Helen Keller Place is actually Lawrence Street which is a cross street with Willoughby Street at the heart of downtown Brooklyn. The reason why the Street was named after Helen Keller is because at the corner of Helen Keller Place and Willoughby Street, stands tall The Helen Keller Services for the Blind building. The service center helps individuals who are blind, visually impaired, deaf or have combined hearing and vision loss to live, work and thrive in their respective communities.
Helen Keller was a author, political activist and lecturer. Keller was the first deaf blind person to earn a bachelors of arts degree. Keller was born in 1880 in Alabama. She was born into a very wealthy family. Her father was a captain for the Confederate Army. Keller is most famous for being an advocate for people with disabilities. Keller suffered a stroke in 1961 and spent the rest of her life at her home in Alabama until her death in 1968.

This is a photo of a stone dedicated to William Jay Gaynor, he was a politician from New York City which lived in the 19th and early 20th century. This stone is located in a park between the Brooklyn Bridge and the Eastern Federal Court. He was born in upstate New York and grew up on a farm. It is known that he loved exploring nature. Gaynor was linked with Tammany Hall political machine. He served as the 94th mayor of New York city from 1910 to 1913. Prior, he served as a New York Supreme Court Justice from 1893 to 1909. In 1910 he was shot by a former city employee, Gaynor was the only mayor actually his by a bullet during an assassination attempt.
Gaynor was viewed as a good candidate from Governor or even President but after his term was up he refused to run again.
Gaynor was not killed during his assassination attempt, he recovered quickly and took a voyage to Europe and died aboard RMS Baltic from a heart attack, no connection to the shooting.

This photo is of a poster which advertises the completion of a new Sefer Torah (Torah Scroll) which was commemorated to a big Rabbi, Rabbi Yitzchok Yosef Zilber Zt”L. I was unable to capture the actual Sefer Torah which sits in the Cabinet of this synagogue because the Torah is taken out only on Shabbat and during Monday and Wednesday prayers when photographing is not allowed. The pictures used for this poster are of the case for the Sefer Torah which the Sefer Torah is stored in. The case of the Sefer Torah has the twelve Jewish tribes inscribed into it. The case is made out of solid wood and sterling silver.
Rabbi Zilber was a man of many tales he use to run around yards looking for a minyan ( 10 Jews that are required to pray.) He raised his children 100% kosher in Soviet Russia which was practically impossible at that time. He was imprisoned in a gulag during World War II. During his imprisonment, in order not to work on Shabbat he broke his hands. He was very respective among the gangsters in the gulags. He taught Torah to the other Jews in the gulag and received amnesty after Stalin’s death. He became the leader of the Russian Baale Teshuva movement, (the return of secular Jews to Orthodox Judaism.) He eventually moved to Israel where he continued his works and visited America many times. The Rabbi of this synagogue was very good friends with Rabbi Zilber which is why he made this new Sefer Torah in his memory.
Rabbi Zilber, who passed on Tisha be Av, 2003 which is August , 2003. Tisha be Av is the greatest day of tragedy for the Jewish nation.

This is a photo of a synagogue located at 1201 East 10th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11230. The name of the synagogue is Beit Malkiel Torah Center, which translates to House of Malkiel, Torah Center. In this particular case this synagogue was named of the chief Rabbis father. The Rabbi Yitzchak Shimunov named the synagogue after his father, who in his days was a very holy and g-d fearing Jew. The name of the decedent as per Judaism is Malkiel ben Chizkiyau or simply Malkiel Shimunov.
Malkiel Shimunov was born in 1909, the month and day are unknown due to loss of records. Malkiel was born in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. He was born into a family of lawyers, in fact he was one of the first lawyers in Samarkand. Malkiel married and had two children. Early in his life he practiced as a private criminal counsel until he was detained and placed in Soviet concentration camp in the 1930s located in Siberia. Out of the 200 Jews which were detained with him he was the only survivor. He was released 4 years later. Malkiel returned to Samarkand and became a prosecutor, by this time his wife had died and his children moved to Israel. Although he had close ties with government agencies he never joined the communist party and kept a low profile regarding his political views. Malkiel married for the second time and had three sons. Malkiel attended the synagogue every Shabbat and made sure to have Shabbat meals at his house every Friday and Saturday. He loved guests and always had people over for Shabbat. He was one of many who kept majority of commandments in USSR including abstaining from eating bread Pesach and much more.
Malkiel died in 1983 in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. His sons immigrated to the U.S. in the early and mid 90s and his middle son became a Rabbi.

Commemorations are extremely important for a Jewish soul. A person dies but his deeds and his name lives on through commemorations like this one. In particular this is a commemoration to a very brave and strong woman. As seen on the name plate her name is written out in Hebrew from left to right. In the Jewish world your last name does not matter, it’s the name of your parents that makes a difference. Specifically when a person dies he is referred to by his first name, son or daughter of and the father’s name. In this case the decedents name is Katya which is her secular name, Ktzia, which is her Jewish name, bat, which means daughter, Mazal Tov which is her fathers name.
Katya Ktzia was born at the turn of the twentieth century, her actual date of birth is unknown, but her deeds are very much known. She was born in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. She worked as a bread baker until World War II. During World War II she registered as a nurse and treated wounded soldiers. During the War years she took in a lot of homeless and hungry people to live with her in her home. She was the financial advisor for a synagogue in Samarkand. She kept to the Jewish laws through her whole life by eating kosher food, keeping Shabbat, and baking matza on Pesach which in Communist USSR was a crime punishable up to 10 years in prison. Katya Ktzia gave birth to 3 beautiful sons, 2 of which are twins. She immigrated to the U.S. in the early 90s and settled in Queens, New York. She kept the Jewish laws throughout her whole life, she died in 2013 after being paralyzed for 4 years. Her approximate age is 96.