Translation from English

Monday, May 11, 2009

Estonia House, East 34th Street

I don't know how big the Estonian community is in New York, or if there are any neighborhoods with high numbers of Estonians.... have only met one Estonian- American in New York ( who lived in Queens).

Beaux Arts building on 34th Street was built as the Civic Club ( a reform organization) in 1899 and became an Estonian Cultural Center in the late 1940's.

Activities include an Estonian language school.

As I remember, the Estonian language is something like Finnish...and Estonians tend to look like Finns, with many of them having very fair hair. 

As one of the "Baltic States" ( along with Lithuania and Latvia), Estonia was coveted by the Russians and occupied by them for a long time. By most accounts, the Russians were rather ruthless colonizers there...but present day Estonia is inevitably linked closely to Russia economically, although it is part of the European Economic Community and home to some very high tech enterprises.


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