Letter from Boston

Harvard Street

By MASAKO YAMADA

Harvard Avenue is one of the most active roads near my apartment in Allston-Brighton. It is a jumble of ethnic markets, discount stores and bars. Many students and immigrants live near Harvard Avenue, and when the T stops at the Harvard Avenue stop in the evening, it seems as if half of the people on the train get off.

Harvard Street is also an active road but it doesn't have such a frenzied air. Here there are also many nice ethnic markets, discount stores and bars but all of the stores are in nicer buildings, things are less crowded and the general feel is more sedate. Neither Harvard Street nor Harvard Avenue is located anywhere near the university with which they share their name but the proper noun "Harvard" pops up everywhere in the Boston area.

It is no wonder that Harvard Street feels more suburban than Harvard Avenue considering that Harvard Street is in the suburb of Brookline, while Harvard Avenue is in the Allston-Brighton section of Boston. The two areas seem worlds apart, but the interesting thing is, they refer to the same road. That is, the part of the long road that lies in Brookline is called Harvard Street while the part that lies in Boston is called Harvard Avenue.

I've written about the chaos of Harvard Avenue before. One of the distinctive features of Harvard Street is that there are many Jewish shops dotting the road. Brookline is famous for its large Jewish population, and although many Jews in the States have become more or less a part of the mainstream (they often go under the category of "white" when polled in ethnic identity surveys), a very strong ethnic element remains on Harvard Street.

There are a couple of synagogues as well as a multitude of kosher restaurants. Most of these restaurants serve traditional kosher food — either deli sandwiches or Israeli food — although there is a kosher Chinese restaurant called Shalom Hunan, which, obviously, doesn't follow the age-old Chinese tradition of using pork.

There is a fully stocked kosher supermarket in addition to Jewish bookstores, pastry shops and religious goods stores. For the most part, these places are not tourist traps. Therefore, most of them are closed on Friday night after sundown in observance of the Sabbath and they remain closed all day on Saturday.

Although this part of Harvard Street has the specific function of serving the needs of the Jewish community, it's a fascinating place for tourists such as myself to visit as well. I like eating different kinds of foods, so I find browsing in the kosher food shops especially interesting. I inevitably feel slightly out of place, but, on the other hand, nobody has ever made me feel uncomfortable.

Although it's true that immigrant Jews to the States have adopted many American traits, it is also true that many Jewish traditions have become generically American. One can obviously see how much Jewish sensibility has permeated the mainstream in the popularity of the TV show "Seinfeld," but there are more subtle examples as well.

For instance, there are at least four or five places on Commonwealth Avenue near Boston University where one can get a bagel to eat as a quick meal. Apparently, only a few decades ago, bagels were considered an "ethnic" food.

Harvard Street certainly has no shortage of bagel shops. One of the most famous of the bagel shops is called Kupel's. Going there to buy bagels and lox for Sunday brunch is a bit of a Brookline tradition among Jews and non-Jews alike. I've stood in line to get my share as well. It's not the most delicious food I've had — I've had finer Scotch salmon than what was slapped on that bagel — but it's cheap and satisfying.

New York is known as the Jewish capital of the States, but I think Brookline is holding its own. I read a review of one of the kosher restaurants on Harvard Street and it said something like: "This isn't New York — but these days, New York isn't New York either."

Shukan ST: Sept. 18, 1998

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