Immigration Experiences in America

First-hand accounts as recorded in letters to the Jewish Daily Forward and compiled in A

Bintel Brief

From Isaac Metzker, ed. A Bintel Brief: Sixty Years of Letters from the Lower East Side to the Jewish Daily Forward. Trans. Diana Shalet Levy. 1971. New York: Schocken Books, 1990. Print.

“…Recently I went to visit my parents’ home town in Russian Poland…there were many organizations and clubs and they all accepted me warmly, looked up to me—after all, I was a citizen of the free land, America…”

A Worried Reader. “Untitled,”1907.

“…things weren’t good for me at home, and as everyone believed that in America money flowed in the streets, I decided to go…”

Unhappy. “Untitled,”1907.

“…My heart pounded with joy when I saw New York in the distance…I came to the Big City where I sensed the freedom…”

L.D. “Untitled,” 1915.

“We, the unfortunates who are imprisoned on Ellis Island…The people here are from various countries...Many of the families sold everything they owned to scrape together enough for passage to America. They haven’t a cent but they figured that, with the help of their children, sisters, brothers and friends, they could find means of livelihood in America.

You know full well how much the Jewish immigrant suffers till he gets to America…and he is at last in America, he is given for ‘dessert’ an order that he must show that he possesses twenty-five dollars.

But where can we get it? Who ever heard of such an outrage, treating people so? If we had known before, we would have provided for it somehow back home…It is impossible to describe all that is taking here...we are packed into a room where there is space for two hundred people, but they have crammed in about a thousand. They don’t let us out into the yard for a little fresh air. We lie about on the floor in spittle and filth…”

Alex Rudnev [signed by 100 immigrants]. “Untitled,” 1909.

“…My brother-in-law said it wasn’t nice, that it wasn’t fitting to read a Jewish

newspaper on the train…I know America is a free country and the Jew is not

oppressed here as in other lands, so why should I have to be ashamed of my

language here?...”

The ‘Greenhorn’. “Untitled,” 1939.

“…I was born in Russia…I was due to be drafted for military

service. So it was decided that I go to America. I went through a

lot until I finally saw the ‘Golden Land’ and here during

the first years I suffered a great deal…”

Unhappy. “Untitled,”1913.

“…I came here several years ago from Russian Poland, because I couldn’t earn enough for bread for my wife and our two children there. The first few years here I struggled and earned barely enough to survive. Still, I saved penny by penny and finally sent steamship tickets for my wife and children…”

The Despairing One. “Untitled,”1919.

“ I have been here in America several years, with my father and three sisters. We left

Mother and two younger sisters back home. We kept sending money to them

and hoped for the times when Mother and our two sisters could come here too…Suddenly we got a letter from Mother

telling us that on the way one of our sisters…was detained because she had

trachoma in her eyes, and they all turned back home… ”

H.G. “Untitled,” 1910.

“…When we came to New York, I thought we were entering heaven. But here in the new land…we lived on the East Side in tenements and had to climb to the fourth and fifth floors to tiny rooms that were dark and airless…we worked in the shops fourteen and sixteen hours a day, six days a week, and the bosses treated the workers like slaves…”

K.S. “Untitled,” 1956.

B., “Untitled,” 1906.

“I came to America as a shokhet. The ship I was on sank…my possessions, including the papers that certified I am a shokhet, was lost.

Since I could no longer be a shokhet, I became a shirtmaker…but I was not satisfied because of the physical labor and the degradation we had to endure in the shops was unbearable…”

“….because of the terrible things going on in Russia we were forced to emigrate to America…here in this small town I went to work in a shop. In this shop there is a foreman who is an exploiter…and worst of all this…he often allows himself to ‘have fun’ with some of the working girls. It was my bad luck to be one of the girls he tried to make advances to. And woe to any girl who doesn’t willingly accept them… ”

A Shopgirl. “Untitled,” 1907.

“…During the past year I suffered a great deal, just because I am a Jew…I have seen many things that cast a dark shadow on the American labor scene...there was one other Jew besides me, and both of us endured the greatest hardships. That we were insulted goes without saying. At times we were even beaten up…to top it off, we and one of our attackers were arrested. The hoodlum was let out on bail, but we, beaten and bleeding, had to stay in jail…I have already worked at many places, and I either have to leave, voluntarily, or they fire me because I am a Jew…”

E.H. “Untitled,”1907.

“…Our daughter graduated from college with high honors, but this did not help her find a job. She could not find work for a very long time…in order to get the job my daughter had to give her religion as Episcopalian. If they had known she was Jewish they wouldn’t have hired her. She didn’t have typically Jewish features…she also had to get a recommendation from a priest, because lately many Jewish girls say they are Christian in order to get a job…”

F. and G. “Untitled,” 1933.

“…My son distinguished himself in chemistry all through high school…he is absorbed in it with all his heart and soul…in this profession there is no future for Jewish graduates…I didn’t want to believe that in America, in such a free land, it was really so. But recently I met a graduate, a Jewish chemist, and he confirmed…there are no large Jewish firms that hire chemists, and among non-Jewish firms there is a sort of understanding to keep Jews out of this profession…” S.G. “Untitled,” 1932.

“Twenty-two years ago I came to America with my wife and our four little children…all these years I’ve struggled because I never made a living…the city of Warsaw, where I lived before emigrating to America, there were times when things weren’t too bad. In America, however, it always went badly and I haven’t been able to adjust to the country… It seems strange to me that I must go away from the free America in order to better my condition…”

The Unlucky One. “Untitled,” 1912.

“…among our landsleit [countrymen] there are wealthy people as well as poor ones. The ‘alrightniks’ who worked their way up here in America are those who in our home town didn’t have enough bread to satisfy their hunger. The men who were wealthy back home…are poor here…”

A Committee from our Relief Society. “Untitled,”1920.