Kesher Talk

Jews in odd places: Harlem: For the last 55 years, in his stall in East Harlem’s La Marqueta at 115th and Park, 87-year-old Bernard Lifschultz has sawed the ends off stacks of dried cod and tossed countless spiky fish tails into an orange plastic bucket beneath the counter.

Down the street, at the corner of 116th and Park, after 47 years, Sol Kukawka, 79, still sells T-shirts and socks to what is now a largely Hispanic clientele.

In the early- to mid-1900s, a host of Jewish vendors owned businesses in La Marqueta, a once-bustling marketplace where customers shopped for staples such as meats and cheeses, rice and beans, and milk and eggs. Jewish-owned businesses, such as Louie Daitch’s dairy store, also dotted the surrounding streets.

Now, only seven of La Marqueta’s 30 or so booths are occupied, mostly by Hispanic vendors, and most Jewish-owned businesses in the area closed or relocated years ago.

But Lifschultz and Kukawka remain, among the last of the European Jews who once worked in Spanish Harlem.

posted by William @ 4/21/2004 08:56:08 AM