New York City is known as the melting pot where people from all different nationalities live within a close vicinity of one another peacefully.  To the outside world New Yorkers seem that way, yet in reality New Yorkers just tolerate one another.  Although New Yorkers pride themselves for its diversity, we really aren’t diverse at all.  Each neighborhood segregates itself with the same type of people, almost closing itself off to new visitors or ‘different’ people.

What I realized while reading this article was that although we live in America, no one ever really identifies himself or herself as American.  They usually identify themselves by their nationality.  For example, if somebody had asked me what I was, I wouldn’t say American.  I would say that I was Chinese.  Many people still feel strong connections with their original countries.  I feel like this has a lot to do with the anti-Semitism in New York that Stefano Luconi describes in his article “Fascist Antisemtism and Jewish-Italian Relations in the United States”.

There is constantly the distinction between the “us” and “they”.  As we discussed throughout the semester, the immigrant groups have always been seen as the ‘outsiders,’ no matter how long they have been in New York City.  It is no different between the rift between the Italians and Jews.  

People are constantly looking to blame someone else for their hardships.  I feel like that the Italians had blamed the Jewish for their hardships during the Great Depression simply because everyone else in Europe had blamed the Jewish for their hardships.  Also, the Italians were the ones working for the Jewish companies.  So, as the unemployment rate rose, it seems as though all the fingers pointed to the owners of these companies.  Another reason that the Italians had resented the Jews is because the Italians feel that the Jewish people have caused tension between America and their home country.