Our Savior’s Love

I have two new grand babies!!!!  How blessed am I!! 

Moms and baby swap

Proud Dads

August 1^st Brianna and David presented me with a handsome grandson, Reed Chad Petersen weighing in at 7 lbs 1 oz and 18.5 inches.

 

Reed Chad Petersen

August 2^nd Deanne and Jeff gave me a beautiful granddaughter, Rory Elizabeth Larsen weighing in at 8 lbs 5 oz and 21 inches.

Rory Elizabeth Larsen

I have been walking on air all week.  I can’t wait until I can hold them.  I received permission to go home for a week to celebrate the births and to witness the baptism of Cade Petersen, Shea and Jake’s son.  I’ll arrive August 23^rd and return to NY on the 30^th:  A mini family reunion.  I’m so excited!

New births and new beginnings with baptism.  I love it.  This has made me think of my rose bush in front of my apartment.  Over the last 5-6 weeks, an insect or something has caused the bush to lose all of its leaves. I even discussed with the elders about coming to dig it out for me.  In the beginning when I moved here last year, the leaves were pretty good and there were roses blooming over the entire bush.  This spring and through the summer, I’ve noticed that many of the leaves were getting holes in them and they were turning brown.  Eventually, all of the leaves were gone.  They weren’t on the ground under the bush so I assume that they had been eaten. I noticed but did nothing and thinking I would maybe get a spray or something to keep the insects away.  Well, I kept putting it off until there were no more leaves. (It happened so gradually yet it seemed that the bush had been stripped overnight.)

This week I noticed that there were new leaves forming on what had appeared to be a dead and gone bush.  Friday I noticed a blossom and more buds.  There are still not many leaves but the bush is returning to life.  There is hope.

This rose bush made me think of the allegory in the Book of Mormon about the tame and wild olive trees.  Through the Savior all things can become clean, fresh, and new.  I enjoyed studying this allegory and learning about the Savior’s love.

The Tame and Wild Olive Trees—An Allegory of Our Savior’s Love

By Ralph E. Swiss  Ensign August 1988

Most of Christianity has yet to learn of Zenos’s allegory of the olive trees. Indeed, if it hadn’t been for the combined efforts of four prophets, separated by thousands of years, the allegory might have been lost entirely. The prophet Zenos wrote it in Israel, Nephi’s younger brother Jacob retold it to the Nephites, Mormon preserved it for latter-day readers, and Joseph Smith translated it into English.

The story as we have it was originally contained on the plates of brass, which are not available to us today. Jacob, however, engraved the story on the small plates of Nephi. Even then, the allegory might not have reached us. Most of the Book of Mormon is an abridgment by Mormon of the large plates of Nephi. Martin Harris lost the translation of the first part of the abridgment. To replace the lost history, the Lord directed Joseph Smith to translate the small plates, which Mormon had included with his abridgment.

I first gained a great appreciation for the allegory of the olive trees while attending an in-service class as a young seminary teacher. I discovered that the allegory was not so much a story about trees, branches, grafting, and fruit as a wonderful witness of the messiahship of Christ and his love for mankind.

Reviewing the record that precedes Jacob 5 can give us some insights into Zenos’s purpose in writing and Jacob’s purpose in retelling the allegory. Nephi first tells of his family’s flight from Jerusalem and their travels through the wilderness and across the open seas. After arriving in the New World, both Nephi and Jacob sought to reinforce the doctrines of Christ with their people. Perhaps this was one reason they drew so heavily on the prophecies of Isaiah and Zenos concerning Israel and the promise of a Messiah. (See 1 Ne. 19:24; 2 Ne. 6:5.)

Nephi sought to instill a testimony of Christ in his people, and so he not only reached back to the great writings of Isaiah on the Savior (see 1 Ne. 19:23), but also centered his own teachings on Jesus Christ. He wrote, “We talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins.” (2 Ne. 25:26.)

Before Nephi died, he committed the small plates to Jacob, instructing him to record only what was precious—sacred preaching, great revelation, or prophecy for Christ’s sake. (See Jacob 1:2–4.) In keeping with this charge, Jacob taught his people to have faith in the Savior:

“For this intent have we written these things, that they may know that we knew of Christ, and we had a hope of his glory many hundreds of years before his coming. …

“Wherefore, we search the prophets, and we have many revelations and the spirit of prophecy.” (Jacob 4:4, 6. Hereafter, scriptural references will be from Jacob unless otherwise indicated.)

In focusing on Christ, Jacob included in his writings the allegory of the tame and wild olive trees. The use of the story may have been prompted by Jacob’s discussion of the Jew’s rejection of Jesus Christ. Jacob spoke of the Jews as “stiffnecked,” as “despising words of plainness,” as “seeking for things they could not understand.” (Jacob 4:14.) He told of a time when they would reject the sure foundation of Christ. The allegory was probably an answer to the question, How can the house of Israel ever build upon that foundation after having rejected it? (See Jacob 4:15–18.) We do not know whether Jacob quoted Zenos’s allegory completely, but what he did quote was sufficient to answer such a question.

As Zenos begins the story, he defines the primary figure: the tame olive tree, which he said represents the house of Israel. He then speaks of the tree growing old and beginning to decay. From the opening verses, the love and concern of the master of the garden are evident as he seeks ways to help the tree survive and bear good fruit. (Jacob 5:4.) The lord of the vineyard and his servants may refer to the Lord Jesus Christ and his disciples, the prophets; at least Jacob seems to refer to them as such when he explains the implications of the allegory. (See Jacob 6:2–4, 8.) Others, noting that the lord of the vineyard has a chief servant working in the vineyard, assign the role of lord of the vineyard to God the Father.

It is possible to recognize the good fruit of the tree as those people bringing forth good works, and the bad fruit as those bringing forth evil works. (See Jacob 6:7.) We can also imagine that the wild olive tree represents the Gentiles, just as the tame olive tree represents the house of Israel.

From the beginning of the story, a time line begins to unfold, and we naturally wonder which events in history might correspond with events in the allegory. Herein we need to be cautious. Matching events in Israel’s history is not as important as witnessing, by means of the story, the great love of the Lord for his vineyard and his carefully laid plan to gather in the good fruit. However, it is interesting to consider possible historical parallels.

The allegory seems to divide into seven scenes, each scene covering a period of time. Zenos also identifies five locations in the vineyard, which represents the world. (See Jacob 6:3.) Examining each scene in order can prove quite helpful in following the unfolding events.

Scene 1 (Jacob 5:4–6): The story opens at a time of growing decay, perhaps such a time as the period following the reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon when the glory of Israel was greatly lessened by growing wickedness and evil. In hopes of saving the tree, the master of the vineyard prunes the decayed limbs, digs about the trunk, and nourishes the soil to stimulate new growth. After caring for the tree, he waits many days to see the results of his labor.

The tree begins to put forth some new and tender branches. These branches seem to represent the righteous of the day. Even in the midst of Israel’s apostasy, such prophets as Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Lehi came to lead the people, and some of the Israelites turned to the Lord. But even though the master is encouraged by the new growth, he notices that the main top begins to perish.

Scene 2 (Jacob 5:7–14): The master grieves for the tree and directs his servants to pluck off the decayed branches and cast them into the fire. Twice more, in verses 11 and 13 (Jacob 5:11, 13), the master expresses his grief at losing the tree and its fruit. Christ’s great love for his people is clear as he sorrows at their loss.

One era in Israel’s history that reflects such a condition occurred during the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests of Israel. After the death of King Solomon, the kingdom of Israel divided into two kingdoms. First, the mighty nation of Assyria destroyed the Northern Kingdom, carrying off many of the inhabitants of Israel. Then Babylon conquered the Southern Kingdom and burned Jerusalem, taking captive most of the people in the city. Only a few thousand returned to Jerusalem seventy years later. The kingdoms of Israel and Judah paid dearly for their disobedience—the dead limbs several times cast into the fire is an apt analogy.

Yet the master of the vineyard prepared for the future. In the allegory, he carries some of the young and tender branches to the nethermost parts of the vineyard and grafts them onto other trees. This could represent the Lord’s effort to preserve the blood of Israel should the main tree die: “If it so be that the root of this tree will perish, I may preserve the fruit thereof.” (Jacob 5:8.) Those carried off by Assyria to the north and those carried off to Babylon might be some of these branches. The Lehites and Mulekites, who were led from Israel to the New World about the same time, might be other branches.

The master also commands his servants to graft the branches from a wild olive tree onto the old tree, then dig about and nourish the tree. Since limbs gather sunlight and air for the tree, strong branches can strengthen a dying tree. Similarly, for example, Assyria brought non-Israelites into the Northern Kingdom, who adopted the religion of Israel. These people became known as the Samaritans.

Scene 3 (Jacob 5:15–28): After a long time has passed, the master returns to examine the fruit of the vineyard. This time, he finds that the tame olive tree has borne tame fruit despite the wild branches that grew from its trunk. The great strength of the roots has overpowered the wildness of the branches. Perhaps this corresponds to the tremendous growth of the Church during and after the Savior’s mortal ministry. A great many among the Gentiles, including numerous Samaritans, were converted and lived the gospel as though they had been born of Israel.

At this time, the allegory reveals where in the vineyard the tender branches from scene 2 had been grafted. The first bundle of branches had been moved to an area that the servants called the poorest spot in all the vineyard, yet the branches had brought forth good fruit. The master identifies the second spot, saying that it was even poorer than the first, yet those branches had also borne good fruit. It seems that the Lord was able to bring forth righteous people in wicked lands, to the surprise of his servants.

There is little in the allegory to identify these poor spots of ground, but the scriptures do supply some possible candidates. Jonah, for example, was astonished at the repentance of the people of Nineveh, the capital of Assyria (see Jonah 3–4), which was generally considered a spiritual desert by the Israelites. Similarly, a faithful branch of Jews lived in Babylon while the Jews were captive there, and Babylon could be called worse than Nineveh. (See Ezra 1–5.) The master identifies a third spot, which had also been fruitful. The fourth spot was good ground, and the master had nourished the tree there a long time, but the branches had brought forth good and bad fruit, much like the Nephites and Lamanites in the promised land. Instead of destroying the bad branches, the master decides to nourish the tree a little longer.

Scene 4 (Jacob 5:29–49): When the master returns again, he finds the entire vineyard in decay. The trees have produced much fruit, but none of it is good. The tame olive tree has all sorts of fruit, and the bad branches of the fourth tree have overpowered the good branches until the good has withered away. This scene is much like the condition of the earth during the great apostasy. In many lands, including ancient America, the gospel was lost entirely; in others, Christianity had fragmented into a multitude of differing sects and doctrines.

Throughout the verses of this scene, we can sense the master’s anguish over the loss of his trees. After he views all the trees, he weeps, then repeatedly asks his servants, “What could I have done more for my vineyard?” (Jacob 5:41. See also Jacob 5:47, 49.) At one point, he says:

“Have I slackened mine hand, that I have not nourished it? Nay, I have nourished it, and I have digged about it, and I have pruned it, and I have dunged it; and I have stretched forth mine hand almost all the day long, and the end draweth nigh.” (5:47.)

Scene 5 (Jacob 5:50–74): The master’s decision to spare the vineyard a little longer shows even more clearly his desire for the salvation of the trees and their fruits. He knows the roots of the tame olive tree are still alive. So, to preserve the roots and again bring forth good fruit, he and his servant begin to restore the natural branches to their parent trees, destroying the worst of the branches to make room.

Like the gathering of Israel in modern times, all the branches of the tame olive tree are grafted back onto their parent tree. The master instructs his servant to trim back the bad branches as good fruit grows, “that the root and top may be equal in strength, until the good shall overcome the bad.” (Jacob 5:66.) The servant finds other servants to work with him, and though the laborers are few, they toil with their might to preserve the vineyard.

Scene 6 (Jacob 5:75–76): When the master finally reviews the vineyard, he finds “that his fruit was good, and that his vineyard was no more corrupt.” (Jacob 5:75.) He blesses his servants, and they look forward to laying up the fruit of the vineyard for a long time. Such a period of peace and bounteous harvest could correspond to the Millennium. Even so, the master warns his servants that this is the last time they will work in the vineyard, speaking of the season to come.

Scene 7 (Jacob 5:77): The master refers to the time when evil fruit will again come into the vineyard. He says that at that time, he will separate the good from the evil, like the final cleansing of the earth:

“The good will I preserve unto myself, and the bad will I cast away into its own place. And then cometh the season and the end; and my vineyard will I cause to be burned with fire.”

As Jacob concludes the recital of Zenos’s allegory, he stresses that the Lord will set his hand to recover his people, that the servants of the Lord will go forth with power to nourish and prune the vineyard until the end comes. Then how blessed will be those who have labored diligently in the vineyard, and how cursed will be those who are cast out! (See Jacob 6:2–3.)

Recalling the mercy of God, who “stretches forth his hands unto them all the day long” (Jacob 6:4), Jacob again exhorts his people not to reject the words of the prophets concerning Christ. In both Jacob and Zenos’s words is another testament that Jesus is the Christ, that he has great love for all of God’s children, and that he works tirelessly to preserve the righteous and to accomplish his purposes on the earth, which are to bring to pass our immortality and eternal life.

It’s been fairly quiet on the nursing front:  a few mosquito bites, another case of bedbugs, headaches, sinus congestion, etc.  Nothing too serious.  Transfers are coming on Tuesday so everyone is busy preparing in case they are the ones being transferred. 

I went to Williamsburg on Tuesday for lunch with a trio of sisters.  We ate at a Brazilian café located almost under the Williamsburg Bridge.  I had steak, black beans and rice.  It was good and worth the hour long train ride to get there.  I enjoyed the company.  I relish the opportunity to get to know the missionaries better and to hear their experiences and feel of their spirits.

Williamsburg Bank
Sisters Fields, Krause, Dos Santos

Williamsburg Bridge

Steak, black beans, rice with collard greens

Outside the restaurant

The train on the El
The sisters across the tracks. I was going one way and they the other.

I don't understand this wall art.

This I understand.

The train crosses the Williamsburg Bridge. View from the train.

This tree in Bushwick caught my attention. There is such a good lesson to learn from it.
Habits, good or bad, can form so slowly that we don't recognize how much "grasp" they can have on our lives.

 

Friday I was blessed to go to Bushwick (I drove this time) to spend time and to eat with two more sisters.  We dined at a Moroccan restaurant. I had chicken kabobs with lemon jasmine rice.  Then we walked to a frozen yogurt shop.  Didn’t compare in the least with Golden Spoon but it was still tasty! 

There is a lot of wall art in Williamsburg and more in Bushwick.  I have included a travelogue/wiki information at the end of the blog if you wish to read about these two areas.  I think I may have included the info on Bushwick in an earlier blog but my memory is short….

Bushwick wall art

Grilled chicken kabobs with rice

Sisters Brinton and Snow

Wall art

More wall art

Saturday morning at 9:30 my doorbell rang.  There was a meeting at the church for the missionaries who will be training new incoming missionaries (25 of them this transfer with 19 departing) so their companions had nowhere to go.  They came to hang out with me.  I love it!  Within 10 minutes I believe there were 14 sisters in my apt. We laughed, shared stories and I shared grandma new baby pictures whether they wanted to see them or not.  Then we played a few hands of Monopoly Deal.  I lost every time.  Losing my touch.

I found the elders in the Primary room.  So I came home and made cookies for them since I had fed the sisters brownies.  I love baking and someone has to eat it.  Better not to be me.

Two of the assistants to the president are going home on Tuesday so I invited them to a going away lunch.  They and the third assistant and I went to Shake Shack (their pick) on Saturday.  They are great young men and my life is richer in every way by knowing them and the other missionaries serving here.

Elders Young, Ko, Voorhees

Saturday evening, Anthea (my friend who helps with cooking at the mission home) and I went to a very nice restaurant in Long Island City, Queens.  She wanted to show me this place because from there you get a gorgeous view of the Manhattan skyline.  On Tuesday I ate near the Williamsburg Bridge.  Saturday night I ate near the 59^th Street/Koch Bridge at Penthouse 808.  Our reservation was for 7:45 so we watched the sun set and the lights in Manhattan appear.

7:30 PM

8:00 PM

8:30 PM

8:45 PM close up

Moon over the Empire State Building

Empire State Building to the right of the moon. Freedom Tower far left
Looking across the East River from Long Island City

We ordered sushi which was delicious and then I had salmon and black rice with a cilantro sauce.  I have never eaten black rice before but it is good.  For dessert I had mochi ice cream.  It is ice cream balls wrapped in pounded sticky rice.  I really like the texture and taste.

 

Anthea Pierre

Sushi

Dinner

Dessert. Anthea had a passion fruit bar with pistachio ice cream. Mine was mochi

I took Anthea home to Jamaica so she wouldn’t have to take the train/bus for two hours.  I traveled the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens this week.  I enjoy my mini-vacations, as the sisters call it, when I take them to lunch or dinner.

In Primary this month we are learning the song The Lord Gave Me a Temple. I wanted the children to learn the sign language to this song as we will be singing it in our Sacrament Meeting program in October.  Since I don’t speak ASL, I called on my knowledgeable and always ready-to-help daughter, Katie.  With her pictures/cheat sheet and the links to sites she gave me, I learned, or should say I am learning the signs for this song.  A couple of the missionaries here have also helped me.  I taught the first verse to the children this morning.  Katie told me that “signing” the song would help them to learn it faster.  She was right.  They picked it up quickly.  If we take it slowly, even I can sign it pretty well.

Cheatsheet

The words to the song have a great message:

1. The Lord gave me a temple to live within on earth.

Once in Heaven I was spirit, but I left my home at birth.

I'll make my temple brighter; I'll keep my spirit free.

My body is the temple my Father gave to me.

2. If I keep my body clean and pure and habit-free,

I may in Father's temple claim blessings promised me.

On resurrection morning, I'll take my body bright

And in celestial glory forever live in light.

What a wonderful gift our bodies are.  They may not always work like we’d like them to nor look like we’d like them to but without them we would not have a place for our spirits to dwell.  Without them we couldn’t participate in the plan presented in Heaven before we came here.

I know that this church is the same Church that existed in the time of Jesus Christ and that it has been restored through a prophet of God. How blessed are we!

I love you my family and friends.

 

My  daughter, Kristin, sent me this as a "good Sunday morning."
What a beautiful way to start the day.

Sister Anderson. This is how you look when you are out teaching
and you get caught in an unexpected downpour.

Sister Zambito drenched to the skin!

Happy birthday Ashley August 6th. I now have an 11year old granddaughter.

Happy birthday August 6th Cade. He will be baptized when I come home.

A cute gift from my 92 year old friend, Tula.

Dear friends, Sister and Elder Lilly know how to spoil me with a gift of flowers.

Whenever I see these grasses, they remind me of fuzzy caterpillars

Williamsburg Information

In 1638 the Dutch West India Company first purchased the area's land from the local Native Americans. In 1661, the company chartered the Town of Boswijck, including land that would later become Williamsburg. After the English takeover of New Netherland in 1664, the town's name was anglicized to Bushwick. During colonial times, villagers called the area "Bushwick Shore." This name lasted for about 140 years. Bushwick Shore was cut off from the other villages in Bushwick by Bushwick Creek to the north and by Cripplebush, a region of thick, boggy shrub land which extended from Wallabout Creek to Newtown Creek, to the south and east. Bushwick residents called Bushwick Shore "the Strand." 

Farmers and gardeners from the other Bushwick villages sent their goods to Bushwick Shore to be ferried across the East River to New York City for sale via a market at present day Grand Street. Bushwick Shore's favorable location close to New York City led to the creation of several farming developments. In 1802, real estate speculator Richard M. Woodhull acquired 13 acres near what would become Metropolitan Avenue, then North 2nd Street. He had Colonel Jonathan Williams, a U.S. Engineer, survey the property, and named it Williamsburgh (with an h at the end) in his honor. Williamsburg rapidly expanded during the first half of the nineteenth century and eventually seceded from Bushwick and formed its own independent city. 

Williamsburg was incorporated in as the, Village of Williamsburgh within the Town of Bushwick in 1827. In two years it had a fire company, a post office and a population of over 1,000. The deep drafts along the East River encouraged industrialists, many from Germany, to build shipyards around Williamsburg. Raw material was shipped in, and finished products were sent out of factories straight to the docks. Several sugar barons built processing refineries. Now all are gone except the now-defunct Domino Sugar.  Other important industries included shipbuilding and brewing.

On April 18, 1835, the Village of Williamsburg annexed a portion of the Town of Bushwick. The Village then consisted of three districts. The first district was commonly called the "South Side"; the second district was called the "North Side", and the third district was called the "New Village". The names "North Side" and "South Side" remain in common usage today, but the name for the Third District has changed often. The New Village became populated by Germans and for a time was known by the sobriquet of "Dutchtown". In 1845 the population of Williamsburgh was 11,500. 

Reflecting its increasing urbanization, Williamsburg separated from Bushwick as the Town of Williamsburg in 1840. It became the City of Williamsburg (discarding the "h") in 1852.

In 1855, the City of Williamsburg, along with the adjoining Town of Bushwick, were annexed into the City of Brooklyn as the so-called Eastern District. During its period as part of Brooklyn's Eastern District, the area achieved remarkable industrial, cultural, and economic growth, and local businesses thrived. Wealthy New Yorkers such as Cornelius Vanderbilt and railroad magnate Jubilee Jim Fisk built shore-side mansions. Charles Pratt and his family founded the Pratt Institute, the great school of art & architecture, and the Astral Oil Works, which later became part of Standard Oil. Corning Glass Works was founded here before moving upstate to Corning, New York. German immigrant, chemist Charles Pfizer founded Pfizer Pharmaceutical in Williamsburg, and the company maintained an industrial plant in the neighborhood through 2007, although its headquarters were moved to Manhattan in the 1960s. 

Brooklyn's Broadway, ending in the ferry to Manhattan, became the area's lifeline. The area became a popular location for condiment and household product manufacturers. Factories for Domino Sugar, Esquire Shoe Polish, Dutch Mustard and many others were established in the late 19th and early 20th century. Many of these factory buildings are now being (or already have been) converted to non-industrial uses, primarily residential.

The population was at first heavily German but many Jews from the Lower East side of Manhattan came to the area when the Williamsburg Bridge was completed. Williamsburg was a financial hub rivaling Wall Street for a time, with its two major community banks: the Williamsburgh Savings Bank (chartered 1851, since absorbed by HSBC) and its rival the Dime Savings Bank of Williamsburgh (chartered 1864, now known as the DIME, has remained independent). The area around the Peter Luger Steak House, established in 1887, in the predominantly German neighborhood under the Williamsburg Bridge, was a major banking hub until the City of Brooklyn united with New York City.

In 1898, Brooklyn became one of five boroughs within the City of Greater New York, and the Williamsburg neighborhood was opened to closer connections with the rest of the newly consolidated city. Just five years later, the opening of the Williamsburg Bridge in 1903 further opened up the community to thousands of upwardly mobile immigrants and second-generation Americans fleeing the overcrowded slum tenements of Manhattan's Lower East Side. Williamsburg itself soon became the most densely populated neighborhood in New York City, which in turn was the most densely populated city in the United States. The novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn addresses a young girl growing up in the tenements of Williamsburg during this era.

Refugees from war-torn Europe began to stream into Brooklyn during and after World War II, including the Hasidim whose populations had been devastated in the Holocaust. The area south of Division Avenue became home to a large population of adherents to the Satmar Hasidic sect who came to the area from Hungary and Romania. Hispanics from Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic also began to settle in the area. But the population explosion was eventually confronted with a decline of heavy industry, and from the 1960s Williamsburg saw a marked increase in unemployment, crime, gang activity, and illegal drug use. Those who were able to move out often did, and the area became chiefly known for its crime and other social ills. 

On February 3, 1971, at 10:42 p.m., police officer Frank Serpico was shot during a drug bust, during a stakeout at 778 Driggs Avenue. Serpico had been one of the driving forces in the creation of the Knapp Commission, which exposed widespread police corruption. His fellow officers failed to call for assistance, and he was rushed to Greenpoint Hospital only when an elderly neighbor called the police. The incident was later dramatized in the opening scene of the 1973 film Serpico, starring Al Pacino in the title role.

Neighborhoods and lifestyles

The subdivisions within Williamsburg vary widely. "South Williamsburg" refers to the area which today is occupied mainly by the Yiddish-speaking Hasidim (predominantly Satmar Hasidim) and a considerable Puerto Rican population. North of this area (with Division Street or Broadway serving as a dividing line) is an area known as "South Side," occupied by Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. To the north of that is the "North Side," traditionally Polish and Italian. East Williamsburg is home to many industrial spaces and forms the largely Italian American, African American, and Hispanic area between Williamsburg and Bushwick. South Williamsburg, the South Side, the North Side, Greenpoint and East Williamsburg all form Brooklyn Community Board 1. Its proximity to Manhattan has made it popular with recently arrived residents who are often referred to under the blanket term "hipster". Bedford Avenue and its subway station, as the first stop in the neighborhood on the BMT Canarsie Line (on the L train), have become synonymous with this new wave of residents.^[43][44][45]

Ethnic communities

Hasidic Jewish community

Williamsburg is inhabited by tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews of various sects, and contains the headquarters of one faction of the Satmar Hasidic group, Williamsburg's Satmar population numbers about 73,000.

Hasidic Jews first moved to the neighborhood in the years prior to World War II, along with many other religious and non-religious Jews who sought to escape the difficult living conditions on Manhattan's Lower East Side. Beginning in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the area received a large concentration of Holocaust survivors, many of whom were Hasidic Jews from rural areas of Hungary and Romania. 

In the late 1990s, Jewish developers renovated old warehouses and factories, turning them into housing. More than 500 apartments were approved in the three-year period following 1997; soon afterward, an area near Williamsburg's border with Bedford–Stuyvesant was rezoned for affordable housing. By 1997, there were about 7,000 Hasidic families in Williamsburg, almost a third of whom took public assistance. The Hasidic community of Williamsburg has one of the highest birthrates in the country, with an average of eight children per family. Each year the community celebrates between 800 and 900 weddings for young couples, who typically marry between the ages of 18 and 21. Because Hasidic men receive little secular education, and women tend to be homemakers, college degrees are rare, and economic opportunities lag far behind the rest of the population. In response to the almost 60% poverty rate in Jewish Williamsburg, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty, a beneficiary agency of the UJA-Federation of New York, partnered with Masbia in the opening of a 50-seat kosher soup kitchen on Lee Avenue in November 2009. 

With the gentrification of North Williamsburg, Hasidim have fought to retain the character of their neighborhood and have characterized the influx of what they call the artisten as a "plague" and “a bitter decree from Heaven.” Tensions have risen over housing costs, loud and boisterous nightlife events, and the introduction of bike lanes along Bedford Avenue.

Italian-American community

A significant component of the Italian community on the North Side were immigrants from the city of Nola near Naples. Residents of Nola every summer celebrate the "Festa dei Gigli" (feast of lilies) in honor of St. Paulinus of Nola, who was bishop of Nola in the fifth century, and the immigrants brought this tradition over with them. For two weeks every summer, the streets surrounding Our Lady of Mount Carmel church, located on Havemeyer and North 8th Streets, are dedicated to a celebration of Italian culture. 

The highlights of the feast are the "Giglio Sundays" when a 100-foot tall statue, complete with band and a singer, is carried around the streets in honor of St. Paulinus and Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Clips of this awe-inspiring sight are often featured on NYC news broadcasts. A significant number of Italian-Americans still reside in the area, although the numbers have decreased over the years. Despite the fact that an increasing number of Italian-Americans have moved away, many return each summer for the feast

Puerto Rican and Dominican community

On Williamburg's Southside, also known in Spanish as "Los Sures", which is the area south of Grand Street, there exists a sizable Puerto Rican and Dominican population. Puerto Ricans have been coming to the area since the 1940s and the 1950s, and Dominicans came in the '70s and '80s. Many Puerto Ricans flocked to the area after World War II due to the proximity to jobs at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The neighborhood continues to have 27% Hispanic or Latino population, and Broadway near Graham Avenue is known as "Avenue of Puerto Rico". Havemeyer Street is lined with Hispanic-owned 'bodegas' and barber shops. However, even though the Southside has the highest concentration of Hispanics in the neighborhood, this population is dispersed throughout all of Williamsburg even as north as the Williamsburg-Greenpoint border.

The culture of Latinos in the neighborhood has been described as a resilient one. The Caribbean Social Club, the last remaining Puerto Rican social club in Williamsburg, preserves the neighborhood's culture; in 2013, the club was subject of a documentary called "Toñita's", named after its owner. 

Another such institution is the "El Puente" Community Center, as well as the "San German" record store on Graham Avenue. Graham Avenue was renamed Avenue of Puerto Rico as a symbol of pride, just as the avenue's other alternate name, Via Vespucci, is meant to commemorate the historical Italian-American community. 

Lastly, once a year the Williamsburg/Bushwick community is home to its own Puerto Rican Day parade. The neighborhood has produced many prominent Latinos.

Ethnic and intercultural tensions

Prior to gentrification, Williamsburg often saw tension between its Hasidic population and its black and Hispanic groups. In response to decades of rising crime in the area, the Hasidim created a volunteer patrol organization called "Shomrim" ("guardians" in Hebrew) to perform citizens' arrests and to keep an eye out for crime. Over the years, the Shomrim have been accused of racism and brutality against blacks and Hispanics. In 2009, Yakov Horowitz, a member of Shomrim, was charged with assault for striking a Latino adolescent on the nose with his Walkie Talkie. In 2014, five members of the Hasidic community, at least two of whom were Shomrim members, were arrested in connection with the December 2013 "gang assault" of a black gay man. 

The mid-century tension between the Hasidic and Modern Orthodox Jewish communities in Williamsburg was depicted in Chaim Potok's novels The Chosen (1967), The Promise and My Name Is Asher Lev. One contemporary female perspective on life in the Satmar community in Williamsburg is offered by Deborah Feldman's autobiographical Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots.

Arts community

Visual arts

Street art in east Williamsburg

The first artists moved to Williamsburg in the 1970s, drawn by the low rents, large floor area, and convenient transportation. This continued through the 1980s and increased significantly in the 1990s as earlier destinations such as SoHo and the East Village became gentrified. The community was small at first, but by 1996 Williamsburg had accumulated an artist population of about 3,000.

Bushwick township

In 1638, the Dutch West India Company secured a deed from the local Lenape people for the Bushwick area, and Peter Stuyvesant chartered the area in 1661, naming it Boswijck, meaning "little town in the woods" or "heavy woods" in 17th-century Dutch. Its area included the modern-day communities of Bushwick, Williamsburg, and Greenpoint. Bushwick was the last of the original six Dutch towns of Brooklyn to be established within New Netherland.

The community was settled, though unchartered, on February 16, 1660, on a plot of land between the Bushwick and Newtown Creeks by fourteen French and Huguenot settlers, a Dutch translator named Peter Jan De Witt, and one of the original eleven slaves brought to New Netherland, Franciscus the Negro, who had worked his way to freedom. The group centered their settlement on a church located near today's Bushwick and Metropolitan Avenues. The major thoroughfare was Woodpoint Road, which allowed farmers to bring their goods to the town dock. This original settlement came to be known as Het Dorp by the Dutch, and, later, Bushwick Green by the British. The English would take over the six towns three years later and unite them under Kings County in 1683.

Bushwick's first major expansion occurred after it annexed the New Lots of Bushwick, a hilly upland originally claimed by Native Americans in the first treaties they signed with European colonists granting the settlers rights to the lowland on the water. After the second war between the natives and the settlers broke out, the natives fled, leaving the area to be divided among the six towns in Kings County. Bushwick had the prime location to absorb its new tract of land in a contiguous fashion. New Bushwick Lane (Evergreen Avenue), a former Native American trail, was a key thoroughfare for accessing this new tract, which was suitable mostly for potato and cabbage agriculture.

Early industry

When Bushwick was founded, it was primarily an area for farming food and tobacco. As Brooklyn and New York City grew, factories that manufactured sugar, oil, and chemicals were built. The inventor Peter Cooper built a glue manufacturing plant, his first factory, in Bushwick. Immigrants from western Europe joined the original Dutch settlers. The Bushwick Chemical Works, at Metropolitan Avenue and Grand Street on the English Kills channel, was another early industry among the lime, plaster, and brick works, coal yards, and other factories that developed along English Kills, which was dredged and made an important commercial waterway. In October 1867, the American Institute awarded Bushwick Chemical Works the first premium for commercial acids of the greatest purity and strength. The Bushwick Glass Company, later known as Brookfield Glass Company, established itself in 1869, when a local brewer sold it to James Brookfield. It made a variety of bottles and jars.

In the 1840s and 1850s, a majority of the immigrants were German, which became the dominant population. Bushwick established a considerable brewery industry, including "Brewer's Row"—14 breweries operating in a 14-block area—by 1890. Thus, Bushwick was dubbed the "beer capital of the Northeast". The last Bushwick brewery closed its doors in 1976. 

As late as 1883, Bushwick maintained open farming land east of Flushing Avenue. A synergy developed between the brewers and the farmers during this period, as the dairy farmers collected spent grain and hops for cow feed. The dairy farmers sold milk and other dairy products to consumers in Brooklyn. Both industries supported blacksmiths, wheelwrights, and feed stores along Flushing Avenue. 

Brownstones and apartment buildings on Bushwick Avenue, near Suydam Street

Brick row houses on Weirfield Street, a style that spreads into Ridgewood, Queens

Railway hub

In 1868, the Long Island Rail Road built the Bushwick Branch from its hub in Jamaica via Maspeth to Bushwick Terminal, at the intersection of Montrose and Bushwick avenues, allowing easy movement of passengers, raw materials, and finished goods. Routes also radiated to Flushing, Queens.

The first elevated railway ("el") in Brooklyn, known as the Lexington Avenue Elevated, opened in 1885. By the end of 1889, the Broadway Elevated and the Myrtle Avenue Elevated were completed, enabling easier access to Downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan and the rapid residential development of Bushwick from farmland.

With the success of the brewing industry and the presence of the els, another wave of European immigrants settled in the neighborhood. Also, parts of Bushwick became affluent Brewery owners and doctors commissioned mansions along Bushwick and Irving Avenues at the turn of the 20th century. New York mayor John Francis Hylan kept a townhouse on Bushwick Avenue during this period. Bushwick homes were designed in the Italianate, Neo Greco, Romanesque Revival, and Queen Anne styles by well-known architects. Bushwick was a center of culture, with several Vaudeville-era playhouses, including the Amphion Theatre, the nation's first theatre with electric lighting. The wealth of the neighborhood peaked between World War I and World War II, even when events such as Prohibition and the Great Depression were taking place. After WWI, the German enclave was steadily replaced by a significant proportion of Italian Americans. By 1950, Bushwick was one of New York City's largest Italian American neighborhoods, although some German Americans remained. 

The Italian community was composed almost entirely of Sicilians, mostly from the Palermo, Trapani, and Agrigento provinces in Sicily. In particular, the Sicilian townsfolk of Menfi, Santa Margherita di Belice, Trapani, Castelvetrano, and many other paesi had their own clubs (clubbu) in the area. Il Circolo di Santa Margherita di Belice, founded in Bushwick, remains the oldest operating Sicilian organization in the United States. These clubs often started as mutual benevolence associations or funeral societies but transformed along with the needs of their communities from the late 1800s until the 1960s, when many began to fade away. St. Joseph Patron of the Universal Church Roman Catholic Parish was the hub of the Sicilian community, and held five feasts during the year, complete with processions of saints or Our Lady of Trapani. St. Joseph opened in 1923 because the Italian community had been rapidly growing in Bushwick since 1900. This Sicilian community first was centered in Our Lady of Pompeii parish on Siegel Street in Williamsburgh. But as industry expanded along Flushing Avenue, the Sicilian population expanded with the growing need for labor by factory operators. St. Leonard's parish was the large German Catholic parish in the area, but the Italian community was not welcome there and was thus compelled to open its own parish. St. Leonard's closed in 1973. St. Joseph's is now a large and vibrant Latino parish run by the Scalabrini Order of priests, an Italian missionary order that caters to migrants.

Postwar transition

The demographic transition of Bushwick after WWII was similar to that of many Brooklyn neighborhoods. The U.S. Census records show that the neighborhood's population was almost 90% white in 1960, but dropped to less than 40% white by 1970. These newer residents tended to be poorer than their longstanding counterparts. As middle-class families fled Bushwick, working-class African American and Puerto Rican and other Caribbean American families moved into homes in the southeastern edge of the neighborhood, that closest to Eastern Parkway. By the mid-1950s, migrants began settling into central Bushwick. A strong proclivity among these new residents to homeownership and block associations helped the neighborhood survive the economic and social distress of the 1970s.

This change in demographics coincided with changes in the local economy. Rising energy costs, advances in transportation, and the invention of the steel can encouraged beer companies to move out of New York City. As breweries in Bushwick closed, the neighborhood's economic base eroded. Discussions of urban renewal took place in the 1960s, but never materialized, resulting in the demolition of many residential buildings with nothing new built in its place. Another contribution to the change in the socioeconomic profile of the neighborhood was the John Lindsay administration's policy of raising rent for welfare recipients. Since these tenants now brought higher rents than ordinary tenants would pay on the open market, Bushwick landlords actively began to fill vacant units with such tenants. By the mid-1970s, half of Bushwick's residents were on public assistance. 

According to the New York Times, "In a five-year period in the late 1960's and early 70's, the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn was transformed from a neatly maintained community of wood houses into what often approached a no man's land of abandoned buildings, empty lots, drugs and arson." 

Blackout: riots and looting

On the night of July 13, 1977, a major blackout occurred in New York City. Arson, looting, and vandalism occurred in low-income neighborhoods across the city. Bushwick saw some of the most devastating damage and losses. While local owners in the predominantly Puerto Rican Knickerbocker Avenue and Graham Avenue shopping districts were able to defend their stores with force, suburban owners with stores on the Broadway shopping district saw their shops looted and burned. Twenty-seven stores, some of which were of mixed use, along Broadway were burned.  Looters (and residents who bought from looters) saw the blackout as an opportunity to get what they otherwise could not afford. Fires spread to many residential buildings as well. After the riots were over and the fires were put out, residents saw "some streets that looked like Brooklyn Heights, and others that looked like Dresden in 1945":  unsafe dwellings and empty lots among surviving buildings. The business vacancy rate on Broadway reached 43% in the wake of the riots.

Bushwick was now left without a commercial retail hub. After the blackout, more middle-class residents who could afford to leave did so, in some cases abandoning their homes. New immigrants continued to move to the area, many of whom were from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and, more recently, Central America. However, apartment renovation and new construction did not keep pace with the demolition of unsafe buildings, forcing overcrowded conditions at first. As buildings came down, the vacant lots made parts of the neighborhood look and feel desolate, and more residents left. With a lack of job opportunities, Bushwick became an epicenter for the illegal drug trade. Author Jonathan Mahler described the social and economic hardships of Bushwick after the blackout in his book "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning", explaining how the majority of neighborhood residence were living on less than $4,000 a year, relying on some form of public assistance. The neighborhood was a hotbed of poverty and crime by the 1980s. During this period, the Knickerbocker Avenue shopping district was nicknamed "The Well" for its seemingly unending supply of drugs.  In the 1990s, it remained a poor and relatively dangerous area, with 77 murders, 80 rapes, and 2,242 robberies in 1990. 

Revitalization

Starting in the mid-2000s, the City and State of New York began pouring resources into Bushwick, primarily through a program called the Bushwick Initiative. The Bushwick Initiative's objectives included addressing deteriorated housing conditions, increasing economic development opportunities, reducing drug dealing activities, and enhancing the quality of life in the 23 square blocks surrounding Maria Hernandez Park.

A flourishing artist community, which has existed in Bushwick for decades, now is a main demographic of Bushwick; dozens of art studios and galleries are scattered throughout the neighborhood.