Category: Uncategorized

The Godfather: Part II is directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Coppola simultaneously tells the stories of Michael Corleone and his father Vito Corleone using a technique called the parallel action. This technique switches back and forth between two time periods and relates the lives of Michael and Vito. Coppola is able to use this technique well because he knows just the right time to cut a scene and enter another. By the end of the movie, the two story lines are complete and united.

The unity between Vito’s and Michael’s story lines is clear when Michael remembers gathering with his family for his father’s birthday. The scene starts with a wide lens shot of the dining room area from a point of view behind an empty chair, which the audience knows will soon be occupied by Vito Corleone.

Young Michael sits surrounded by his brothers, sister and family friends. The wide shot lens captures the room with its dark-decorated walls. The room is lit by a source of light that seems to come from above the bright, white-clothed table. Of the men gathered at the table, Michael is wearing the most “white.” He stands out because the other males in the room are wearing gray, brown or black.

Michael seems nonchalant as he remains quiet and smokes a cigarette. He only starts conversing when soldiers are referred to as “saps.” At that moment, a conversation is initiated between Michael and Sonny, and the director begins to use the shot-reverse-shot technique. When the shot focuses on Michael, it lingers a little longer, staying on Michael, even when Sonny starts to speak.

Michael is already seen as “different” because of how he carries himself but he further isolates himself by saying that he didn’t want a deferment from the army and that he has his own plans for the future. All the while, there is no music. Aside from the sounds of Sonny’s children in the background, the only sound is the dialogue between the characters and it forces the audience to hang on every word.

The director carefully places this scene at the end of the movie where it holds the most significance. This scene shapes the audience’s understanding of the narrative by touching the issues of power, violence, innocence and family — all which build upon the events that take place throughout the movie.

If this scene was placed earlier in the movie or edited to be shorter, it would not hold the same profound effect. At Michael’s lowest, when he has lost his wife and his brother, he remembers the moment shown in the scene. The moment when he was naive, when the family was the priority and when he thought he could make his own future, maybe even away from the family.

Michael’s hope for innocence is shown through Sonny’s children, who are dressed in white and say, “Daddy’s fighting again!” Michael, dressed in colors resembling white, seems to want something different than what his brothers and father want. He wants to step away from the violence of the family but ironically chooses to do so by joining the marines, as if violence is a cycle unpreventable to the Corleone family.

The audience clearly knows at this moment that his efforts prove fruitless and that he ends up entangling himself in a world of crime and violence passed down by his father. Even after marrying Kay, and wanting to be legit, it’s impossible for someone like him. The audience is also aware that Michael will lose what he has in this scene, family.

The scene constantly switches to shot-reverse-shot and then to a far shot enclosing the scene. Slowly, one by one, people around the table leave. The way Sonny treats Fredo and the other characters in this scene because of his “power” closely resembles the way Michael does in the future when he possesses the power. The audience sees Fredo picking up Sonny’s chair and being ushered off to make a drink. This explains Fredo’s actions and his plea to Michael shortly before he is killed. Everyone leaves to meet Vito and as they leave and walk away from the brightly lit table, they enter a dark hallway, together.

The scene ends with only Michael sitting at the table and the use of the wide lens emphasizes his loneliness. He seems to hold no loyalty to the family as Sonny describes. He gets someone to kill Fredo, his own brother. Michael’s wife is gone and he holds no close relationship to his children. He didn’t even know what his son got for Christmas. To the audience, there starts to become a clear distinction between the lives Vito and Michael have created.

Vito has built a life around family and loyalty. He values his children and despite his violent public figure, he is portrayed as a loyal and sweet father. He cherishes his children and his wife. On the other hand, Michael’s wife aborts their son and leaves him. For Michael, maintaining both power and family values seems like an impossibility. The only thing that ties these two men together is the unpreventable cycle of violence.

All of this becomes clear in the scene. When the wide lens lingers on a far shot of Michael sitting alone after everything has taken place, the audience says in their heads, “If only Michael knew then who he becomes…”

In the Presidential Palace Fredo introduces Michael to a judge and a few senators from around the US. As Johnny Ola walks into the scene, it is at a wide shot of the conversation with Michael staring directly at the newcomer. After Michael greets Johnny, the camera cuts to a more focused shot of just Fredo and Johnny with a voiceover of Michael introducing Ola to his brother, believing that they have never met before. Directed towards the audience, Fredo’s actions make him look nervous looking around trying to avoid eye contact with someone he allegedly just met. The scene cuts to a shot looking over Fredo’s shoulder at Johnny, which seems to take the viewpoint of Michael sitting in his seat. After the two shake hands, the scene jumps to a shot of Michael looking over the shoulder of another man. In this part Michael’s expression is clearly visible and marked with suspicion. This cut shows the audience that Michael is gaining knowledge of Fredo’s betrayal, but the angle shows that Fredo is unaware.

In the following scene in the backroom for the Palace the scene gives a wide shot of Fredo, his company, Michael, and his bodyguard. One asks Fredo why they are standing and Fredo replies that everyone stands, but the show is worthwhile, as if he has already seen the spectacle. Michael picks up on that piece of knowledge and stares Fredo down. The scene repeatedly cuts from the performance, to Fredo, to Michael, and back to the stage. The cuts showing the performance sets the scene and backs what Fredo said. The cuts jumping between Michael and Fredo show the increasing tension between the two brothers. After Fredo lets it slip that Johnny Ola showed him this place, the scene moves to a close up of Michael showing an astonished expression on his face and later, a look of disbelief as he puts the pieces of his brother’s betrayal together.

In the last scene (although it fades from a flashback to the present day), we see the story come around a full circle. Throughout the entire movie there are random flashbacks of Vito, and how he built his mafia empire. It shows his humble beginnings and then his ruthless acts that earned him the respect that Michael now receives from everyone. The flashbacks don’t seem to relate to Michael as much until the very last scene. In this scene Francis Coppola does an excellent job at closing the movie with Michael realizing he has not fulfilled his dreams instead he has lived his father’s life.

In the opening of the scene we see Sonny, who is the oldest of the Corleone boys. This is the only time we see him so we can assume he has passed away already. He seems to be the one that’s in charge of the family even though Vito is still alive since the family is gathered to celebrate his birthday.  There’s an introduction of all the brothers including Connie and Tom. Tom is part of the family as is called a step brother. The camera is placed towards the back of the dining room so that it can show the entire table and the living room in the back where there seem to be children playing but they aren’t heard. All that is heard is the clattering of kitchen utensils and the dialogue that Sonny leads. While the brothers play around with each other Michael is quiet and it is also important to note that he sits on the other side of the table alone. While all his siblings are next to each other with Sonny at the head, Coppola has Michael on his own. He is different from the others.

When Sonny talks about soldiers risking their lives for strangers as a foolish act, the camera finally shows a close up of him, it is the first close up of the scene. The camera goes back and forth from Sonny to Michael as he argues with Sonny. Michael calls it “pop talk.” It is clear that him and his father don’t have the same views. Kind of ironic because Michael ends up taking over his father’s role. That is when Michael tells Sonny he enlisted to be in the marines. He does this all while still smoking as if to show he is not scared to stand up to his older brother. He wants to fight for his country not his family. It is his way of escaping the family business. When Michael makes this statement the camera pans back out to its original view of the dinner table. It lets the viewer see the reactions of the other family members. After Sonny gets heated at Michael we automatically hear children’s voices in the background and this calms Sonny down, it grounds him. The two girls actually say, “Mommy, Daddy is fighting again.” It shows how important it was for the kids to not know that there was fighting in the family. They had to put up a front for the kids to prove that family means everything. After Connie is sent by Sonny to calm the children we see just the brothers in the room , and Fredo leans to shake Michael’s hand and congratulate him but their handshake gets ripped apart by Sonny. This part is also ironic because their broken handshake turns into a broken relationship in the future even though it seems as though Fredo had been the only supporting brother. Tom although he isn’t their blood brother also seems to have this role of the older brother, he is the one who talks to “Pops” about Michael’s future. He tries to look out for Michael in that way. The camera goes back and forth from Tom to Michael and shows their looks in one another’s eyes as they are conversing. It’s a look we have seen throughout the movie, it’s a look of loyalty towards one another even though words don’t necessarily express it.

After Vito comes home, the other boys leave but Michael stays behind once again remaining alone. The camera is back to its original position showing Michael thinking in an empty room with no one in the background, while the noise in the background is everyone singing to Vito for his birthday. Michael is unaffected by it all he doesn’t even want to go sing with his family. This scene fades back while an even earlier flashback of child Michael saying goodbye to Sicily from the moving train fades in. This transitions to Michael sitting by the lake. The transitioning makes it seem like these flashbacks are of Michael’s, that these are the moments he is thinking about. The moment where he decided to go against his family, and the moment where he says bye. It is sort of like he is saying bye to himself because he is no longer the same man. He not only turned into the type of man he didn’t want to become, but he also lost his family along the way. The camera slowly zooms into Michael’s face and he is covering the bottom half of his face. The lighting darkens the right half of his face and draws emphasis to Michael’s eyes which are circled with wrinkles. He is in deep thought about what his life turned out to really be. Coppola does a really nice job at showing how this life has aged him, stressed him, and not given him any happiness. The mafia life is not all the glory that it is made out to be.

Between 1881 and 1914, 2 million Jews emigrated from eastern Europe to the United States, and 75 percent came from Russian lands. Moreover, nearly three-quarters of these immigrants settled in New York City, and by 1910, Jews became the largest immigrant group in the city with a population of 1.4 million. The majority of the emigrants in the early stages were shtetl (small town) people, who were not skilled workers, but by the turn of the century, most of the eastern European Jews who immigrated to America were skilled or semiskilled workers. About 40 percent of these Jews became employed in the garment industry, and many others became machine & metal workers and food industry workers.

After 1905, severely oppressive behavior by the czarist government in Russia led many more immigrants to go to America, including those who were more well-educated and politically involved. They were also less religious and more likely to have received secular education than those who emigrated before them. And in comparison to other immigrants, whose returnee rates were around 30 percent, Jewish returnee rates from 1905 to 1920 were never more than 8 percent.

As more and more Jews swarmed into New York, the Lower East Side became the most congested district in all the five boroughs, and Yiddish became its dominant language. In fact, the Lower East Side’s Jewish population continued to rise until it peaked at 542,061 in 1910. However, new bridges and subways that connected Manhattan to Brooklyn led lots of the Jewish population to spread out into areas of Brooklyn including Williamsburg, New Lots, and Brownsville, whose Jewish population drastically grew from 4,000 in 1890 to 230,000 1915. And even still, the Lower East Side remained the epicenter of Jewish cultural and political life for most of the 20^th century.

Facing an increase in anti-Semitic views, German Jews became determined to Americanize the people of their community, so they established associations including the Educational Alliance, which provided career and citizenship training. But since the immigrating Jews resented their patronizing behavior, the Alliance was forced to ease up and by the turn of the century, people had become more responsive to their programs.

But inevitably, various illegal activities became a problem on the Lower East Side due to its poverty. The most rampant problem the neighborhood faced was prostitution, and three-quarters of the prostitutes from the district who were tried in court between November 1908 and March 1909 were Jewish. Then in September of 1908, an anti-Semitic piece in the North American Review by New York City’s police commissioner Theodore Bingham stated that Jews were simply more likely to commit crime by nature. This led the German Jews to take action and create the New York City Kehillah in 1908. This congregation of Jewish organizations sought to educate Jews and help them deal with social issues. Although crime rates decreased, the Kehillah never did unify the community because of its Reform Jewish leader.

As Jewish interest in unions grew, landsmanshaftn were created. These were associations that offered a variety of social services to their Jewish members. But as the Jewish population grew, the number of similarly benevolent organizations in New York City also grew, and projects were launched that were more ambitious than those of the landsmanshaftn, one of which being the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

The eastern Europeans’ urban experiences prepared them much more suitably for positions in commerce and manufacturing than other immigrant groups, and by 1900 one-third of the Jewish immigrant population were involved in those fields. With growing numbers of customers, Jewish immigrants did indeed have the ability to save their way up the social ladder. Jews began dominating the garment industry, and made up three-quarters of its labor force by the end of the 19^th century. However, unhealthy and unsafe working conditions, low wages, and long hours led garment workers to protest and strike.

Between 1909 and 1914, union membership grew sharply, and the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union emerged. On November 22, 1909, a dramatic strike was held by female workers of shirtwaist shops in New York City. The importance of unions became very clear and prominent after the Triangle Shirtwaist fire of 1911, after which 100 constituent unions had a total of 250,000 members.

While Jewish immigrants were in support of socialist unions, they usually did not join the socialist party officially, and in 1912, the district with the lowest percentage of registered voters was the predominantly eastern European Jewish Eighth. At the local level, Jews either voted for Tammany, because he got lots of Jews in office, or whatever party had ideals similar to their own, including criticism of czarist Russia, support for immigration, and plans to improve working conditions. But the true beginning of the Lower East Side politics was Morris Hillquit’s candidacy for a seat in Congress in 1906. While he was unable to overcome Tammany’s monetary influence, another Socialist party candidate named Meyer London won a seat in 1914.

Due to the immigrants’ view of their new country, the impact of urban life on their religion was very evident. Some people remained truly orthodox, but most only practiced some aspects of the religion. Since the synagogue is a place of both socializing and worship, and since young Jew were the target audience for the religious reform, the Young Israel movement was formed in 1912 in order to draw more people to synagogue. Then in 1913, the Conservative movement aimed to merge the traditional practices and the new changes, which many young people were attracted to.

Young Jewish immigrants were less interested in religion mainly because they were more concerned with the important of secular education. Some teachers were known to be overly harsh, and punished students for speaking Yiddish, while others were praised for changing young people’s lives. Overall, Jews did very well in school because of their enthusiasm. But when it came time to go to high school and even college, facilities were limited and most kids had to work instead of going to school.

As a form of entertainment, twenty Yiddish daily newspapers were established between 1885 and 1914. These dailies represented every type of belief in the Jewish community, from secular to orthodox. While the dailies provided local and national news, they also included columns with advice on adapting to America. Within a decade of its debut on April 22, 1897, Foverts became the most popular Yiddish daily in the world, with 140,000 readers by 1912. This was mainly because of the paper’s editor, Abraham Cahan. The paper promoted a new, more religiously tolerant kind of socialism, advocated for Americanism, and provided advice and assistance on a wide array of problems involving adaptation to American life.

Other forms of entertainment, including dance and street games, also became popular with Jewish immigrants. But nothing compared to the popularity of the Yiddish theater. These theatres produced many cheesy comedies and skewed versions of European dramas, which the common people loved because they usually reflected immigrant life in lighthearted and comical ways. However, the Yiddish intellectuals called for serious theatre. Luckily for them, a talented playwright from Russia named Jacob Gordin arrived in 1891. He collaborated with acclaimed director, Jacob Adler, who established the Independent Yiddish Artists Company, and they created intellectually artistic theatrical productions.

Despite the small town beginnings of the first Jewish immigrants, it is clear that they established themselves culturally and socially in New York City. The Jews made their way up the social ladder, established a variety of organizations that were aimed at helping the Jewish community, and enthusiastically sought after education. They set up forms of mass and intellectual entertainment in the city, and although some began to stray from their religion, religious reform helped keep their faith intact as their lives were reshaped by the dynamic environment of New York.

 

From the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries, a significant number of Eastern European Jews immigrated to America, with a particularly large concentration of them settling in New York City, most notably the Lower East Side of Manhattan. This wave of immigrants ultimately effected substantial change and influence on the culture and character of New York.

Initial influxes of Jewish immigrants during this time consisted of people from shtetls who had no previous experience with urban life. The most religious Jews, namely prominent rabbis and their followers, refused to immigrate to America due to their belief that America was spiritually deprived and operated solely under the drive to make money. As more economic, social, political, and spiritual circumstances changed in Europe, greater numbers and more varied types of Jews immigrated to the U.S. As the European economy declined and religious persecution abounded, Jewish immigration to America saw a sharp increase. Soon enough, over half of the Eastern European Jewish immigrants to New York had experience in an urban environment and could be classified as skilled workers.

With the dramatic rise in Eastern European Jewish immigration, numbers of Irish and German immigrants living in certain parts of the city diminished, and the Lower East Side became the most densely populated, congested district in NYC. Although most Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe settled in the Lower East Side, new urban infrastructure brought many of these immigrants to move to other areas like Brooklyn, uptown Manhattan, and the Bronx. These Jews mostly lived in cramped, dark tenements and slums, not acquiring much improvement upon the living conditions of the Lower East Side. In addition, although Jews migrated to other areas of the city, the Lower East Side remained the center for Jewish American intellectual, cultural, and political life.

As anti-Semitic sentiment grew in the late 1800s, leaders of the well-established German Jewish community began voicing their grievances towards Eastern European Jews and their “uncouth” and foreign ways of living. These German-Jews consequently set out to Americanize these Eastern European Jews, establishing organizations and agencies, most notably the Educational Alliance, to train these immigrants for jobs and citizenship. Eastern European Jewish immigrants initially resented the German Jews and their organizations because of their frequent condemnation of Yiddish language and culture. However, once these organizations began to accept Yiddish, eventually providing classes in Yiddish culture and language, Eastern European Jewish immigrants demonstrated new enthusiasm for these programs.

A lot of anti-Semitic remarks were made about the crime rates among the Eastern European Jewish population in the Lower East Side; although no violent crime really occurred within this community, some serious criminal activity, notably prostitution, took place. As a result, the German Jews in uptown Manhattan also created associations to decrease crime and poverty while increasing Jewish quality of life.

In time, eastern European Jews in New York started establishing their own dominance. A majority of them gained a strong foothold in manufacturing, particularly in the garment industry, and many of them formed socialist labor unions. These socialists spoke out about issues of social justice and gave a new sense of brotherhood to the eastern European Jewish community in the city. They started to exercise greater political influence as voters, putting many Jewish and Jewish-advocating candidates in office. Jews in the Lower East Side became progressively more secular while still maintaining their core religious identities and beliefs. Although Judaism definitely saw a decline in New York among the eastern European Jewish demographic, this decline stopped as Judaism became steadily Americanized.

The eastern European Jewish community in NYC ultimately established a great cultural influence. Their unique enthusiasm for learning and intense value of knowledge drove them to get an extensive education, and they contributed greatly to NYC’s theater scene with both common and, later, more sophisticated Yiddish drama.

Part Two introduces the Italian immigrants who came to New York during the period before World War I. They compare these immigrants to their Jewish counterparts who came around the same time. Similar to the Jews, the Italian’s main motivation for coming to the US was to find a better life. What set them apart was their skill set. The Jews were generally more educated and had more employable skills. Many of them were also literate. The Italians, on the other hand, were mostly peasants. Another difference between these groups was their demographic. The Jews came mostly in family units whereas the Italians were mostly young men looking to make money to bring back to their families in Italy. It was not until later that their families came as well.

Italians concentrated in a few areas in the City for various reasons. The most famous of the Italian colonies was Little Italy in Lower Manhattan. Other areas with large concentrations of Italians included Greenwich Village, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and even parts of Harlem. The patterns of settlement were highly dependent on where they found work. Many of the young Italian men did manual labor in construction. There were a lot of big building projects in progress during this time and they tended to settle nearby. The settlement in the Bronx was due to the prosperous real estate market. Another factor that contributed to settlement were the labor contractors. They made deals with laborers and set them up with a place to live. There was a general pattern of people from the same region/town of Italy living very close to each other.

Like most other immigrant groups, the housing conditions were often crowded and dirty. This was no exception. for the Italians. They were arriving off the boats with few possessions and almost no money. It took time before they made enough money to support themselves. The result of this was slums. The Italians initially took over tenements that were previously inhabited by Irish immigrants. Because these homes had been abandoned for a while they were in very poor condition. The housing in East Harlem was especially poor. Jacob Riis took many pictures of these types of situations and revealed this issue to the public.

Crime was also an issue among the Italians. They struggled with juvenile delinquency as well as the Mafia. There was a large scale migration of Mafia members came from Sicily. They maintained their connections with the Mafia in Italy. These types of practices contributed to the anti-immigrant sentiment at this time.

Aside from the the poorer Italians who accepted the physically demanding and low paying jobs some were able to pick up trades or get a job on municipal payroll like in sanitation. Some of these trade jobs include, shoemakers, masons, waiters, and even musicians. Another big employer for Italians was the garment business. Unlike some other immigrant groups the Italian were very eager workers and rarely went on strike. They took whatever work they could find.

Italian women also played a roll. Often they were required to work as well o support their families. Most of them worked in the garment business. Young girls also played a roll in the home taking care of their younger siblings while their parents worked. Much of the time parents did not allow their children to go to school.  They were distrustful of the American public school system. This created a problem for second generations in advancing in society. Some people were able to score white collar jobs. Some went into banking, real estate, and newspapers.

The Italian’s role in politics is also an important thing to consider. They formed their own political groups and some managed to get positions as politicians. One of the more successful individuals was Fiorello La Guardia. Some of the groups that formed were called Brooklyn’s Club Avanti and the Italian Socialist Federation.  Some other organizations formed to help the newcomers adjust as well. One was called the Society for the Protection of Italian Immigrants.

The last thing to consider it how the Italians practiced religion. In Italy, they were surrounded by only Catholics but when they came to New York they suddenly became the minority. They came to distrust the church in America.

Overall the Italians were a very tightly knit community and supported each other in their journey to America. They eventually made their way and many were successful in finding a better life.

Chapter 5 of Binder and Reimers’ All The Nations Under Heaven: An Ethnic and Racial History of New York City provides a thorough discussion of Jewish immigration to the Lower East Side of Manhattan beginning in the late nineteenth century. Between 1881 and 1914, about two million Jews immigrated to the United States, with three quarters of that population remaining in New York City. The immigrants hailed primarily from Russia and Eastern Europe where anti-Semitic sentiments were high and persecution and pogroms forced families to leave their homelands.

Many of the arriving immigrants could be characterized as skilled or semiskilled laborers—over forty percent having been employed in the clothing industry back in Eastern Europe. Other industries included construction, metal working, and the food industry. Well educated scholars were equally forced to emigrate under czarist oppression, yielding a more secular Jewish population in America. In fact, the Jews that often refused to settle in “the land of opportunity” were the religious orthodox that viewed the United States as a land where spiritual values had no place.

To some extent, they were correct. Stronger than the Jewish religion in the densely populated Jewish quarter of Manhattan was Jewish culture. The Jews filled in where the Irish and Germans left their mark with no plans to return back home. As the population grew, the Lower East Side of Manhattan became the most congested district in the five boroughs yet was still central to Jewish immigrants even after subways and bridges opened Brooklyn up to them. With rising antisemitism, the established German Jews feared that the influx of their Eastern European counterpart would perpetuate the hate, but the majority of Western Jewish philanthropy was directed toward helping victims of pogroms migrate to America. To repair the view of the Jewish immigrants in the public eye and bridge the manners and customs separating the German from Eastern European Jews, the Educational Alliance was established by German Jews. The Alliance was intended to assist in vocational and citizenship training for new immigrants but also offered classes in subjects such as literature, philosophy, history and art. The heavy Americanization of Jewish culture in the Alliance, though, was very much resented by the Eastern European Jews.

Another organization intended to repair the image of Jewish immigrants in America was the New York City Kehillah led by Rabbi Judah Magnes. The Lower East Side was not necessarily violent, but crime was nevertheless a problem—pickpocketing, arson, prostitution and gambling could all be found in the alleyways between tenements or in the slums themselves. After police commissioner Theodore Bingham exaggeratedly spoke out against the immigrant Jews in the September 1908 issue of the North American Review, The New York City Kehillah was founded that same year. About 200 organizations united to support Jewish immigrants in an effort to reduce crime among them, but the coalition never truly unified the community.

In terms of earning a living, most Eastern European Jews entered manufacturing, specifically the garment industry. This was no surprise as ten percent of the Jewish immigrants were skilled tailors and most of the factories were owned by German Jews. The garment industry, once run within tenements until the 1892 Tenement House Act, shifted into sweatshops, but that did not change the unbearable working conditions. Many Jewish laborers, especially women, began to unionize, and the umbrella labor organization, United Hebrew Trades, was founded in 1888. Membership particularly grew after The Triangle Shirtwaist Co. Fire where 146 workers, mostly young Jewish women, lost their lives. In conjunction with the labor movement, the socialist movement was widely applauded by Jewish immigrant workers in its values of brotherhood and traditional Jewish concepts.

Politically, though, Eastern European Jews followed the Germans in their support for the Republican party which proved responsive to Jewish concerns regarding immigration policy and anti-Semitism abroad. With urban life increasing the secularity of Jewish immigrants, their attraction to socialism or Zionism dwindled, and secular education became increasingly important and valued in Jewish culture. Proper schooling was emphasized for both girls and boys in climbing the ladder to economic success, even though success for most Jews was a result of strategic commercial advances, not a diploma. In an attempt to revitalize Orthodox Judaism, the Young Israel movement of 1912 was formed which ultimately led to a movement of Jewish conservatism that recognized the need to maintain tradition while adapting to change. Overall, in the immigration story of Eastern European Jews there is a clear difference between upholding the Jewish religion and Jewish culture, and to fully participate in American life, compromises were made.

Chapter Five of Binder and Reimers’s All Nations Under Heaven focuses on the Eastern European Jewish immigrants of New York City. Nearly two million Jews immigrated to America during the late 19^th century, mainly coming from the Russian Empire. There was no fixed identity associated with the Jewish immigrant – all had different economic, political, and spiritual beliefs. Still, most had the urban mindset, traditions, and work ethic that allowed them to quickly find employment in skilled/semiskilled jobs and become well-adjusted to urban life.

Jews settled in neighborhoods all over the five boroughs, but it was the Lower East Side region of Manhattan that felt the largest Jewish presence. The Lower East Side soon became the most densely populated neighborhood in New York City, but with the influx of new settlers came a trend of crime and poverty in the area. Various community initiatives arose from German-Jewish leaders in order to combat crime, including the New York City Kehillah, which had a specific bureau dedicated to preventing crime. The New York City Kehillah organizations were effective in certain goals, but in the end, did not succeed in unifying the Jewish community. Such an end result was the result of the divide between the German-Jews and the new Jewish immigrants, who found the German-Jews patronizing and inclusive. The Educational Alliance, another organization founded by the German-Jewish community, was also disliked by the recent Jewish immigrants because of their patronizing attitude and the absence of classes that discussed Yiddish culture. However, the Education Alliance eventually began to offer Yiddish classes and proved successful with many community members attending their classes. Landsmanshaft organizations were another important part of the Jewish community. These organizations, like the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, were the result of the unity and kinship of old country townspeople immigrants. Landsmanshaft organizations provided a way for new settlers to socialize, continue their culture, and have access to various social services, like life insurance and job employment. These organizations were extremely successful in the Jewish community, and provided aid and resources to the new Eastern European Jews.

Strength in numbers did not just apply to community life organizations for the Jewish immigrants. A rise in union membership was facilitated by members of the Jewish community, especially during the years 1909-1914. This time saw the creation of many unions such as the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, as well as many protests and strikes, including a strike in November 1909 that over 20,000 workers participated in – the largest strike of women workers in America. While this was a huge step in uniting the community, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in 1911 proved that more work still had to be done to protect laborers’ rights, and thus, union membership was stressed greatly.

While many Jewish immigrants worked in the clothing industry, they took advantage of other job opportunities in New York, like those in the commerce and manufacturing industries. Working was important in Jewish families, but so was education. Education was valued because they understood that it led to jobs, and even girls were encouraged to go to school. Going to school was seen as the “ladder of success;” many dreamed of attending college (CCNY!) and pursuing various subjects outside of school. Those who could not were still able to learn by visiting libraries, going to lectures, attending night classes, reading newspapers, or even just socializing with other intellectuals at popular café gathering spots.

Jewish immigrants were committed to learning, and this emphasis on secular education steered them away from religion. Only a few of Eastern European Jews in New York remained truly Orthodox, and younger immigrants found difficulty in practicing religion as strictly as their elders did. Religious education was lacking in the city, and there were few trained rabbis in synagogues. Zionism was not embraced by many American Jews, and was dismissed as a “movement of dreamers.” With social mobility in working industries and opportunities for basic education, Jewish immigrants had less time for strict religious guidelines but found success in other areas of life. They were well-suited for the fast-paced life of New York City and embraced the opportunities and open-mindedness of America.

Italian immigration started off in smaller numbers in the late nineteenth century and into the turn of the twentieth. Although young women initiated the first wave of emigration to the United States, it was the young men and bachelors coming to America to provide a better financial status for their families back home, and eventually transplanting their entire families over to the States. By 1920, over 800,000 Italian Americans lived in New York City, placing second to the Jews in population size (136). Italian Americans were widespread throughout the communities of lower Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, and even Queens, with their settlement patterns influenced by the proximity of their homes to the locations of their jobs (137). The neighborhoods were primarily broken down into subsections of Italian communities, based on the part of Italy that they had originated from. As a result of their large urban populations, crime and poverty grew rampant in the impoverished districts of the city, with the Sicilian mafia and the “Black Hand” crime mob dominating business through ransom threats.

Due to their huge influx, Italian immigrants also occupied a variety of jobs, including but not limited to: sanitation, police, barbers, shoeshiners, masons, etc. The Italians were known for being diligent in their work, willing to accept lower wages, and spread commission between all workers (140-141). In terms of gender, Italian women very rarely immigrated to the United States by themselves, instead crossing over with their husbands and families, performing mainly domestic tasks such as caretaking, housekeeping, and maintaining the household. That being said, as the New York economy expanded, more and more Italian women chose to venture into the garment industry, often working as seamstresses and factory workers, although mostly in sweatshop conditions (141). Second-generation immigrants had better luck with their job prospects, as the end of World War I and their proficiency in English allowed for broader access to higher education and white-collar jobs (142). Due to their involvement in the American job industry, there was also an increase in unionizing between Italian immigrants as a means of preserving workers’ rights, as seen with the collective strike of 1909 against the garment industry (143). In addition, there was a formation of an Italian middle-class at the end of WWI as more and more immigrants became bankers, real estate promoters, and newspaper editors.

From the political side of things, Italians were mostly ostracized from the political background of New York. Since Irish-Americans dominated political offices, Italians were largely ignored by Tammany Hall due to their lack of interest in political affairs and their general interest in returning to Italy. For most Italian immigrants, moving to America only served as a means to an end: earning money to provide for families back in Europe. The major exception was Fiorello La Gaurdia, who earned a seat in the House of Representatives by a narrow margin (144). Italian immigrants felt both Republicans and Democrats did not meet their needs to combat poverty and the working class, thus moving towards the Socialist party as an alternative. Different social organizations sprouted to accommodate the needs of Italian communities, such as programs to help immigrants adjust to the newfound life of American as well as mutual aid societies that provide death benefits and health insurance (145).

Similar to Irish immigrants, religion was a major component of Italian-immigrant life, with a small community of Italian priests serving as spiritual aides to the impoverished population. However, because of the predominantly Irish-run church system, there was an established tension between Irish and Italian priests over discrepancies in worship. For example, Italian beliefs in the “evil eye” and magic were considered “paganistic” by Irish priests and were consequentially looked down upon (146). Moreover, Italian Catholics noted American Catholicism as a minority religion that was in constant competition with larger, more developed religious groups. The apparent difference in both religious practice and fervor instantiated a movement to include more Italian churches, Catholic schools, and nunneries within New York, though less successful with the latter two (147).

Nevertheless, the Italian immigrant community in New York City remained fairly secure within the late nineteenth-early twentieth centuries, as a respect to the ethnic connections that tied their roots together (148).