Over 600,000
Jews, particularly
Orthodox and
Hasidic Jews, have become concentrated in such historically Jewish areas as
Borough Park,
Williamsburg, and
Midwood, where there are many
yeshivas,
synagogues, and
kosher restaurants, as well as a variety of Jewish businesses. Adjacent to Borough Park, the
Kensington area housed a significant population of
Conservative Jews (under the aegis of such nationally prominent midcentury rabbis as
Jacob Bosniak and Abraham Heller) when it was still considered to be a subsection of Flatbush; many of their defunct facilities have been repurposed to serve extensions of the Borough Park Hasidic community. Other notable religious Jewish neighborhoods with a longstanding cultural lineage include
Canarsie,
Sea Gate, and
Crown Heights, home to the
Chabad world headquarters. Neighborhoods with largely defunct yet historically notable Jewish populations include central Flatbush, East Flatbush, Brownsville, East New York, Bensonhurst and Sheepshead Bay (particularly its Madison subsection). Many hospitals in Brooklyn were started by Jewish charities, including
Maimonides Medical Center in Borough Park and Brookdale Hospital in East Flatbush.