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Oral History Interview with Jean Gottfried, November 10, 2010, inclusive

Scope and Contents

During her interview, Jean Mondschein Gottfried (1915-) discusses her family's immigration history. She recalls her father's business, he was an egg handler and worked in the butter and egg business. Her father's parents owned a butter and egg store. Gottfried talks about attending PS 174 on Livonia Avenue in East New York. She mentions that she was in one of the first classes to graduate from Thomas Jefferson High School and she remembers when it was built. Gottfried recalls getting a job during the Depression working as a cashier in a restaurant in a wholesale fruit and vegetable area known as Washington Market. She describes the farms along Linden Boulevard in East New York and the two-family house in which she grew up. She also describes the clothing at the time; girls never wore slacks. Gottfried recalls her religious education – she learned traditions in the house. She talks about Talmud Torah, the Orthodox synagogue the family attended, because it was across the street on Pennsylvania and New Lots. She remembers how the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue got started in the Huffman's living room and how she was introduced to the Huffmans. Gottfried and her daughter, Fran, talk about the different role of women at Brooklyn Heights Synagogue from their experiences in an Orthodox synagogue. She also discusses how different life was in the early 20th century, people had less and shared more. Interview conducted by Sady Sullivan.

Biographical / Historical

Jean Mondschein Gottfried was born in Philadelphia in 1915 where the family was staying briefly for her father's work; she has one older brother and one younger brother. The family spoke Yiddish although the children would often respond in English. The family soon returned to Brooklyn and lived briefly in Williamsburg before moving to East New York, where she lived until the 1960s. She currently lives in Brooklyn Heights and when they moved there in the 1960s her brother said, "Why are you living with the hippies?"

Conditions Governing Access

This interview can be accessed onsite at Brooklyn Historical Society's Othmer Library and online at the Oral History Portal.

Center for Brooklyn History
128 Pierrepont Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201