Bella and Gabriel Rubaszkin

Interview Description

Oral History Interview with Bella and Gabriel Rubaszkin

Bella (Biela) Rubaszkin was born in 1933. Observant from birth, she fled her home village of Krolevets, Ukraine as World War II intensified in 1941. She and her family migrated east to Saratov, Russia and then further east until the war's end. She met her future husband Gabriel Rubaszkin, a Russian Jew, in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Religious persecution forced their move to the United States, via several countries. During their five-year stay in France, Bella and Gabriel were married. They arrived in New York in 1954. By 1958, they had settled in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights and began raising a family. By 1993, they were grandparents. They sold their Carroll Street home in 2005, and have since resided in White Lake, New York and Miami Beach, Florida.

Bella Rubaszkin discusses some traditions, teachings and social gatherings of the Lubavitcher community. She and her husband Gabriel talk about their displacement in Europe and Russia during and after World War II; the changing ethnicities of their pocket of the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn and changes in where Jews have settled in the New York City area since the 1950s; and the success and job opportunities of their neighbors and relatives. They make their observations on the ethnic and racial tensions of Crown Heights since the 1970s through to the 1991 rioting and the aftermath. In light of her attendance in a college-level political science course, Bella offers her thoughts on the strife within the community and ways of reconciliation. Interview conducted by Jill Vexler.

This collection contains oral history recordings and transcripts, as well as exhibit materials, from Brooklyn Historical Society's Crown Heights History Project, also known as "Bridging Eastern Parkway." Crown Heights History Project oral histories include audio and transcripts created and collected within the context of an exhibition project undertaken in part by BHS in 1993 and 1994. Three interviewers recorded conversations with over forty narrators. In addition to exhibition product value, the oral histories were conducted as life history and community anthropology interviews; topics of discussion include family and heritage, immigration and relocation, cultural and racial relations, occupations and professions, education and religion, housing and gentrification, civil unrest and reconciliation, media representation and portrayal, and activism. The series of exhibition research materials document the outreach efforts for interviews and materials from the community as well as exhibit scripts and curatorial notes.

Citation

Rubazkin, Bella and Gabriel, Oral history interview conducted by Jill Vexler, May 12, 1993, Crown Heights History Project collection, 1994.006.27; Brooklyn Historical Society.