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Jewish Immigrants in New York

In her text Health conditions of immigrant Jews on the Lower East Side of New York:1880-1914, written January of 1981, Deborah Dwork firmly conveys the terrible situation that Jewish immigrants living in New York went through. Jewish Immigrants preferred living in unfortunate health and living conditions and being exploited because they didn’t want the people back home to be worried about them. Jewish immigrant Dwork talks about the conditions in which Jewish immigrants lived. She starts the text by stating the reason why Jews had to migrate to the United States of America and the number of people that migrated. Many Jews came to America to get a better life in terms of financial stability, and refuge. Prior to their arrival Jews thought that America was a wonderland, that things were given easily, and that there was lots of gold. Furthermore, it wasn’t how they imagined, when they got to New York City things got difficult. Deborah Dwork’s text relates to the poem In the Golden Land by Moyshe-Leyb Halpern; published in 1924. The poem is about a mother and her son. He migrated to the “golden land” (United States of America) and she was left behind. The son tells his mom all the good things of the “golden land” and that he is okay when he actually isn’t. The poem In theGolden Land relates to Health conditions of immigrant Jews on the Lower East Side of NewYork:1880-1914 because the Jews that came to New York thought that gold was going to roll in the streets, meaning that things were going to be easy. In the poem In the Golden Land I can feel here, you have not enough bread–In the Golden Land you aren’t properly fed.–Mama, oh mama can you not see That here they throw bread into sea, (Halpern lines 7-10)This successfully conveys that things are not as they seem. Moms have a special intuition, they know how we feel and when things are wrong. Many Jewish immigrants were living terribly. Some didn’t eat while, felt sick, and felt tired, but wanted to make their family think that they were okay because they were getting more money than where they were. The conditions that Jewish immigrants lived in were not the best. They lived in tenements where rats and roaches slept in the beds with the people. “Our tenement was nothing but a junk-heap rotten lumber and brick” (Dwork 8). In addition, on top of the tenements falling down because the walls were rotten, the rent was high. Jewish immigrants living in unsanitary conditions in New York led to many diseases “During the preceding year (1899), thirteen cases of diphtheria had been reported to the Health Department; during the past five years (1895-1900), thirty-two cases of tuberculosis had been reported.” (8). On the other hand, Jewish Immigrants didn’t tell the people back home what they were going through. In the poem In the Golden Land:–I don’t know, my son, but my hearts cries: Your face looks dark as the night’s skies, Your eyelids close, your head on your chest, Like the eyes of a man dying for rest.–Mama, oh mama, haven’t you heard Of trains racing under the earth, That drag us from bed at break of dawn And late at night bring us back home. (Halpern lines 13-20)In these stances, we can see how the mother notices that her son is not well; that he is getting sick and is tired, however, the son tries to distract his mother by telling her the good things about the city. In class, we talked about the triangle shirtwaist company factory fire where 146 workers died due to safety negligence in the factory. “most of the victims died as a result of neglected safety features and locked doors within the factory building.” (History.com editors 1) Jewish immigrants worked up to 15 hours, were treated badly, and got paid less than $20 a week. In addition, they didn’t have brakes at work. Many family members of Jewish immigrants didna know that they worked that much, to just get paid a bit of money that didn’t even afford them to buy food. In the poem In the Golden Land:–I don’t know, my son, but my heart is wrung: I sent you away healthy and young– (lines 21-22) The mother is saying that her son looked better when he was back home. She doesn’t understand why her son is so sick and old if the streets are made out of cheese and there are no cats; meaning that there is gold and nobody to exploit him. In class, we saw a scene in the animated film an American Tail by David Kirschner where mice were the Jewish immigrants migrating to America. In the scene, the mice say that in America they are going to be okay because the streets are made out of cheese and there are no cats.While Jewish immigrants were getting exploited and sick because of the dangerous conditions that they lived in, family members back home never knew what was going on because everything was always “good”. Both Dwork’s text and Halpern’s poem strongly convey the challenges that Jewish immigrants faced in New York City with shelter, finance, health, and not letting their family but home worry. Sometimes we lie to our loved ones so that they don’t worry for us. Learn how to appreciate troughs people that do care and are always there for us.Citation: Dwork, Deborah. “Health Conditions of Immigrant Jews on the Lower East Side of New York:1880–1914.” Medical History, vol. 25, no. 1, 1981, pp. 1–40. Crossref,doi:10.1017/s0025727300034086.History.com Editors. “Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire.” History.com, A&E Television Networks,2 Dec. 2009, https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/triangle-shirtwaist-fire.Bluth, D. (1986). An American Tail.