It is amazing how fast the orthodox Jewish community has grown in Waterbury and what a great thing that is for the city. Back in 2001 the city made an agreement that they could use the old Uconn campus on Hillside Avenue if they could bring in 100 families. They started with just nine families in 2000 and have since passed the 100 family mark. They recently purchased an apartment building to house students from the Yeshiva.
www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=16969
"The Orthodox Jewish rabbinical school Yeshiva Gedolah will quiet an uproar over illegal student dormitories in the Hillside and Overlook neighborhoods by purchasing a nine-story apartment building on Pine Street for use as student housing[i]."
Yeshiva in Waterbury will buy high rise
Started by
doz180
, Jan 04 2007 12:56 PM
3 replies to this topic
#2
JimSawhill
-
- Members+
-
- 637 posts
Hamlet
Posted 03 March 2007 - 09:48 AM
doz180, on Jan 4 2007, 01:56 PM, said:
It is amazing how fast the orthodox Jewish community has grown in Waterbury and what a great thing that is for the city. Back in 2001 the city made an agreement that they could use the old Uconn campus on Hillside Avenue if they could bring in 100 families. They started with just nine families in 2000 and have since passed the 100 family mark. They recently purchased an apartment building to house students from the Yeshiva.
www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=16969
"The Orthodox Jewish rabbinical school Yeshiva Gedolah will quiet an uproar over illegal student dormitories in the Hillside and Overlook neighborhoods by purchasing a nine-story apartment building on Pine Street for use as student housing[i]."
www.rep-am.com/story.php?id=16969
"The Orthodox Jewish rabbinical school Yeshiva Gedolah will quiet an uproar over illegal student dormitories in the Hillside and Overlook neighborhoods by purchasing a nine-story apartment building on Pine Street for use as student housing[i]."
doz:
Are you saying that Yeshiva University has a branch in Waterbury? Did they buy the old Uconn campus?
JimS
#3
doz180
-
- Members+
-
- 109 posts
Whistle-Stop
Posted 18 May 2007 - 10:05 AM
New York Times ran an article about the growing Orthodox Jewish Community in Waterbury.
Article Link
City hall actually did something right in Waterbury.......a miracle:
Article Link
Quote
WATERBURY, Conn. — The 7-Eleven on Cooke Street in this central Connecticut city now offers kosher Slurpees. A deli offering Shabbat specialties like cholent and kishke sits on a blighted street where the police frequently block off vandalized homes. An abandoned synagogue that was nearly sold to a church about seven years ago is now a bustling yeshiva where 200 young men study the Talmud.
An afternoon prayer service at the yeshiva in Waterbury, where more than 100 families shape a community.
Just north of downtown in this struggling city of 107,000, the Hillside neighborhood is a mix of boarded-up windows and pristine views of the green and lakes of Fulton Park below. Lately, there have been rumors of a police sting operation for prostitution.
Increasingly, the streets are filled with men in skullcaps and dark suits and women in wigs and long skirts as about 100 Orthodox Jewish families, many from the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, have moved in.
An afternoon prayer service at the yeshiva in Waterbury, where more than 100 families shape a community.
Just north of downtown in this struggling city of 107,000, the Hillside neighborhood is a mix of boarded-up windows and pristine views of the green and lakes of Fulton Park below. Lately, there have been rumors of a police sting operation for prostitution.
Increasingly, the streets are filled with men in skullcaps and dark suits and women in wigs and long skirts as about 100 Orthodox Jewish families, many from the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, have moved in.
City hall actually did something right in Waterbury.......a miracle:
Quote
A former industrial hub about a two-hour drive from either Boston or Manhattan, Waterbury has grappled for years with an eroding business base and declining property values. Once-resplendent homes have long been vacant and tarnished by graffiti. Though an influx of immigrants from Latin America and development projects have helped the economy in recent years, downtown still has scars of decades of decay.
Enter Rabbi Kaufman and his followers. With the help of real estate developers in 2001, the city’s political leadership courted the Jewish leaders, offering a $60,000 lease on a former campus of the University of Connecticut in exchange for a promise to bring in 100 families by this summer.
That goal was reached a year ahead of schedule. The kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school expanded from one to two buildings on the university campus, and is expected to soon fill all five buildings there. The high school will award its first batch of diplomas next summer. And the yeshiva, the adult religious school that is the heart of Jewish life here, is moving its dormitories into a 10-story apartment building in the center of town later this year.
Enter Rabbi Kaufman and his followers. With the help of real estate developers in 2001, the city’s political leadership courted the Jewish leaders, offering a $60,000 lease on a former campus of the University of Connecticut in exchange for a promise to bring in 100 families by this summer.
That goal was reached a year ahead of schedule. The kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school expanded from one to two buildings on the university campus, and is expected to soon fill all five buildings there. The high school will award its first batch of diplomas next summer. And the yeshiva, the adult religious school that is the heart of Jewish life here, is moving its dormitories into a 10-story apartment building in the center of town later this year.
#4
HartfordTycoon
-
- Moderators
-
- 3,171 posts
Town
Posted 18 May 2007 - 10:30 AM
That's a great article. I knew when that community first relocated to Waterbury that it would be good for the city. It's encouraging that they have taken root so quickly and seem to truly consider Waterbury home and a place that they want to improve and contribute to.
