Quotes from letters written to the Jewish Daily Forward and collected in "A Bintel Brief" edited by Isaac Metzker

1. 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.

2. “…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.

3. “…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.

4. “…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.

5. “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.

6. “…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.

7. “…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.

8. “…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.

9. “ 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.

10. “…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.

11. “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…”
B., “Untitled,” 1906.

12. “….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.

13. “…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.

14. “…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.

15. “…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 nonJewish firms there is a sort of understanding to
keep Jews out of this profession…”
S.G. “Untitled,” 1932.

16. “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.

17. “…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.