VIRTUAL EXHIBITION: Refuge in the Heights: The German Jews of Washington Heights

View of the George Washington Bridge, photo taken by Tobi Kahn as a child when he lived in Washington Heights, 1950s. Courtesy of Tobi Kahn.

VIRTUAL EXHIBITION: Refuge in the HeightsVIRTUAL EXHIBITION: Refuge in the HeightsVIRTUAL EXHIBITION: Refuge in the HeightsVIRTUAL EXHIBITION: Refuge in the HeightsVIRTUAL EXHIBITION: Refuge in the HeightsVIRTUAL EXHIBITION: Refuge in the HeightsVIRTUAL EXHIBITION: Refuge in the HeightsVIRTUAL EXHIBITION: Refuge in the HeightsVIRTUAL EXHIBITION: Refuge in the HeightsVIRTUAL EXHIBITION: Refuge in the HeightsVIRTUAL EXHIBITION: Refuge in the Heights

Washington Heights, Neighborhoods of New York — Neighborhoods of New York City’s Manhattan Island. Courtesy of iStock by Getty Images.

Washington Heights, Mathias Family — The Mathias family preparing to board the “Deutschland” to immigrate to New York, January 1938. LBI Archives, Mathias Family Collection.

Washington Heights, Street View — Aerial view of Washington Heights, 1952. Courtesy of YM & YWHA of Washington Heights and Inwood.

Washington Heights, Acculturation Lesson — German-Jewish newcomers learning English at “the Y”, April 18, 1940. Courtesy of YM & YWHA of Washington Heights and Inwood.

Washington Heights, Shoe Shine — Henry Marx shining shoes in Washington Heights, c. 1939. LBI Archives, Photos Collection.

Washington Heights, Shaare Hatikvah Dedication — Dedication of a new synagogue for the Jewish Orthodox Congregation Shaare Hatikvah in Washington Heights in 1957. LBI Archives, Kurt Goldschmidt Collection.

Washington Heights, Dominican Barbershop — Image of barbershop in Washington Heights, 1961. Courtesy of Smithsonian American Art Museum, museum purchase through the Smithsonian Latino Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Latino Center, and through the Frank K. Ribelin Endowment.

Washington Heights, Sosua — Scene from the "Sosua: Dare to Dance Together," a musical produced by high school students from Washington heights that explored a remarkable intersection of the histories of two of the neighborhood's defining immigrant groups—Dominicans and German-speaking Jews. In the late 1930s, the Dominican Republic was one of the only countries to loosen its immigration restrictions to allow refugees from Nazi Germany to settle there. Courtesy of YM & YWHA of Washington Heights and Inwood.

Washington Heights, Advertisement for an Auction

From Rural Terrain to Urban Destination

Starting Over in New York

A Community in the Heights

At Home in the Heights

A Changing Neighborhood

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