Brooklyn Jewish Center, 1924. This synagogue and community center had its cornerstone laid in 1920 and was established to cater to the needs of Jewish life. The building when completed had a sanctuary, wedding ballroom, a day school, a swimming pool, and a health club. A kosher restaurant and a robust adult education program rounded out the center which was imagined as a single institution for educational, religious, social, and recreational activities. It has earned the descriptor of "a pool with a school and a shul." In the 1960s a the surrounding neighborhood was changing (white Jewish and Catholic populations were moving away, while African American and Chassidic Jewish communities were arriving) the building adapted to the transition. It became the home of the Educational Institute Oholei Torah, the flagship school of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

Crown Heights has a rich and diverse history. Though it began as farmland, it developed as a fashionable locale for the second homes of bourgeois Manhattanites. Eastern Parkway soon was studded with cultural institutions and mansions. Furthermore, the 20th century marked an influx of Jewish and later Caribbean immigration, with both communities infusing Crown Heights with new cultures and making their mark on the neighborhood.

The Forward’s fav opera and recording star Richard Riven Tucker was much beloved by Metroplitan Opera fans as well as Forward readers, including as a one time deli sandwich! Yes, to celebrate the centennial of his birth, he was given that special NYC honor of being a deli sandwich, and having then NYC Mayor Bloomberg honor his birthday, August 28, as “Richard Tucker Day”.