I think it's just "white flight" to the suburbs with demographic changes in the Bronx. Jewish communities upped and left cities much more quickly than Catholics because it's easy for a synagogue to move while a church is anchored in a geographic parish. Also, moving to the Bronx was once seen as moving up from the slums of Manhattan to a nicer urban neighborhood, so it wasn't so hard to move again. And the older generation died off or moved to Florida.
http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/new_york/bronx_it%27s_desolation_row
Yeah now its the reverse people want to move to Manhattan and go live in a nice apartment. Just got to watch your back in Manhattan.
I never knew the Bronx had a big jewish population. I haven't been to The Bronx in 15 years even though I live in Central Jersey. Its just a place you want to avoid. I'm just shocked people wanted to move to The Bronx at one point.
I think maybe all the Jewish people that lived in The Bronx maybe moved to Brooklyn, Queens(look at Anthony Weiner's old congressional district), or Long Island. I know a guy that relieves at work from time to time and he went to High School in the 50's or 60's in Long Island he said everybody was Jewish that was around him. A few italians were living in Long Island at that time he said too. Now I think the Hispanics are moving into Long Island with the bastion of Italians that are already there.
