{"id":104,"date":"2021-05-14T15:43:42","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T15:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zlik.design\/bpc\/?page_id=104"},"modified":"2026-09-12T23:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T23:07:09","slug":"our-history","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/brooklynpeace.center\/es\/about\/our-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuestra Historia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nuestra Historia<\/h1><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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A House of Peace<\/h3>\n

The building at 23 Marcus Garvey Boulevard\u2014formerly 23 Sumner Avenue\u2014was erected in 1891 for First Austro-Hungarian Congregation Beth Shalom. Its name reflected both the origins of many congregants in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the name of their worshiping community: Beth Shalom<\/em>, Hebrew for \u201cHouse of Peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

That name offers a meaningful thread through the building\u2019s changing religious and cultural life.<\/p>\n

A Puerto Rican Mennonite Congregation<\/h3>\n

By the mid-20th century, redlining, discriminatory lending, disinvestment, and white flight were reshaping the surrounding neighborhood. As the synagogue\u2019s membership declined, Puerto Rican Mennonites established Primera Iglesia Menonita de Brooklyn in 1958 and acquired the building in the early 1960s.<\/p>\n

Rooted in the Mennonite historic peace church tradition, Primera worshiped and served the neighborhood here for decades. The congregation formally dissolved in 2019. The video below shares the story of its founding.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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\"Brooklyn<\/div>\n\t\t<\/figure>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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\"Historical<\/div>
During a recent service day, volunteers who were reconstructing the bema or stage discovered this ticket.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t<\/figure>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Brooklyn Peace Center<\/h3>\n

Following Primera\u2019s dissolution, the Atlantic Coast Conference of Mennonite Church USA retained ownership of the building and invited longtime Brooklyn residents and community leaders Vonetta and Jason Storbakken to help discern its next chapter.<\/p>\n

In 2020, amid the pandemic and a renewed public reckoning with racialized violence and police brutality, the Storbakkens proposed a new vision for the space: Brooklyn Peace Center.<\/p>\n

That vision grew through collaboration with communities already rooted at 23 Marcus Garvey Boulevard, including the New York Mennonite Immigration Program, Radical Living, and Believers Mennonite Garifuna Ministries\u2014and later a neighborhood thrift store and Peace Caf\u00e9.<\/p>\n

More than 130 years after Beth Shalom first opened its doors, 23 Marcus Garvey Boulevard remains a house of peace: a place where people gather across differences to create, learn, heal, and build community.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

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\"\"<\/div>\n\t\t<\/figure>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our History A House of Peace The building at 23 Marcus Garvey Boulevard\u2014formerly 23 Sumner Avenue\u2014was erected in 1891 for First Austro-Hungarian Congregation Beth Shalom. 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