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Feeling the Bern: Sanders' Brooklyn Roots Are Yuge

By Laura Vecsey February 12, 2016

The prodigal son, who happens to be a socialist and surging 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, returned to Brooklyn this week after his yuge primary win in New Hampshire Tuesday. And what did Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont-by-way-of-Madison, BK do? Like a true Brooklynite and meat eater, Sanders went directly to Memo Shish Kebab on King’s Highway to nosh on some lamb and assorted other kebabs.

@askbooboo was in the right place at the right time and captured the 74-year-old Sanders on videotape as he was coming out of the restaurant. Passerby shouted, “Welcome to Brooklyn!” and Bernie shouted back, “That’s where I grew up!” (see video in tweet below).

(We can only imagine the next Larry David “Bern Your Enthusiasm” impersonation of Bernie will be complete with gyro meat hanging from his lips. But we digress.)

If the 2016 presidential campaign season is sporting a heavy dose of New York candidates (Queens native and Manhattan real estate mogul Donald J. Trump is representing Republicans and Democrat Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. Senator from New York, is fighting Sanders for the nomination), it is Sanders’ Brooklyn accent and emphatic hand gesticulations that make him the most “New York” New Yorker in the race.

And with good reason. Sanders grew up in Brooklyn’s Madison neighborhood, in apartment 2C, a two-bedroom apartment at 1525 East 26th Street (above). The 89-unit building housed low-income tenants, many of them Jewish. Sanders’ father, Eli, came from Poland and supported the family as a paint salesman with his territory stretching throughout Long Island. There was also his mother, Dorothy, and brother, Larry, with whom Sanders shared a room.

Sanders attended nearby James Madison High School, which was one of the best in the city back when he graduated there in 1959, counting among the alumni Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, songwriter Carole King and Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York. Sanders excelled on the track team and cross country teams and served as class president. After graduation and due to his mother’s failing health, he attended nearby Brooklyn College and later, the University of Chicago.

While Sanders’ apartment is not listed for rent or for sale, perhaps taking a peek at apartment 5H or apartment #35 will help provide a window into Sanders’ upbringing in a building which was once predominantly Jewish, but whose tenants are now more diverse, according to reports.

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