15th Ward
Rebecca Shabad
Syracuse, N.Y.— Recent events around the Syracuse area brought local Jewish residents back in time to the 15th ward, which they once called home. Their population was thriving until the construction of Interstate 81 sent them fleeing.
“Everybody, acquiesced, everybody gave in,” said Etta Rae, a Jewish woman who met her husband Hecky Alpert on their first date in the 15th ward more than 50 years ago.
“There was no protest or anything. Everyone just said, well, we’re going to have to find another place to live.”
The Alpert’s, like most of their Jewish neighbors, left the ward and moved to nearby Fayetteville and opened Temple Beth Shalom, one of several synagogues in the area.
What the couple left behind was a tight-knit community of a few thousand Jews. Alpert, whose grandfather came to Syracuse to take a job at a Hebrew school, said they all arrived from big cities.
“This was the Jewish community. Practically no Christians. They were in the minority,” Alpert said.
Synagogues, also known as Shuls, were mostly orthodox except for Temple Adath Yeshurun and Temple Concord, conservative and reform congregations, respectively.
The entire ward was immersed in Jewish culture beyond where they prayed. People purchased all of their food at Kosher butcher shops and Jewish bakeries that stretched down eight blocks.
President Eisenhower’s National Interstate and Defense Highways Act of 1956 tore through the middle of their lives and wiped out every Jewish part of the 15th ward.
Alpert said, “I never thought it was great, but now I can say it is great because there is nostalgia, there is an intimacy, and you realize what you had at the time.”
