Chelsea | Jewish Heritage Center

“Growing up in Chelsea ... prepared me for life.” - Norm Finkelstein

Chelsea’s Jewish History

During the major wave of Jewish immigration to America that took place between the 1890s and 1924, the city of Chelsea, Massachusetts, north of Boston, became a primary destination for new Jewish arrivals to the area. By the 1930s, when some of the Jewish Neighborhood Voices narrators were born, nearly half of Chelsea’s population was Jewish—and the city had the second largest Jewish population per square mile in the United States, after New York. Indeed, Chelsea in this era has sometimes been referred to as “the other Lower East Side.”

Chelsea’s Jewish Life

Within a relatively small geographical area (less than two square miles), Jewish immigrants lived in a densely populated area of tenement buildings and multifamily houses. The streets of Chelsea, including the main thoroughfares of Walnut Street and Broadway, bustled with Jewish-owned shops, markets, delis, services, and more. More than a dozen synagogues served the Jewish population; today, only Walnut Street Shul and Temple Emmanuel remain in operation.

Memories of Chelsea

The narrators who grew up in Chelsea speak fondly of a time and place where they were surrounded by strong Jewish life and community. They also describe a diverse and largely tolerant place, in which they interacted closely with friends and neighbors from other immigrant and ethnic groups. At the same time, some referred to their neighborhoods in Chelsea as a shtetl—a tight-knit Jewish community that had imported traditional Jewish life and customs to create a self-contained world. For all, growing up in Chelsea inspired a strong Jewish identity—and the city to this day is a deep-seated part of who they are.

Chelsea's Voices

Wedding at the Beth Hamadrath Aperion Plaza in Roxbury, 1936, Sterling and Selesnick Family Papers in the JHC archive.

Sukkot table, Temple Beth El Fall River, Freedman Papers in the JHC archive.

Flora (Wembren) Selesnick on Watts Street in Chelsea, undated, Sterling and Selesnick Family Papers in the JHC archive.

Mollie, Linda, and Sydney Finkelstein at Bellingham Street in Chelsea, circa 1954, image courtesy of Norman Finkelstein.

Mollie and Norman Finkelstein on Walnut Street in Chelsea, 1945, image courtesy of Norman Finkelstein.

Image of men behind the counter at Murray and Eddy's deli. Courtesy of the Walnut Street Shul.

Walnut Street Shul (Congregation Agudas Sholom), date unknown, image courtesy of Robert Feinberg

Robert Feinberg. Courtesy of Robert Feinberg.

Abraham and Ida Melamed and their children, circa 1905-1906, image courtesy of Robert Feinberg.

“Not a lot, but I do remember walking home a few times and getting called a Jewbagel.”

“Like many people of my generation ... the future was elsewhere.”

“When World War II was on, and there were rumors about what was going on to the Jews ...”

“I was very religious. We were Orthodox. So, I went to services every Saturday at the Hebrew School since I was very small.”

“On Bellingham Street, we lived on the second floor, and the people above us were the Martirosyans, who were Armenian. The McLaughlins lived next door to us.”

“The neighborhood and Walnut Street was Jewish. It had non-Jews there, but I would say it was at least 70% Jewish, and it was across the street from the big shul.”

“A lot of people who started out in Chelsea might be living in Marblehead or Newton or Wellesley or whatever, but they're still connected to Chelsea, because that’s what made them who they are.”