The woman who burnished Brooklyn's reputation

To kick off Women’s History Month, Rachel Gordan, a scholar of religion and Jewish studies at the University of Florida, wrote an article about Betty Smith, the author of “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.”

Gordan explains why Smith’s semi-autobiographical novel resonated so strongly with so many readers – and changed the way Americans thought about immigrants, Brooklyn and the Big Apple.

The novel removed the veil of shame that had accompanied growing up as an immigrant in poverty; suddenly, that history and those tight-knit communities became something to revere.

“Even readers who had never set foot in the borough nonetheless found themselves enchanted by it through Smith’s portrayal,” Gordan writes.

Many critics viewed the work as a paean to Brooklyn and assumed that Smith, who had moved out of the old neighborhood years prior, longed to one day return to it. She didn’t. To her, the neighborhood had gone to the dogs. She believed the wrong kinds of immigrants were moving in – a reminder that the prism of prejudice can be nuanced and layered.

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