Rachel Weintraub

Rachel Weintraub

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Posts by Rachel Weintraub

harlem tour- rachel weintraub

0
10 years
by in Neighborhood Visits

Today’s Harlem tour was extremely eye opening to the rich culture that we are living amongst. We focused on Harlem during the 1920’s and 30’s, the prime of the Harlem Renaissance. After the mechanization of the south around seventy percent of the South’s African American population migrated to the north settling in major cities, namely Harlem. We walked around viewing the different landmarks such as the research library focusing on African American culture, the YMCA, churches, tenements which housed the lower class, the first ever desegregated upscale hotel, the remains of former night clubs and theaters, the first desegregated townhouses for the wealthy, the Apollo theatre, and of course City College, “poor man’s Harvard.” Jazz, folk art, dancing, and acting really defined Harlem during this time. It was very cool to see the home of the Harlem Globe Trotters, where every game began and ended with a dance.  We walked the walk of Langston Hughes when he first came to this great city. We stood in front of the theatre were world class acts such as the Jackson Five and Stevie Wonder first performed, rubbing that bark from the tree of hope for good luck. The rich culture of Harlem’s past and present was inescapable.

Rachel Weintraub: Eyes on Bengladesh

0
10 years
by in Immigration Stories

The exhibit, Eyes on Bangladesh, was truly eye opening. The exhibit began with a personal story exemplifying the lack of medical knowledge in Bangladesh. It starts with audio of a conversation of a man making fun of his wife’s peculiar appearance, together with his own mother, due to her deficiency. He is trying to go back into the past, hoping to correct his horrible mistreatment of his wife. The exhibit then shifted towards town life, full of culture and millions of people. The next group of photos shed light on Bangladesh’s fight for independence in 1971. The photographer wanted to show that even in 1971, women contributed to the war. There was a picture of a full army of women carrying guns. The next group of photographs exhibited what child birth is like in the worse off towns. The photographer came from a very poor family taking his pictures with a camera held together by a rubber band. His work, truly inspiring, is now world famous. The next group of photos showed the woman of the house sitting next to their maids on the couch, something that is strictly forbidden. From the way that they were sitting, all uptight with their feet together, one could just sense the fear in the maids. This went to show the large gap that exists between the wealthy and their help. The exhibit then moved to the clothing industry, showing the terrible conditions in which large families were force to live on top of each other. The photographer’s work has influenced him immensely and he is now an avid activist, protesting the terrible conditions that the Bangladeshi garment industry workers are forced to work under. He shot gut-wrenching pictures of the famous factory that collapsed killing thousands. We moved on to Bangladesh’s climate. It is predicted that in a couple of decades Bangladesh will become the next Atlantice. The climate changes so severely affect the Benglasdeshians that they are forced to build moveable homes and farming has become even more laborious than it already is. The last installment of pictures, shows people photographed in a set designed to portray their dreams, leaving one with a sense of hope that is extremely effective.

 

Rachel Weintraub: The Golden Venture

0
10 years
by in Blog posts, Immigration Stories

The documentary “The Golden Venture ,” tells the story of a ship carrying 286 illegal immigrants trying to escape from China, and goes on to track several of the ships members years after they arrived in New York. The individuals who smuggled the people out of China were known as snakeheads. The Golden Venture was the first boat of undocumented aliens to successfully arrive in New York, but not without many hardships. The people coming were trying to find better work and lives in America and some were escaping China’s one-child policy. Before even boarding the boat in Thailand, several died on the journey over the mountains to get to the ship. Conditions on the ship were horrendous; hundreds of people were cramped into barely any room at all.  After stopping in Africa and nearly sinking during a hurricane,  they finally arrived in New York. People jumped from the boat into the freezing cold water causing another ten deaths. To the ships member’s misfortune, they came at a bad time when the country did not want immigrants because of terror scares that occurred just beforehand by undocumented aliens. The immigrants were detained in jail, without any bail for more than three years. A group of lawyers took up their case and slowly, slowly they started gaining supporters from churches.  After a long fight and 99 of the members being deported Clinton finally granted the remaining immigrants amnesty but still no legal status. Two were able to obtain artist visas. Many that were deported tried several more times to make it back to America. Life in America wasn’t as easy as it seems. They were working mostly menial jobs with absurd hours and in constant fear that they would be discovered.  The documentary as a whole was very interesting and informative. It really made one empathize with undocumented aliens and see them in a more humane light. The common argument against immigration is that they take away American jobs, but in truth they take the jobs that no American would be prepared to. When people think of illegal immigrants, they usually think of drug cartels trying to cross the border from Mexico, but this documentary really made me realize that there are good people just trying to better their lives and the lives of their families.

Joe Salvo Talk- Rachel Weintraub

0
10 years
by in Blog posts

Dr. Joe Salvo’s talk on the peopling of New York was very eye opening. Being from Brooklyn, I see a lot of the facts that he pointed out first hand. I live in a very concentrated area of Orthodox Jews but a couple of blocks in one direction and you’re in a mini Chinatown, and a couple blocks in the other direction there is a very large African American Population.  One of the things that I found most interesting was the amount of people that move in and out of New York City from within the United States. The people moving into the city from within the United Sates are making up for the decrease of foreign immigration we have experienced in the past ten years. I always thought of immigration as an international phenomenon, and was amazed by the net domestic migration. People coming both domestically and internationally are coming fully educated and ready to find work. Boroughs in New York City have larger foreign born populations than entire states around the US allowing the foreign born to define the city. New York City is truly a melting pot.

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