A Stroll to His Childhood Home | With Writer and Former Resident Phillip Lopate

Williamsburg, Brooklyn has a rich immigrant history. Before the South Side became the Hasidic enclave that it is today, it was a much more eclectic immigrant neighborhood. Among its former residents is the writer Phillip Lopate, who grew up in what's now the heart of the Hasidic "shtetle".
Phillip lived in Williamsburg from age 4 in 1947, until he reached about high school, but after his family moved out of Williamsburg, he returned daily to attend high school at Eastern District High.
Phillip generously joined me in Williamsburg for a visit to his old haunts. We first stopped by his old place at 352 Broadway, right by the noisy train tracks, and then the apartment at 151 Ross Street, which is right off Lee Avenue. We also visited the famed former Eastern District High School, which I've written about extensively, and the public library that sits right across from it, and discussed the Brooklyn Queens Expressway's impact on the time Phillip lived in Williamsburg. We stopped over for knishes and rugelach, ambled along Lee Avenue to see Flaum's Deli, and said our goodbyes at Gottlieb's. It was a lovely afternoon!
Phillip's brother Leonard Lopate is also well known as a famous radio personality. I've written about Leonard Lopate in Williamsburg before and hope to one day visit with Leonard.
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[@katriel8693]

I (American, reform jew) work I’m the UK. Today a (secular) elderly patient was telling me about your videos ! Fantastic !

[@andreaf7886]

I just finished another video. What a terrific conversation. You are a natural interviewer. I hope more people find your content.

[@FriedaVizelBrooklyn]

I hope so too!

[@marciabrickerhalperin6614]

How wonderful to be able to be a fly on the wall as you schlep Mr. Lopate through Williamsburg. And those snippets of life as you passed through the streets - wonderful. What a gentle, patient man. I hope you fed him well.

[@rosalieheller8204]

A really wonderful interview. I'm enriched by your series.

[@Monica-gene1]

I wish I found your channel before my mom died she would have loved it as much or even more then I do! She grew up in Williamsburg and my baba lived there to the very end. Thank you Frieda! ❤

[@FriedaVizelBrooklyn]

Oh, I wish I had gotten to her from her her memories before she passed. I am sure she was wonderful.

[@Monica-gene1]

@@FriedaVizelBrooklyn she would have loved to talk to you! ❤️

[@dithers]

So fantastic to hear the great Philip Lopate talk about the old neighborhood - thank you for this wonderful segment!

[@FriedaVizelBrooklyn]

Thank you for watching it!!

[@sommersonne9466]

Hi frieda, i love your interviewing style. Thanks for creating thus content.

[@FriedaVizelBrooklyn]

I'm so glad this old content is getting seen...

[@janem34]

Great tour and interview, so glad you were able to interview a native of the area, and just let him talk, and we also saw so much culture of the neighborhood and stores/restaurants as you went in them and walked through the streets. Thank you....

[@billducker7404]

Thank you for sharing your story with us Sir. May HaShem bless you and Frieda for taking us again into places and to people we don’t normally see. Their testimonies are so important to us. I hope to see some books from you one day. Have a great week. Bill. Uk

[@FriedaVizelBrooklyn]

So nice to read your comment Bill. Enjoy the rest of your week!

[@caroledrury1411]

This is really incredible documentary Frida, I think you have started some thing that should be embraced. Asking someone where they grew up and about their neighborhood as they walk through it and how it’s changed and how it was, it’s really fascinating. It goes beyond the Hasidic community because everyone’s life changes from where they grew up to where they end up. you ask great questions. I lived across from a tropical Mo haired suit and hat shop In the tenement neighborhood of the lower Eastside on attorney Street. The synagogue was on Norfolk Street. There were also a lot of Dominicans. I’d love to find out what that neighborhood is like now if you ever end up venturing in that direction.

[@FriedaVizelBrooklyn]

What a great idea. Perhaps one day...

[@susannedodson16]

Very interesting! Dankeschön

[@susannedodson16]

Thank you so much!

[@karendeck1343]

I am having a blast watching these videos. Such interesting conversations. ❤️

[@clivemilner]

Frieda Vizel, please can we have more interviews like this. People who have lived in the Hood. So many memories and changes over time.

[@FriedaVizelBrooklyn]

I absolutely LOVE to do them but there is not a lot of interest sadly.

[@arinorellana5852]

It was such a natural conversation it seemed like I was walking along with you guys❤

[@user-eg8pv2om7j]

I stayed with a Jewish family in a Jewish part of Brooklyn, Kings highway / Prospect park in the 1990s . I wish I hadn't been such a schmuck and learnt more but was overwhelmed by New York. I preferred Long Branch New Jersey as a community and location. Another beautiful video. Thankyou both for your time and efforts. Tov Toda תודה

[@jimdeane3667]

Another one that is a precious gift. Frieda, you make me smile. You describe yourself as an “Anthropologist”, one who studies human nature”. I see you! You are one who loves her people, her family, what has made you, you!❤ This I know and understand deeply. You commented again about how you feel that you need to hold back in talking about things that matter to you with your Mom. (Like your dog at the time.) Such a Boosha for a Jew to have an animal, and even worse a dog, in their house! Really!? All of G-d’s creatures are precious. And “dog”, in Hebrew כלב, is like the heart. For you, that is warm and filled with love. My perspective is different. Both my parents have passed many years already. I was fortunate not to have held back anything from them, particularly in their last years. I have no unfinished business, B”H. I would only write to you, as a kindred soul, do your best to be an open book to your parents, if they will allow you. Express plainly and demonstrate your love for them, because they surely love you just like you love your son. And if you are fortunate to still have them, you do not know how many precious hours remain that G-d will give to be together. A little past the halfway mark, you both were commenting about how the religious feelings are not/were not what moved you. It was the people. It makes me think of a comment from the book of Chassidic aphorisms for each day of the year that was written by the Lubavitcher Rebbe called HaYom Yom, From Day to Day. It says for the 28th of Nissan, “That the Chassidim asked of the Alter Rebbe (the first Lubavitcher Rebbe), which is the greater service, Love of G-d or Love of Israel (Yidden). And he answered, Love of G-d and Love of Israel are two that are engraved like one, through and through every individual Jew. And the written Torah is filled with words of G-d saying, I love them! Noting that this is the greatness of love of Israel (your fellow Jew), that you love what He loves! Only blessings…

[@janispope4295]

Fascinating. Thanks so much for making these.

[@FriedaVizelBrooklyn]

Glad you like them!

[@olitokolito1298]

My grandparents escaped Lithuania. This makes me so sad to hear but I know what happened it’s so important to hear these conversations now my Grandparents are no longer with me. Thank you for creating these opportunities for us all to hear. Love your work so much!

[@FriedaVizelBrooklyn]

Thank you so much and for sharing about your Litvak grandparents . We are all connected…

[@shimonsieskel4482]

I have fond memories of Flaums. They actually made the pickles and herring in the back of the shop. When they tore the building down, it smelled like pickles and herring for months after. It was great.

[@annedebthune3084]

I’ve read his books. I love his stories of growing up in brooklyn

[@julieweiner1623]

Fabulous work, great video. I enjoyed watching every minute of it

[@robinbee7799]

Fascinating interview!! Thank you.

[@deenwheeler9293]

Thank you so much for your most interesting documentary. And you seem to be a real honey😊💕

[@3roachkidsdhe]

I grew up until about 8 years old in Spring Valley , New York. We are Jewish not Hasidic but we would play with the Hasidic kids. The kids were really nice to us. I was fascinated by how many kids there were and how they dressed. We didn’t interact with the parents but I do remember going over to one of their houses . I remember the TV being on 24 hours because they couldn’t use electricity and I know on these videos you are saying they don’t watch TV but I remember the TV bring on one channel and they wouldn’t turn it off. I also remember a smoke alarm going off on Shabbat and that they would not shut it off and our German Shepard kept barking. I remember my mom being upset and eventually the police were called to turn off the alarm cause it was so loud. I didn’t realize at the time that because we were Jewish they wouldn’t have us turn the alarm off. I also remember taking a gymnastics class with orthodox (maybe not chassidic Jews) they would come in their long skirts and take them off with a leotard underneath . The building was attached to a church and if you wanted water you had to go into the church to get to the water fountain. I remember even though they were thirsty they would not go into the church saying it was a bad place. Later on I did an internship in a pediatric office in the Hasidic community in boro park and I was again fascinated by the culture. The kids would walk to the doctor by themselves and the doctor would call the parent with any concerns. I couldn’t imagine my kids walking to their doctors by themselves. I absolutely loved the experience.

[@joelwoll1693]

Fantastic stuff this is so well done.

[@HarryWeisskaimu]

great interview as usual hope to see you in person one day chag sameach

[@carlaburdick5288]

Lovely, interesting story......love your KZbin stories.

[@dianavasto3047]

Enjoyed this but disagree with the comment that “Broadway is terrible “ As a person who grew up in the 70’s and 80’s in Williamsburg- Broadway was and has been a lively place with great shops and interesting people.

[@FriedaVizelBrooklyn]

Very good point! It isn't easy on the eyes though.

[@patrickdikkes9034]

That was amazing and wonderful !

[@shimonsieskel4482]

The new building that Mr. Locate pointed out ( corner Rodney) was where the Commodore was.

[@grasmereguy5116]

I miss Leonard Lopate on WNYC

[@cr-ei5jm]

same here. Leonard was the best host on WNYC. I've stopped listening to the station ever since. Irreplaceable . Blame Cancel Culture

[@grasmereguy5116]

@@cr-ei5jm I agree that they done him wrong, but some people needed to be canceled (Matt Lauer?).

[@lisajohansson4028]

❤

[@joannaczaban2735]

Hartsikn dank fun Poyln!

[@ruthtaylor1083]

What is the name of the book you mentioned to him at the start...a history book about Williamsburg? What is the title and the author' s name please?

[@dudeonthasopha]

There are still plenty jewish socialists/anarchists, even with events and publications in yiddish. Jewish people were integral in the early leftist essays and organizing since they were workers and didn't want to abandon it. They went to other countries and denounced the antisemitism in the soviet union as remaining ignorance of a peasant era.

[@user-eg8pv2om7j]

Please can you offer a video to explain differences between Shepardi, Ashkenazi , Lubovitch and similar branches of Judaism .

[@grasmereguy5116]

Hey, Frida, Shkoyekh on the Times of Israel story. So weird that I watched your new video on KZbin and then read ToI and there you are again! I'm one of your old Quora followers, btw. (Mike Josef.) And not to mention hobnobbing with an acclaimed author, I loved "Waterfront: A Walk Around Manhattan" and would listen to Lenny on WNYC all the time. I tried to catch him on WBAI but don't get good reception and WNYUC is as left on the radio dial as I could go. I liked when he histed his brother on New York & Company (later the Leonard Lopate Show) WNYC done him wrong..

[@barryklein4346]

Only 17 minutes in. Too much negativity. I feel sorry for this old man.

[@muffincat99]

He sounds exactly like his brother Leonard

[@FriedaVizelBrooklyn]

Ha ha, I don't know what his brother looks like.

[@doctork16]

Imagine that! People who live to serve G-d are sitting on prime real estate

[@user-eg8pv2om7j]

Tragic there's a need for a double outer cage outside the synagogue before you get to the main doors . Also security booth on the street. Zionism aside sometimes you must reconsider where is the promised land due to increasing threats to safety changing a community. USA is not as safe as it used to be. Take care.

[@whitemailprivilege2830]

44:39 😄

[@DaMensch86]

I hear this mentality of , you’re only orthodox or secular, is very big in Israel. No reform, reconstructionist, modern, etc.. I may be wrong.