that is popular with children is Holi, Hinduism’s Spring Festival of Colors.

The two-day festival is begun on a full moon day between February and April and, like Diwali, also celebrates the triumph of good over evil. Homes get a thorough spring cleaning and dances are sometimes part of the celebration.

What makes the holiday popular with children and other young people is a friendly splashing of colors on others with liquid or powder. This is sometimes done with powdered chalk in playgrounds, and the fun draws big crowds each year to the Phagwah parade and festival in Ozone Park and Richmond Hill.

The Sikh religion is another prominent Desi faith in Queens. The Gurdwara Sikh Cultural Society temple on 118th Street in Richmond Hill replaced another that had burned down in 2002. After that fire, the group temporarily held services in a nearby church.

On a national basis, Asian Indians have been one of the smallest but fastest-growing ethnic groups in recent decades. The U.S. population of Indians was estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2010 to include more than 2.8 million people, or almost 1 percent of the national population. That rose sharply from more than 1.6 million on the 2000 Census, which was about 0.6 percent of the national population.

By 2013, the Asian American Federation’s report showed that of the entire city’s Indian population, about 65 percent lived in Queens. Q

C M CEL page 39 Y K

Bukharian Jews in Queens

continued from page 26 difficult to put into words.

Ma ny people bega n attending services there almost immediately after arriving in New York. They were married in the church, baptized their children, and celebrated holidays there.

The church was also a resource for the community, with things like language classes and youth programs.

Nikolic said the f ire remains the most immediate issue for many in the Serbian community today. There has been an outpouring of support, she added, not just in New York but from people across the world.

“This horror and profound sense of loss was overwhelming,” Nikolic said. “But we have our con- The nearly complete destruction of St. Sava Serbian Orthodox gregation, the Serbian com- Cathedral in Manhattan is the top concern of many in the munity in New York and we Serbian community here.

PHOTO BY MATTHEW BULTMAN have each other, and that’s profit group InSerbia, the event has come to the prevailing sentiment in the community.”

Indeed, many Serbians will once again symbolize freedom and national spirit.

“The Vidovdan message was and is for come together later this month to commemorate Vidovdan, or St. Vitus’ Day. The nation- the Serbs, wherever they live, a token of their al and religious holiday pays homage to the past and present destiny,” Dimitrije DjordQ Battle of Kosovo in 1389. According to non- jevic wrote in “Serbian Studies.”

continued from page 34 States: avoiding full assimilation into American culture.

“What 75 years of communism could not do to our Judaism, America is doing within five years because we live in a society where it’s in fashion to be Jewish,” he said. “Freedom is a double-edged sword. There’s a very thin line between acculturation and assimilation.”

According to Nisanov, the freedom of choice in nearly every aspect of life — such a uniquely American concept — is weakening the characteristally strong bonds seen in Bukharian families.

Children are more inclined to move out of their parents’ home before marriage.

Younger generations aren’t as wedded to the idea of living in close proximity to their elders.

Buk har ian men and women have begun marrying spouses of different religions and raising children in their partner’s faith.

New Buk harian families are also adopting the mindset of trying to outdo one’s neighbor, especially when it comes to home building and marriage.

“The weddings have become very high-end. ‘How can I outdo you?’” he said. “It’s American. There’s also no subdued housing. They’re not trying to fit into the norm, they’re trying to stick out.

“You go to see a Bukharian home in

Viva Italia continued from page 36 enjoy big plates of lasagana, meatballs and more pasta — all usually at grandma’s house.

“It was especially important for my family because my father [a former congressman] worked Monday to Thursday in D.C. so that was really the only time we could all come together,” Addabbo said.

De Candia and Ciulla-Frisone noted that having family members spread across the city and state, and a society that puts more focus on working long hours and less on the family, has made it tougher for everyone to

come together.

Although grandma’s house may be a little less busy these days, there’s still plenty of other places across the borough to dig into Italian food.

Ciulla-Frisone recommends Prima Pasta on Cross Bay Boulevard. There are also countless pizzerias. If you’re in the mood for dessert, there’s royalty still in Corona in the form of The Lemon Ice King.

Addabbo wouldn’t pick a No. 1 spot.

“There’s just so many of them and it all depends what you’re in the mood for,” he said.

Barring his own restaurants, De Candia played it safe when it came to his choice.

“My wife makes the best Italian food.” Q

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Uzbekistan,” he continued. “The other house looked the same. We’re not trying to stand out.”

But Nisanov believes there is a way to walk that fine line, to remain an identifiable religious community while also enjoying American freedoms. And it involves doubling down on one’s historic and welcoming Bukharian faith.

“I don’t think there’s one specific answer,” the rabbi said, “but as a religious person, I think we have to go back to that sense of observancy. I think the way to do it is to remind Bukharian Jews what makes us unique.”

When asked what the future of the Bukharian community in Queens holds, Rybakov said he expects a continued outward migration into the neighborhoods surrounding Forest Hills.

However, the family-first nature of Bukharian families will never change, no matter where one household settles down.

“One of the reasons to move farther from Forest Hills is to buy a bigger house for the family,” he said. “The majority of us lived in large houses with our parents and grandparents too.”

Nisanov added that regardless of where in Queens they move, many Bukharian immigrants now view themselves as New Yorkers first, not Uzbek.

“We’re not going back to Uzbekistan,” he said. “We’re Bukharian Americans.” Q

Page 39 QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, June 23, 2016

Church a center of Serb life

M As wit Int y C k a h F ere om Ea bou ree st C mu rn t N On he nity >m YC lin ck ore B M e B ing 1 ® ... ob ank Ge ile ing 2 t > Ba . mo nk re ® ing ! .

QUEENS CHRONICLE, Thursday, June 23, 2016 Page 40

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