East Rockaway is a village in Nassau County, on the South Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 9,818 at the 2010 census. The Incorporated Village of East Rockaway is at the edge of Rockaway Peninsula Proper in the town of Hempstead, adjacent to Hewlett Harbor, Hewlett, Rockville Centre, Lynbrook, and Oceanside. It is the final neighborhood before the beginning of Five Towns, although some have come to include wealthier sections of East Rockaway as a part of Five Towns. East Rockaway is an inner suburb, only 24 km (15 mi) from downtown Manhattan. The primary ethnicities are Italian and Irish. The Waverly Park neighborhood, near the Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Center [1] and along the border with Hewlett, has a sizable Jewish community.