New York City

No Sleep ’Till Brooklyn

AVODAH Corps members reside in three different houses in Brooklyn, all within a half hour walk of each other and close to public transportation. The Westminster bayit is located in the Beverly Square West section of Flatbush—an ethnically, racially, and economically diverse neighborhood, home to Irish, Italian, Jewish, and African-American communities. The Beverly Square West neighborhood is a residential area with many Victorian homes.

There is a Reform synagogue, food co-op, coffee shops, a public library, several small grocery stores and a few restaurants in the neighborhood. The house is a short walk to Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Nearby are the Jewish and Pakistani neighborhoods of Midwood, with several different types of Orthodox synagogues, as well as kosher restaurants and bakeries.

A short distance away is the home of two more AVODAH batim. The Farragut and 615 houses are next door to each other in the diverse Brooklyn neighborhood of Flatbush. The area of Flatbush closest to the AVODAH batim is a mostly Caribbean community – Jamaican bakeries line the streets, and it’s not uncommon to read and hear French while walking down the street. The “Junction” at Nostrand and Flatbush Avenues is a bustling area of shops and small groceries. Some chains have arrived in the area, but the majority of businesses are one of a kind, such as Lordes Photo Cakes, a favorite treat of the Corps members.

Brooklyn College, a five minute walk from the batim, is a great source for lectures and performing arts events, as well as a community garden plot where the Corps members tend to their garden. The laundromat, park, the Flatbush YMCA with gym facilities and library are all very close by. Nearby is a popular Jewish neighborhood with stores, restaurants, and synagogues. The Brighton and Coney Island beaches are nearby and the Ocean Parkway bicycle path, the oldest bicycle greenway in America, is three miles by bike.

There are eighteen participants in New York. View the full listing of the 2007-2008 New York placement organizations.

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Testimonials

I think it’s amazing how you can come home at the end of the day and debrief with someone about specific issues that you are going through with a particular client. It’s one thing to talk about the larger issues of poverty but it’s another issue to talk about the lived experiences of poverty, the specific stories. Then poverty is not something that is ‘out there’ but in fact something you can relate to - either because you share a similar experience or because of the understanding that comes from working with people. That’s a part of the uniqueness of the AVODAH program.”

Laura Mayo Bronstein2004-2005 Corps Member