Whenever rain trickles into the Sholem Aleichem Cultural Center in Norwood, the blame is squarely put on the one-story building’s aging roof. It’s been the case for the last few years.

Repairs would certainly follow, but David Braun, co-president of the center who teaches Yiddish language at Columbia University, acknowledged it was simply patchwork. A full replacement project is now in order for the small center at 3301 Bainbridge Ave. near East 208th Street, and raising the funds can’t be done alone.

The nearly 71-year-old nonprofit center, which houses its institution’s archives dating back to the 1930s, is now engaged in a months-long fundraising effort to replace its roof, seeking $70,000 in donations. It’s spread its plea for donations through its worldwide network of supporters and a GoFundMe page it created in early December. So far it’s raised more than $11,000.

“The cost of a new roof will bankrupt our organization and put an end to our vital Yiddish programming,” reads the post on the page. Braun had done the math: replacing the roof, though costlier on the front end, would easily be more cost-effective on the back end.

“We realized that we could continue patching at a much lower cost, but if you keep patching every year and the price goes up, the area in the amount of patching that you have to do goes up. So, one year it’s $3,000, the next year is $5,000, next year is $7,000, and that’s manageable for a budget, but you’ve done that every year or every other year you’ve essentially paid for a new roof and you might as well get a new roof,” said Braun, in a phone interview with the Norwood News.

The center, which began as an afterschool program (or shul) at a time when Jewish residents were dominant in Norwood (known then as Bainbridgivka), devotes itself to nurturing Yiddish culture through weekly discussions, monthly lectures, and theater performances centered around Yiddish culture. Its annual concert dubbed Klezfest, honors Yiddish culture through music and song. The organization was established in 1931 when it was headquartered at a building that’s now home to the Mary Tierra restaurant at the cornered to its current location.

Proponents of Yiddish culture emerged from the center, including the late Beyle Schaechter-Gottesman, the preeminent leader in Yiddish Culture. Her son, Itzik Gottesman, serves as co-president. Other notable figures espousing Yiddish culture included social linguist Dr. Joshua Fishman, his wife Gela, and Schaechter-Gottesman’s brother Mordthe, a renowned Yiddish professor and linguist at Columbia University. Though its clientele had largely been from Norwood, its current members mostly live outside it, residing close to the Amalgamated Houses in Van Cortlandt Village or outside the borough entirely.

Braun hopes to reach this goal within the next few months. “It’s time to bite the bullet and get a new roof,” he said.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.