Illustrating more Five Towns history

The book includes more than 200 images that mostly come from private collections. It is divided into four sections: iconic landmarks, synagogues and rabbis, day schools and yeshivas, and Jewish community life and personalities.

Arcadia describes its latest offering about the Five Towns. “The rich history of the early years of Jewish growth and development in the Five Towns and Rockaways lends a deeper understanding of this phenomenal change of demographics and influence that has occurred over the past few decades.”

Woodmere resident Rabbi Mordecai Kamenetsky had gotten the idea to compile materials for this book after having spoken with some Staten Island Jewish community members. He had already been compiling book materials such as photographs and notes for about 10 years on his own. 

“They had a book,” he said. “I just thought it was important to get this out there, especially to kids and the grandchildren. I started around the same time as the 50th anniversary of the first yeshivas in Nassau County. History is more cherished when it’s more ancient.”

The goal of the book, he added, was a focus on “survival, persistence and growth,” he said. “Yeshivas are the secret to growth in this community.”

The challenge in putting this book together was in sorting the information and photographs, Kamenetsky said. “Arcadia has specific guidelines as to what you can put in, based on decade time frames,” he said. “I had hundreds of pictures. They asked me if I could write the captions, and so I did. Another challenge was in how many institutions weren’t able to supply pictures, yearbooks or journals.”

Millicent Vollono, Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library’s Head of the Readers’ Advisory and Reference Services, understands the value of a local, historical self-published book. Vollono researched and wrote the first Arcadia book about Five Towns history five years ago.

“For many years, libraries and schools have depended on sources which were either difficult to obtain, outdated or too rare to circulate to the public,” she said. “The ability of a publisher like Arcadia to print an affordable book or e-book with a standard format and a level of editorial oversight greatly expands the kinds of sources available to educational institutions and the public at large.  Their marketing ensures that they can reach a wide audience. Many longtime residents were unaware of the roots of this community. As the population grows and changes, it will be more and more valuable to expand on this information and make it available to future residents and scholars.”

Kamenetsky said that his favorite part of the book was in reliving the memories. “I was reliving memories of places I knew and people who lived there before that are gone now,” he said. “Many fond memories I had, of special people.”