Before Harlem became the epicenter of the African American experience it was a Jewish immigrant neighborhood. The Gershwin Brothers, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Milton Berle, Lane Bryant, Sophie Tucker and many many more got their starts in Jewish Harlem at the dawn of the 20th century.

The neighborhood is filled with synagogues, theaters, nickelodeons, department stores built by Jews for Jews that have been turned into churches, movie theaters, music venues, and political gathering sites that played a pivotal role in modern American history from the Great White Way to the Civil Rights movement. Harlem exemplifies the great "melting pot" of modern America.