Gottscheers

Gottscheers are a German speaking immigrant group that hail from what is now Slovenia. The Gottscheers were uprooted from their homeland after World War II. Many settled in New York City. Each year they celebrate their culture in at a "Volkfest" in Long Island, a tradition that has continued for nearly 70 years.

Astoria, Queens

Scenes from Astoria, Queens. While it's one of New York city's traditionally Greek-American enclaves, many new immigrant groups live there also now.

The Cretan's Association

 Athens Video Superstore

 Cafe Boulis

 Omonia Next Door bakery

Greek On The Street food truck

Titan Foods

Greek-Americans anxious about the stability of their homeland

Greek- Americans in New York ponder the fate of their homeland as Greek voters cast ballots on a referendum to accept an international fiscal bailout.

The Yiddish Fight Club

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research hosts "The Yiddish Fight Club", an exhibition honoring Jewish boxers and wrestlers, and featuring the vocabulary of Yiddish fighting terms.

Scenes from Harlem

Scenes from New York's Harlem, the heart of Black America.

Street mural on 125th Street. 

The legendary Apollo Theater on 125th Street.

Typical Brownstones, Malcolm X Boulevard.

Street Mural, corner of 125th Street and Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

Sylvia's Restaurant of Harlem. Co-founded by Sylvia Woods, the "Queen of Soul Food".

 Magic Johnson Theater

"Swing Low", statue in tribute to Harriet Tubman.

Street Vendor on 125th Street.

 

Home of the Amsterdam News. 

New York's Little Syria

A lot of attention has turned to the proposed Islamic Cultural Center planned for New York's lower Manhattan, surely due to its proximity to Ground Zero. At best, many of the arguments against the center are short sighted, overlooking the neighborhood's history. At worst, many of the naysayers are pandering to xenophobia and Anti-Arab sentiment. What many don't realize is during the first half of the last century, this same section of lower Manhattan was home to “Little Syria”. This ethnic enclave was the destination of Syrian, Lebanese and Palestinian immigrants, centered on Washington Street just steps from City Hall.

At that time, the Muslim population was no greater than 5%, as most of the Arab immigrants were Christians. No mosques served the community, but rather 3 churches served the mostly Christian immigrant population. This included St. George Chapel of the Melkite Rite, inactive, but still standing 103 Washington Street.

The Little Syria neighborhood has since been razed to make way for urban renewal projects, most notably the World Trade Center and the entrance to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel.

New York's Largest Ethnic Groups

New York has always been a magnet for immigrants. Throughout the 1800's and early 1900's ships brought millions of immigrants to New York's ports. Many stayed in the New York and New Jersey areas. Many continued their journey to the Midwest. Often overlooked is the immigrant heritage in upstate New York, especially seen in the large Italian and Polish communities there. 

Italian is New York's largest ethnicity, at over 13% of the population. New York was also a popular destination for Puerto Ricans in the 20th century. Puerto Ricans are New York's 6th largest ethnicity and the state's largest Hispanic ethnic group.

Rank	Ethnicity	2010 New York Population	As a Percent of Total New York Population
	Total Population	19,392,283	100.00%
1	Italian	2,633,293	13.58%
2	Irish	2,509,092	12.94%
3	German	2,140,879	11.04%
4	African-American*	1,758,316	9.07%
5	English	1,096,163	5.65%
6	Puerto Rican	1,085,307	5.60%
7	Polish	977,847	5.04%
8	American	731,709	3.77%
9	Dominican (Dominican Republic)	725,123	3.74%
10	Chinese, except Taiwanese	583,989	3.01%
11	Mexican	475,987	2.45%
12	French, except Basque	475,969	2.45%
13	Russian	457,047	2.36%
14	Asian Indian	321,513	1.66%
15	Jamaican	305,285	1.57%
16	Dutch	261,829	1.35%
17	Ecuadorian	258,579	1.33%
18	Scottish	215,898	1.11%
19	Haitian	190,718	0.98%
20	European	174,364	0.90%
21	Greek	158,467	0.82%
22	Hungarian	157,863	0.81%
23	Salvadoran	155,834	0.80%
24	Colombian	145,195	0.75%
25	Korean	139,357	0.72%
26	African	132,490	0.68%
27	Ukrainian	132,438	0.68%
28	Guyanese	131,544	0.68%
29	West Indian	131,414	0.68%
30	Swedish	131,183	0.68%
31	French Canadian	121,691	0.63%
32	Filipino	110,000	0.57%
33	Trinidadian and Tobagonian	95,319	0.49%
34	Eastern European	93,425	0.48%
35	Welsh	85,773	0.44%
36	Austrian	84,174	0.43%
37	Honduran	83,130	0.43%
38	Norwegian	79,815	0.41%
39	Peruvian	78,066	0.40%
40	Scotch-Irish	75,137	0.39%
41	Pakistani	71,173	0.37%
42	Cuban	69,134	0.36%
43	Guatemalan	68,811	0.35%
44	British	57,978	0.30%
45	Albanian	56,649	0.29%
46	Romanian	56,217	0.29%
47	Canadian	53,402	0.28%
48	Czech	51,242	0.26%
49	Portuguese	51,027	0.26%
50	British West Indian	50,376	0.26%

Source: US Census Bureau, 2010 American Community Survey

1 year estimates, tables: B02001, C02005, B02006, C02007, B03001, B03002, B04006

* African-American is derived as respondents selecting Black as racial group after removing African, West Indian, and Hispanic ethnicities.