The Neighborhood of Borough Park - An Old World Hasidic Community in Brooklyn

As in other sections of Brooklyn, Borough Park was farmland in the early 19th Century. A small development of cottages was built in 1887 and soon after a subdivision of homes was created east of New Utrecht Avenue.

To accommodate its growing population, including Jewish residents from the Lower East Side and Williamsburg, low-rise apartment buildings were developed after World War I. By 1930, half of Borough Park's residents were Hasidic from the Bobover group in Poland, more Hasidic Jews moved into Borough Park in the 1950s because of the 1956 uprising in Hungary, and others relocated from Williamsburg. Today the majority of Borough Park's residents are Hasidic Jews, featuring 300 synagogues and 50 yeshivas.

To provide additional housing for the growing number of families in the community, three- and four-family brick buildings are being built on lots that had previously held one- and two-family homes.

The commercial corridors of Borough Park are filled with small stores known as “shomer shabbos” because they observe the Jewish Sabbath, from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday. Jewish bakeries thrive in the community and produce hand-baked matzohs. There hundreds of shops selling designer and name brand clothing, and kosher meat markets, pizzerias, and bakeries as well as Maimonides Medical Center nearby.