Gritz, Helen

Helen Gritz, b. 1929, grew up on Barnes Avenue in the Northeast Bronx. Her parents immigrated from Poland, her father arriving first and her mother having to enter illegally through Canada after the establishment of the 1924 Quota Acts. Her father was an expert tailor and a Communist. They lived in an Italian and Jewish neighborhood, with the Jews living in apartment buildings and the Italians living in one-family homes. Nearby, Allerton Avenue was the main shopping area. Gritz was not allowed to play with the “gasn kinder” (street children) as a young child, instead playing with her cousin in Bronx Park. She attended Yiddish after school classes and played the piano. These happy childhood memories ended at age 9 when her father died, and Gritz had to take on more responsibility, particularly caring for her younger brother. Though not wealthy, her father’s job security meant Gritz’ family was relatively unaffected by the Great Depression, always knowing where their next meal would come from. They were not kosher or religious, eating typically Eastern European Jewish foods like gefilte fish and chicken soup, though they would celebrate the holidays by eating the associated foods. In school, Gritz was always in the brightest class and was an avid reader from a young age. She describes most of the teachers as Irish or Italian and antisemitic towards the Jewish students. Growing up speaking Yiddish at home, and still speaking it to this day, Gritz’s Yiddish accent was drilled out of her in the public schools. After attending Christopher Columbus High School, Gritz attended commercial college and worked as a legal secretary until she became pregnant. She stayed in the Bronx for 28 years after she married, raising her children in the West Bronx near Van Cortlandt Park. Gritz says it was, for them, a Garden of Eden, with good schools, many other Jewish children, and parks all around. In more recent years, Gritz joined a Yiddish conversation group in the Bronx, which would bring her back to the borough weekly until the meetings were changed to Zoom. She remains a member of the group at 96 years old. Overall, Gritz’s memories of growing up in the Bronx are very positive, despite her childhood being “cut short too early and too dramatically.” She describes her neighborhood in the era as a wonderful place to live, where Jews lived as they wanted as Jews, religious or not. Keywords: Poland, Quota Acts of 1924, garment industry, Montreal, Italian, Barnes Avenue, Allerton Avenue, Yiddish, Bronx Park, Communism, Great Depression, food, World War Two, education, reading, antisemitism, race, traveling library, Van Corlandt Park, Williamsbridge Jewish Center, gender

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