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Cheesecake Corner in Brooklyn honors the Jewish founder of Junior’s restaurant
Editor’s note: This article is part of a new series, Sign Post, which explores street signs and other locations around the city that are named in honor of Jewish New Yorkers.
(New York Jewish Week) — At the intersection of Flatbush Avenue Extension and Dekalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn sits Junior’s, an iconic New York restaurant and bakery famous for creating “The World’s Most Fabulous Cheesecake,” as they describe it.
For the last 24 years, the intersection has been known as Harry Rosen Way — Cheesecake Corner, named for the Jewish New Yorker who opened the Brooklyn institution in November 1950. Rosen died in 1996 at age 92; after handing the business to his sons, Junior’s is now run by grandsons Alan Rosen and Kevin Rosen.
“I see it definitely as part of the Jewish tradition,” Alan Rosen told the New York Jewish Week about Junior’s iconic cheesecakes last year. “I don’t think America identifies it as a Jewish dessert, but it has its roots there for sure. We came here from Eastern Europe. We brought our recipes to the Lower East Side and you know, we went from there.”
The busy intersection was co-named for Harry Rosen in March 1999. As the New York Daily News reported at the time: “Scores of onlookers waited for free slices of cheesecake, the green street sign was unveiled to applause, in honor of the son of immigrants who built a world-famous restaurant that is a required stop for campaigning Presidents, entertainers and other notables in downtown Brooklyn.”
“If one child tugs on his mother’s sleeve and asks why the street is named Harry Rosen Way and Cheesecake Corner,” Alan Rosen was quoted by Newsday as saying at the unveiling, the mother should tell “the story of a man who was poor and built a business up from nothing.”
Harry Rosen was born on the Lower East Side in 1904. After dropping out of school at age 13 to work at a soda fountain, Rosen — who “started making egg creams on the lower East Side of Manhattan, saving a nickel a day,” as Alan Rosen said in 1999 — eventually opened four sandwich shops in Manhattan.
In 1929, he opened The Enduro Cafe, a lively steakhouse with a nightclub-like atmosphere on the corner of Flatbush and Dekalb in Brooklyn. Though the restaurant closed in 1949, Rosen did not want to abandon the location. Instead, the following year, he opened a more family-friendly establishment, Junior’s — named for Rosen’s two sons, Walter and Marvin.
A replica of the sign hangs above the hostess stand inside the restaurant. (Julia Gergely)
When the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1957 and nearby Ebbets Field, in Flatbush, was demolished in 1960, much of the borough lost its luster. It was time for Junior’s to innovate: Rosen hired Danish-born baker Eigel Peterson to perfect the restaurant’s baked goods, and it was then that the restaurant’s world-famous cheesecake recipe was developed, alongside danishes, rugelach and other cakes.
Per the restaurant’s website: “The Rosen family saw all the changes in Brooklyn in the 1960s including the flight to suburbia, the rise of gangs, high unemployment in the borough and the city. However, Harry Rosen never thought for a moment that he would join the exodus from Downtown. Junior’s in the 1960’s was a place where all colors of people in all styles of dress could gather without tensions. Good food and good service became the great equalizer.”
Later that decade, Rosen’s sons took over the business, with grandsons Alan and Kevin coming on board in the 1990s. Throughout the decades, Junior’s has remained a mainstay for locals, politicians and celebrities — and has become something of a pop culture icon itself. The restaurant and its cheesecakes have been featured everywhere from a Notorious B.I.G. music video to MTV reality show “Making the Band” to the HBO hit “Sex and the City.”
Now boasting a thriving mail-order business for its cheesecake, Junior’s has also expanded to include two Midtown outposts and one at Foxwoods Casino.
But the original restaurant remains a Brooklyn institution. On a steamy day earlier this week, when the temperature climbed into the 90s, the atmosphere inside the 420-seat restaurant was jovial. Manager Will McCarthy pointed the New York Jewish Week to an indoor copy of the Harry Rosen Way — Cheesecake Corner street sign, which reads “Do the Right Thing Way” on the back. It’s signed by that film’s Brooklyn-based director, Spike Lee. (The restaurant is not in the movie, said McCarthy, but Lee is a regular.)
Director Spike Lee signed the back of the indoor sign: “To Junior’s, Da best cheesecake in da world. Peace and love Spike Lee.” (Julia Gergely)
McCarthy, who has been with Junior’s for 17 years, said the best part of his job is “meeting new people every day.”
Community-mindedness remains at the heart of the business; as the New York Jewish Week reported last year, Junior’s hosted a gun buyback event in Brooklyn in an effort to prevent violence. “I’m in the restaurant business,” Alan Rosen said. “But I took it upon myself to do something. It was a tipping point.”
And just what makes Junior’s cheesecake so special? “Besides the love, he said, “it’s cream cheese, it’s fresh eggs, it’s sugar, heavy cream and a touch of vanilla.”
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The post Cheesecake Corner in Brooklyn honors the Jewish founder of Junior’s restaurant appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Security Warning to Israelis Vacationing Abroad Ahead of holidays
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) published the latest threat assessment to Israelis abroad from terrorist groups to the public on Sunday, in order to increase the Israeli public’s awareness of the existing terrorist threats around the world and encourage individuals to take preventive action accordingly.
The NSC specified that the warning is an up-to-date reflection of the main trends in the activities of terrorist groups around the world and their impact on the level of threat posed to Israelis abroad during these times, but the travel warnings and restrictions themselves are not new.
“As the Gaza war continues and in parallel with the increasing threat of terrorism, the National Security Headquarters stated it has recognized a trend of worsening and increasing violent antisemitic incidents and escalating steps by anti-Israel groups, to the point of physically harming Israelis and Jews abroad. This is in light of, among other things, the anti-Israel narrative and the negative media campaign by pro-Palestinian elements — a trend that may encourage and motivate extremist elements to carry out terrorist activities against Israelis or Jews abroad,” the statement read.
“Therefore, the National Security Bureau is reinforcing its recommendation to the Israeli public to act with responsibility during this time when traveling abroad, to check the status of the National Security Bureau’s travel warnings (before purchasing tickets to the destination,) and to act in accordance with the travel warning recommendations and the level of risk in the country they are visiting,” it listed, adding that, as illustrated in the past year, these warnings are well-founded and reflect a tangible and valid threat potential.
The statement also emphasized the risk of sharing content on social media networks indicating current or past service in the Israeli security forces, as these posts increase the risk of being marked by various parties as a target. “Therefore, the National Security Council recommends that you do not upload to social networks, in any way, content that indicates service in the security forces, operational activity, or similar content, as well as real-time locations.”
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Israel Intensifies Gaza City Bombing as Rubio Arrives
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip September 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the terrorist group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called Hamas’ last bastion.
The group’s political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages – of whom 20 are believed to be still alive – still held by Hamas in Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
He was expected to visit the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold talks with him during the visit.
US officials described Tuesday’s strike on the territory of a close US ally as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests. Rubio and US President Donald Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state – a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the US-brokered Abraham accords that normalized UAE relations with Israel.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the United Nations says far more is needed.
It says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the center and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah Al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
Local officials, who do not distinguish between militant and civilian casualties, say at least 40 people were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, a least 28 in Gaza City alone.
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Turkey Warns of Escalation as Israel Expands Strikes Beyond Gaza
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
i24 News – An Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar has sparked unease among several Middle Eastern countries that host leaders of the group, with Turkey among the most alarmed.
Officials in Ankara are increasingly worried about how far Israel might go in pursuing those it holds responsible for the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s prime minister effectively acknowledged that the Qatar operation failed to eliminate the Hamas leadership, while stressing the broader point the strike was meant to make: “They enjoy no immunity,” the government said.
On X, Prime Minister Netanyahu went further, writing that “the elimination of Hamas leaders would put an end to the war.”
A senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Ankara’s reaction: “The attack in Qatar showed that the Israeli government is ready to do anything.”
Legally and diplomatically, Turkey occupies a delicate position. As a NATO member, any military operation or targeted killing on its soil could inflame tensions within the alliance and challenge mutual security commitments.
Analysts caution, however, that Israel could opt for covert measures, operations carried out without public acknowledgement, a prospect that has increased anxiety in governments across the region.
Israeli officials remain defiant. In an interview with Ynet, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said: “As long as we have not stopped them, we will pursue them everywhere in the world and settle our accounts with them.” The episode underscores growing fears that efforts to hunt Hamas figures beyond Gaza could widen regional friction and complicate diplomatic relationships.