This summer, the North End’s Saint Joseph Society is planning a Unity Festival to celebrate the many different ethnic groups that have called the North End home. And Jews were definitely one of them. Unless you are over 100 years old, you may not know that by the late early 1900’s, the North End was almost 1/3 Jewish. And where there are Jews, there are temples, Hebrew schools, and kosher markets which you could find all around Salem Street. Even Stop’n’Shop Supermarkets have their roots in the Jewish North End haveing started out as Solomon and Jennie Rubinowitz’s (later known as Rabinovich and then as Rabb) “Greenie Store” at 134 Salem Street in 1892. This was the very first of many Rabb family grocery stores and it survived at this location through 1908. The initial Greenie Store location is today occupied by A. Bova & Sons Bakery.

The festival will kick off with some great Jewish music on Wednesday, July 27 , free at 7 pm at the Paul Revere Mall with Boston’s own rocking Klezwoods.  They’ll be followed by a Chinese music ensemble. And other nights will feature other ethnic music pairings. So get ready to hora down Hanover Street and celebrate the ethnic history of one of Boston’s great neighborhoods.

The Boston Jewish Music Festival is proud to support this great celebration and thanks the St Joseph’s Society and Harvey Allen from MS Walker for including us.

 

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