Vladeck Park
Madison St. To Water St. bet.ween Jackson St. and Gouverneur St.
Manhattan
Directions via Google Maps
Bounded by Madison, Water, Jackson, and Gouverneur Streets, this park honors the Jewish political activist, writer, and New York City Alderman Baruch Charney Vladeck (1886-1938). Vladeck was born Baruch Nachman Charney in Russia, the fifth of six children. His father owned a small leather supply store and left it to the family when he died of tuberculosis in 1889. Vladeck’s mother raised the children on her own, working at a synagogue as a reader for other women. In the early 1900s, Vladeck joined the radical Poale Zion, or “Workers of Zion,” movement, a group of dedicated Jewish socialists who advocated the return of all Polish Jews to Israel. In 1904, Russian officials imprisoned Vladeck for his participation in the movement. Though he had spent several years in school, it was in prison that he received his greatest education.



