BRIGHTON JUBILEE
Annual bash returns to Brighton Beach
COURIER LIFE, AUG. 27-SEPT. 2, 2021 21
44th Annual
Sunday, August 29th, 2021
BY JESSICA PARKS
A Brighton Beach tradition marking the neighborhood’s
long history as an immigrant community
will return next month against all
odds, as those who have been putting it on for the
past 45 years were unsure of its fate this year due
to the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s the 44th annual Jubilee and it’s been a
hard nut to crack,” said Pat Singer, founder of the
Brighton Jubilee and executive director of the
Brighton Neighborhood Association, “but we are
putting it together very quickly because we didn’t
know if we could do it.”
Singer fi rst organized the Brighton Jubilee
in 1977 to show the strength of her community
in spite of its reported deterioration and rising
crime at the time.
“We wanted to do something that summer to
send a message that Brighton, while we were getting
so many negative stories, that we were alive
and well,” Singer said.
Now, the annual event has transformed into a
celebration of what makes Brighton Beach unique
— its rich cultural fabric cultivated by immigrants,
mainly coming from former Soviet Union,
Pakistan and Spanish-speaking countries, who
brought their customs with them.
“It’s important to pull us all together,” Singer
told Brooklyn Paper. “The mosaic is cracked because
around every ethnic neighborhood is separation
and I want to remind everyone we are all
here as Americans to all work together.”
Continued on page 22