Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum

The Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum was a residential facility for Jewish children in Crown Heights that provided care and support to those in need. Located at 373 Ralph Avenue, it maintained detailed admission and discharge records from 1879 to 1960 that documented each child's name, age, and place of origin.

The institution was founded in 1878 after the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York decided to serve only Manhattan children, creating a need for separate care in Brooklyn. It operated for over 80 years until 1960, when it merged with the Jewish Child Care Association and transitioned toward modern child welfare approaches.

The orphanage held special importance for Brooklyn's Jewish community, serving as a place where children could maintain their cultural identity and family connections. Visitors can observe through the surviving records how much care was taken to document each child's background and heritage.

The location now holds archival materials that offer insight into child care history from the 19th and 20th centuries. Visitors should plan ahead, as access to documents may require advance arrangement through the relevant archives.

The facility kept remarkably detailed enrollment records that captured not just children's names and ages but also personal histories and countries of origin for residents from across Eastern Europe. These documents today serve as valuable resources for genealogy researchers and historians tracing immigrant family histories.