Living conditions were uncomfortable for the Eastern European Jewish immigrants in the turn of the 20th century. A Jewish resident of the late 1800s recalls that “to live, a family of eight in three rooms seemed to us quite normal as was being without a bathroom and sharing the toilet with three neighbors.” ((Family, American Jewish Virtual Library)). The photo on the left was taken from the Jewish Women’s Archive Organization. ((Jewish Women’s Archive. “A Family in a Tenement Apartment.” <http://jwa.org/media/family-in-tenement-apartment>))
The tenements functioned as a workplace as well. This photograph was taken by Lewis Hine in November of 1912 when he was documenting and spreading awareness of the harsh conditions of Jewish immigrant families on the Lower East Side. As seen in the picture, even young children helped out by doing piecework.
