This Is New York: Judith Berdy, Roosevelt Island Historical Society President

Judith Berdy, president of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society, shares the story of the island through tours, exhibitions, and other events.
This Is New York: Judith Berdy, Roosevelt Island Historical Society President
HISTORY BEARER: Judith Berdy, Roosevelt Island Historical Society President, at the island's visitor center. (Gidon Belmaker/The Epoch Times)
8/16/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/TINY85455.jpg" alt="HISTORY BEARER: Judith Berdy, Roosevelt Island Historical Society President, at the island's visitor center.  (Gidon Belmaker/The Epoch Times)" title="HISTORY BEARER: Judith Berdy, Roosevelt Island Historical Society President, at the island's visitor center.  (Gidon Belmaker/The Epoch Times)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1799279"/></a>
HISTORY BEARER: Judith Berdy, Roosevelt Island Historical Society President, at the island's visitor center.  (Gidon Belmaker/The Epoch Times)
NEW YORK—The steep escalators at the Roosevelt Island F train stop are like a portal to another world; an island of serenity and quiet in the sea of high-strung New Yorkers.

The island’s community has a short history, or a long one, depending who you ask and from when you start telling the story. One of the storytellers of the island’s history is Judith Berdy, president of the Roosevelt Island Historical Society. With the help of some friends and fellow enthusiasts, she shares the story of the island through tours, exhibitions, and other events.

Berdy moved to the island from Manhattan about 30 years ago, attracted by the lower rents; she then fell in love with the unique atmosphere and characteristics of the community.

The Epoch Times: Why does Roosevelt Island need a historical society of its own?

Judith Berdy:The island was bought by the city in the 1830s from the Blackwell family. They put all their institutions here: the lunatic asylum, the prison, the poor house, the Goldwater hospital, and the small pox hospital. Then they left and the community was redeveloped in 1969 by Gov. Rockefeller.

They decided to save six buildings. Over the years the buildings have been restored. You always need someone to watch over the people who run the place, to make sure they are doing the right thing. That is my job, a policewoman.

Also, to teach people the history. People don’t understand. People think it just rose out of the river in the ’70s and there is an instant island, but the island has lots of history and I like to show the history.

Epoch Times: Are the historical parts of the island being conserved properly?

Berdy:It depends on the day of the week and the project. It is very hard, because the island is run by government workers. None of them are really professional restoration or historian people. They have a job. ‘You are in charge of engineering,’ yes, you are in charge of engineering, but do you now about landmark preservation conservation? Not really.

So you got to keep advocating with them, keep going to their meetings, keep explaining how things are done correctly to keep it kosher. They just want the quick and easy.

Epoch Times: How did you first get started with the historical society?

Berdy: I fell into it. I was always interested. No one wanted the job. That is the answer. I love the place. I love the history. It is my home; it is where I live. It’s my community, my people. My mom lives in Manhattan in the Upper East Side, no one talks to your there, except the doorman. There is no communication, in Manhattan no one cares. I always joke that in Manhattan they don’t know you are dead until the body smells. Here it is a real community. It is a Shtetel, it is a Kibbutz. Why would I want to live in a place like the Upper East Side where the prices are too high?

Epoch Times: What is unique about the Roosevelt Island community?

Berdy: It is the whole world; every race in the world, every ethnicity, every nationality. A lot of people who come to work in the U.N. are here. Everyone from all over the world is here. When I lived in my other building, my next-door neighbor was from Algeria and my two other neighbors were from Congo. It is the melting pot. They used to call New York ’the melting pot,' but every neighborhood had its own pot. [You had] the Irish neighborhood, the Italian neighborhood, the Jewish neighborhood. In Roosevelt Island the whole pot is stew, it’s tshulent. It is very mixed: rich people, poor people, middle-income people, fancy people, [and] not so fancy people.