The Marlowsphere (Blog #162)

The 24^th Annual “Egg Rolls, Egg Creams, and Empanadas Festival” held on June 15, 2025, on Eldridge Street in the heart of Chinatown in Downtown Manhattan was not just a festival that combined the cultures in the Jewish, Chinese, and Hispanic traditions. It was also an example of the best of New York City and, yes, of what America can strive for: a mutual respect for the diversity of cultures in what used to be referred to as the “melting pot.”

The “melting pot” phrase refers to the United States as a place where diverse cultures blend and assimilate into a unified society. It suggests that immigrants shed their original cultures and fully integrate into American culture, creating a single, harmonious whole. This concept gained prominence during the late 19th and early 20th centuries with large waves of immigration. The term was popularized by Israel Zangwill’s 1908 play, The Melting Pot, which depicted a Russian Jewish immigrant family’s experience in America.

The “melting pot” concept over time has evolved, however. In the present day it has come to mean respect for the commonalities and differences among cultures, as opposed to the shedding of one’s prior culture.

The concept of an “harmonious whole,” of course, has also become anathema to the leadership of the Federal and various state governments. Immigration has become a “bad” concept and as this is written significant numbers of “immigrants” have already been rounded up and deported and others are in process.

People of all backgrounds enjoying the Egg Rolls, Egg Creams & Empanadas Street Fair

Yet, when you look at the diversity of the thousands of people who packed into the two blocks of Eldridge Street for the festival—with the Eldridge Street Synagogue overseeing the proceedings from its central location—it has to make you wonder “What’s the problem?”

The diversity of the musical sounds offered by the likes of the “Mamales” vocal trio or the Chinese drum and cymbals accompanying the “Lion Dance” and the smells of empanadas on one side of the street and egg creams on the other form a picture of a respect for cultural diversity that transcends any fear of “the other.”

The 24^th Annual “Egg Rolls, Egg Creams, and Empanadas Festival” organized by the folks at the Eldridge Street Synagogue with support from a broad spread of city and local organizations is the kind of festival that presents the best of New York City and America has to offer.

There were lots of smiling faces, people dancing and clapping hands. The vibe was friendly and warm, a meaningful contrast to the dreary, light rain weather Mother Nature provided. There was a spirit of enjoyment and respect that present politics and weather was not going to dampen.

Eugene Marlow, Ph.D.  © 2025