Life in Russia

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"Shver Tsu Zayn a Yid"

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As this old Yiddish proverb goes, its hard to be a Jew, especially in Europe and most definitely in Russia. The Russian Czars rule with absolute power and have for centuries persecuted your people. Jews are forbidden from owning or renting land. Jews are forbidden from working in the government. Jews are forbidden from working in most trades like blacksmith or glassblower. Jews are also forbidden from traveling freely. All of us Russian Jews are confined to "the Pale" which lies as a buffer between Russia proper and the rest of Europe. Most Jews earn a living as peddlers, going from village to village selling goods to the Russian and Polish peasants. However, ever since Czar Alexander II was assassinated by a car bomb (a crime for which Jews were falsely accused of carrying out) the new Czar Alexander III has made life very difficult to be a Jew in Russia.

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The new Czar has ordered all Jews to stop traveling to the villages and remain in the Shetl. Shetls are small towns designated for Jews and are so poor and miserable that even the peasants do not envy you. Even though it is a small town it is a horribly overcrowded jumble of cheaply built houses that crowd around streets that are no more than deeply rutted mud tracks through town. The most exciting thing to do in the Shetl of Kasrielevky where you live is to visit the market where poor merchants set up sad looking stalls trying to sell anything from shoes, lamps, oil, and trinkets to the poor Russian peasants who bring in their vegetables and meats from their farms. The noise and chaos of the market is incredible with everyone pushing and shouting prices and goods back and forth between Russian and Yiddish. Yet everyone struggles to earn a living. There are more watch repair shops in Kasrielevky than there are people who own watches.

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However, one night a mob Russian of peasants who came to the market to do business with the Jews of Kasrielevky turned against you in a savage fury that you will never forget. A Christian boy had been found murdered in some village not far from your town. The killer had been caught; he was the boy's uncle. But that didn't stop the Russian newspapers from calling on Russians to get revenge on the Jews. Hundreds of villagers stormed into our village setting fire to homes and our only synagogue. Dozens of Jews were dragged from their beds and beaten in the streets. You watched as your brother was killed in this way. These pogroms are not new to you. You have heard your grandparents tell tales of Jewish communities being attacked in this way. However, this is the first time you have ever lived through one.

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You work hard (doing odd jobs around the shekl as well as helping your uncle stock goods at his market stall). Your mother admonishes you to save every ruble and trade them in for gold coins. You don't need much encouragement; during the day you breathe America, at night you dream of that land of golden opportunity.

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A few months have passed and each day you get closer to your goal. Your mother fusses over you more and cries a lot. She spends much of her free time knitting socks for you and mending your old clothes. She keeps making you promise to write once you arrive in America. She also frets that you will forget the family after you have gone. You promise to save enough money to bring everyone over in a few short years.

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Next week you will board a train that will take you to France and from there a ship will bring you to New York City. This is where your story begins...