Igor identifies as a "Mountain Jew" from Azerbaijan, a community with a long history of existing at the intersection of Muslim and Jewish cultures. When he moved to Gravesend, he felt an immediate, familiar rhythm. "I am used to the mix," Igor said, sitting in a small cafe. "In Baku, we lived with everyone. In Gravesend, it is the same, just with more types of people." On his kitchen wall hangs a decorative ceramic plate with a clock in the center that says Shalom, it was a housewarming gift from his neighbors, a Cantonese family who bought it specifically to welcome him to the floor. During the interview, Igor focused on the invisible dependencies of the neighborhood. He notes that as a speaker of Russian and a Turkic-based language, he often acts as an accidental mediator between the older Russian-Jewish residents and the newer Uzbek arrivals. "We have the same food, the same way of hospitality," he explains.  Igor highlights a specific moment of cultural intertwining: a community meeting regarding local sanitation. "You had the pizzerias, the pharmacies, and the markets all sitting at one table," he says. "We didn't agree on everything, but we agreed on the street." He admits that the closed off nature of some groups can be a challenge, but he views it as a form of privacy rather than hostility. For Igor, Gravesend’s success lies in its pragmatism. "We don't need to be the same to be a community," he concludes. "We just need to be neighbors who know which store sells the right bread for the right day." 

– DA

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant