A New Beginning
In the autobiography, “Out of the Shadow”, author Rose Cohen, a Russian-Jewish immigrant, explains the social and economic conditions during the late 1800s and early 1900s for Jews immigrating into the United States. Cohen explains how many Jews fled Eastern Europe and Russia during this time due to the ruling of the tsar, fear of religious persecution, and economic restrictions. Because these restrictions were becoming the norm for Jewish people in their county, Rose’s father, a tailor, began to embark on a journey to the United States of America, in hopes of beginning a new life for himself and his family. Even though her father is captured at the border of Russia and returned home, he managed to get to America. Once in
…show more content…
Many Jews stayed without jobs for some months at a time. Cohen recalls, “I stood a while, then I walked away from the shop, ‘Where next’, I wondered” (Cohen 132). When Jews were able to secure jobs, they faced problems such as twelve-hour workdays. This meant that their lives consisted of nothing but work, eat, and sleep, which was repeated all seven days of the week. The days were long and the working conditions were harsh. Often, Jews had to attend work deathly ill or unable to physically function. Cohen recalls when she first arrived how much her father had to work and how he was hardly ever home, working to establish himself and his family in America. “When he went away in the morning it was still dark, and when he came home at night the lights in the halls were out” (Cohen, Pg. 74). By telling her story, Rose reveals the different economic obstacles Jews faced in the work force in America.
By analyzing Rose Cohen’s autobiography, “Out of the Shadow”, it uncovers the various social and economical hardships that Russian-Jews faced living in America. Even though adapting to a new life in America came with many obstacles for Jews, Rose’s story shows that many of them made it through their hardships and ultimately overcame their adversities. Rose Cohen’s autobiography serves as a great resource as to what Jewish life was in everyday America during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century.
Works
Lucy Dawidowicz, the author of “The War Against The Jews 1933-1945” grew up in New York. She
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire was one of the deadliest industrial disasters in New York City before September 11th, 2001. On 1911, approximately 140 to 147 people died in the fire which held no mercy for them. The day of the fire is commonly known as “The day it rained children”. The owners, Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, hired immigrated women who were young, poor, barely educated, and spoke very little English. These women were overworked and very underpaid, and yet they could do nothing because they needed the money. Many Eastern European Jews were exposed to the revolutionary ferment in Russia and they brought a strong sense of justice and political will for the skirmish for social change in the United States.
During the early nineteenth century, families of immigrants undergo assimilation to unite themselves in American customs. The ideology that they will be accepted into a society and embrace American identities has driven them to this process. A reality of upward mobility and freedom are highly desired for immigrants’ transition. One author who portrays the temptation of this “New World” America for the Jewish children arriving and having their lives greatly affected is Anzia Yezierska’s “Bread Givers” while focusing on the truth of forming an American identity. An autobiography written by Mary Antin “The Promised Land” incorporates the accuracy of family assimilation and its outcome on the identity of their children is shaped by American meritocracy
Have you ever wondered what the life of a Jew was like in the 1900’s? Well I can inform you that it was no cakewalk. There were many things going against them during this time. Adolf Hitler was in power in Germany during this time. While he was in power many things went wrong for the Jews. It was a massacre...
These “newcomers” did not deserve to come here and steal their jobs. Mike Trudic’s account from his childhood referred to his father’s hunt in America to desperately find work, “At the end of a week he was taken ill and died. It said he died of a broken heart”(Mike, 188). There were just too many workers and not enough jobs to be filled. Another first hand source provided by Rose Cohen, called Out of the Shadow, depicts the story of a jewish girl in New York and the experiences her family goes through in order to reach a sustainable lifestyle. The struggles included descriptions of harsh working conditions and anti-semitism, which created difficulty for immigrants who were trying to assimilate into the American culture.
Assimilation: Making America Home gives in detail how the Jewish Americans started out in the beginning to becoming American. The Jews
During the 1920s, the United States was a tense era. The influx of immigrants caused fear and bigotry, especially towards the Roman Catholic religion (Holsinger, 1968). The citizens of the State of Oregon labeled immigrants as un-American, claiming that the immigrants would inject unpatriotic practices into the culture. The citizenry professed to protect American principles of the time and intended to pass on their values to the youth through public school education. Their goal was to provide parallel education to all children, thus controlling the content taught. Furthermore, Oregon was under the watchful eye of the powerful Ku Klux Klan (KKK), which enforced radical patriotism.
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” (Brainy Quote, 2016). The inspiring pome that graces the Statue of Liberty was written by a Jewish poet Emma Lazarus, a decedent of the first Jews to arrive in North American colonies in the 1650s. For centuries Jewish people have lived in many places far from there ancestral home in the Middle East, always searching for a home. Like many religious minorities Jews saw America as a special place where they could be a part of creating something new and embraced the opportunity. Today there are around 6 million Jews living in the United States but three centuries ago in colonial America there were only around 300. The fate of these early American Jews was as fragile
Anzia Yezierska’s personal immigrant narrative began in Russian Poland. She was born around 1885, and immigrated to America with her family when she was 15 years old. Yezierska’s family were Jews who escaped from the anti-Semitic government that was in control of Russia at that time. They settled in New York’s Lower East Side, along with millions of East European Jews who fled to the United States ("Anzia" 28:332).
Arthur Miller’s Focus (1945) is a revolutionary work that highlights racism, especially anti-Semitism, in America. Written during the last year of the Second World War, Focus is a groundbreaking work in every sense of the word inasmuch as it is the first literary work that deals directly with anti-Semitism in the United States. Statistically speaking, there were two main waves of Jewish immigrants to the United States between 1820 and 1920. According to Susan Haberle, “the first group of Jewish people came from Germany, Austria, and Hungary. These immigrant left to seek a better life” (Haberle 6). The second group was the biggest wave; they came between 1880 and 1920: “these immigrants came from Poland, Romania, Russia, and other eastern
Most immigrants to america were coming during the late 19th and early 20th century for the most obvious reason, opportunity. Industrialization both in manufacturing and agriculture meant that there were jobs in america. There was so much work in fact that companies used labor recruiters who went to europe to advertise opportunities. The lower east side of manhattan became the magnet for waves of immigrants, first germans, then eastern european jews and Italians. Immigrants flocked to the United States from all over the world in this time period. Millions of Europeans moved to the United States where they drove the growth of cities and manned the rapid industrialization that was taking place. What prolonged the social and economic growth of
Throughout the history of America, there has always been a influx of Jews from Europe. Even though Emma Lazarus wrote her poem after the massive immigration of German Jews to America, her poem can be used to describe the Jewish Immigrants. Many German Jews arrived in New York " tired ... poor... [and] yearning to breathe free." While New York City was still a hub for German Jewish immigrants, some had also moved to Atlanta and more Western states. Several of the German Jewish families who immigrated to America will forever have their names etched into her history, through their central role as entrepreneurs in America's expanding clothing industry. They began from humble careers and worked their way up the proverbial food chain. Once
During the late 1930s World War 2 was in process at the time. North America and its allies were unaware of the full extent of Hitler’s actions. Due to the anti-sematic feelings present in Canada at the time, many Jewish immigrants were denied entry into the country. Not until the late 1940’s that Canadians realized the extent of Hitler’s actions toward the Jewish population.
The history of Jews in the United States of America is a long and arduous one. This relationship began in the first week of September 1654, when 23 Jewish immigrants landed at New Amsterdam, the Dutch colony ( Now known as Manhattan), and was immediacy ask to leave by the then governor Peter Stuyvesant, for as he said they should not be allowed to infest the new colony,(Schappes 9). The Jews immigrants refused and was later granted permission by the Dutch West India Company to stay , travel and trade. However, the major migration of Jews to the United States of America took place in three waves mainly known as the German period of immigrants1850-1870,
Throughout the past 200 years the black community has made advancements towards social equality, and I think they never will get there.