West Side Story's Jewish-angle

Okay, so it wasn't Upper West Side (nor the "West Bank").

But it started out in 1948 as a Jewish Romeo and Juliett.

The genesis of “West Side Story” occurred late in 1948. Soon thereafter, Bernstein’s diary noted the following telephone conversation: “Jerry R. called today with a noble idea: a modern version of ‘Romeo and Juliet’ set in slums at the coincidence of Easter-Passover celebrations. Feelings run high between Jews and Catholics. Former: Capulets, latter: Montagues. Juliet is Jewish. Friar Lawrence is the neighborhood druggist. Street brawls, double death — it all fits.” The setting, of course, was switched to America from Poland, and Tony (ne Anton) became merely a “Polack,” according to the Puerto Ricans arriving in a city seething with conflicts among ethnic insiders and outsiders. Thus, “West Side Story” might be said to have disguised Jews as Puerto Ricans: The Sharks are swarthy newcomers, strangers who speak accented English.

But its Jewishness got toned down fast. And even afterwards, the editing was still denuding it of its Jewish roots:-

...the ethnicity that now looks central to the concerns animating “West Side Story” had to be obliquely presented; a lingo that was pervasive offstage could erupt only briefly, as when one of the Jets informs: “Dear kindly social worker,/They tell me: earn a buck,/Like be a soda jerker,/Which means like be a shmuck.” The United Artists film adaptation, released four years later, could not assume that the heartland could follow off-color Yiddish. So one of the Jets instead complains that the expectation to “get a job” at a soda fountain is really a request to “be a slob.”

Source.