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Read about the experiences of Jews who lived in the New York
City area during the
Great Depression, and listen to some anecdotal
stories told about family life by some of those who lived
those difficult times. Just turn on your speakers,
adjust the volume,
and left-click on any of the earphones icons
to hear the oral testimony of a few who
were witnesses
to this historic era. If you wish to install
Windows Media Player on your computer, visit the Microsoft
site and download the version that is applicable to your system.
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Like other ethnic groups during the Great Depression, life was difficult for
many Jewish families
living in the U.S. Many compromises had to be made. A family could
find a two-bedroom apartment for twelve dollars a month, though those
who suffered greatly financially had to move to less expensive abodes,
or they had to share occupancy with relatives or take in boarders.
Those who could not afford to pay rent might move from apartment to
apartment every couple of months. There were such opportunities where
they could often get the first two months rent free, and then would
move to another apartment once the two months were up. Many former
breadwinners who had lost their jobs were forced to move their
families to poorer neighborhoods where rents were cheaper.
The immigrant family that had
struggled to gain some foothold in the U.S. since their arrival and was able to establish themselves, often faced great
obstacles. By the time the Depression hit (the problems began even
before the Stock Market crashed in 1929), many Jewish families consisted of
two immigrant parents and one or more American-born children, many of whom had already become
independent and often self-sufficient.
Many of the immigrants who once lived in poverty in such countries as
those in Eastern Europe were reminded of the economic misery that they
experienced in their former homeland. Many of the prime breadwinners,
the husbands, could not be sure that they would always have a job and
thus feared that they would become unemployed, have no income, and would
not be able to feed their families. The wife, who ran the household,
had to be careful
in the way she spent money, and had to ration out the food so that
none would be wasted.
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Pearl
audio clip
Well, times were bad, and of course the work that my
father did was seasonal. So he only worked part of the year, and the rest of
the year you had to have enough from the times you were working to tide you
over. There wasn’t much money around. Then you had the Depression, and
people weren’t working, but somehow or other, we always managed to have food
on the table. No luxuries, but I always had nice clothes, because Grandpa
was a ladies’ tailor, and he made my clothes. And Grandma made my clothes
when I was little. So I always had nice clothes, and somehow I don’t think
my brothers were particularly lacking for it, and on the holidays, that’s
the time the boys would get a new jacket or a new pair of pants. But there
was no money around. It was--it was tough times.
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It was a time of great anxiety and
insecurity, and many families had to struggle to survive. Of course, whatever
expectations family members might have had for financial success
before the Great Depression, were
dashed during this period. The father, the person who was supposed to
insure the financial stability of the family, often had to face the
greatest obstacles. Because women were the ones who ran the household,
the Depression did not diminish their role. They knew that they were
in charge of the household, the finances and the children. The
woman of the house learned how to be frugal when buying groceries and
how to make the most out of what she had. When the wife did work, the
money was considered to be supplemental. Not only did the man have to
earn money to feed his wife and children, but also he had to deal with
his own sense of self-worth. The unemployed man of the house grew to
be a very unhappy and discouraged person, sometimes had to wait on
breadlines.
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Ruth
audio clip
My mother was a very proud woman. She wouldn’t go
on—today, it’s welfare. In those days, it was called “home relief.” She
wouldn’t do that. We struggled along. Oh, I went to work when I was sixteen
years old. I went to work at a factory on Spring Street in Manhattan. And
I remember, I made eight dollars a week. And I gave my mother the eight
dollars, and I got back money for carfare and a soda, ‘cause I took a
sandwich from home.
There were no jobs. It was a very, very bad time.
But it’s true that you can never understand it,
Steve, ‘cause you haven’t lived through it. You can read about it, you can
talk about it, you can listen to other people talk about it, but if you
haven’t been there, you have no idea what a Depression is. I hope we never
have to go through that again.
How does a man feel when he’s got four children to
support, and no job, and he knows he’s got to provide for these children?
So he would break a scab line to get a day's work. There were no unions. And to
leave two dollars for my mother. Or I remember—you know, I do remember
there was a butcher store on the corner of Livonia Avenue, I think,
Alabama or Williams, whatever. I think Alabama, or Je---I don’t remember.
And there were no freezers in those years. If they were left over with
chickens on a Friday afternoon, they were closed on the Sabbath. So you
had to get rid of the chicken. So my mother would wait until three o’clock in
the afternoon on a Friday, and buy a chicken for twenty-five cents. I mean
that’s how bad things were. If you have four children, you buy a
quarter-pound [of] butter. At those times, they sold loose butter.
You really can’t begin to understand how a man must
feel to know he can’t feed his four children.
No, they had no time to appreciate anything, to be very
honest. It was no time to appreciate anything. You did your own laundry.
You even cooked your own starch, to starch the shirts or the dress, or the
curtains that you hung on the [line].
You know it’s true, there was no time to appreciate anything. You just got
up in the morning. You did your wash. You hung it out on the line. You
took it in in the winter. It was stiff as a board. You know, there were no
dryers, no washing machines. You hung your clothes on the line. In winter,
it would freeze. I mean, think about it. All these things that…There were no
conveniences. We didn’t have a telephone. The candy store used to call us.
They would yell up, and we would give the kid two cents for coming up to
ring our bell, or whatever it was. But we didn’t have any conveniences in
those days at all. We didn’t have cars, no telephone. We had a radio. That
was it. Oh, we had a victorola that used to wind up. But that’s it. That’s
all we had. There was nothing. And you know what? Now that I think about
it, when did my mother have a chance to enjoy her life? Or my father? Then
the war came along, and things started to get a little bit better, and that’s
about it. |
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For the first few years of the Depression, the marriage rate
decreased. Less children were being born.
Many things weren't expensive at the time, but if one didn't have a
job and had no money, that was of little consequence. A newspaper
might cost three cents, a subway ride a nickel, and a
movie ten or eleven cents.
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Roz
audio clip
We were definitely Depression children. We
really were. There's no question about it...Do you know that I
remember my brother and I use to stand, palpitating on Saturday
mornings, to go to the movies? My mother would make us the lunch, you
know, with a cheese sandwich, or chicken with chicken fat on it, you
know, that we used to pack in the bag...and we used to wait for Sam to
come, to give us the eleven cents, 'cause my mother couldn't give it
to us...and it was that bad, that I had to wait. And we used to say,
"Oh my G-d, we're going to miss the Shorts" because, you know, we
wanted to get there. And then he would always show up, Sam, and give
my brother the eleven cents, and me the eleven cents, and we'd run to
the movies. |
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It was also a struggle for families to keep their children in school.
Sometimes the family struggles would cause a great deal of disharmony
within the family, creating constant arguing and great conflict. In
New York, a Jewish Conciliation Court was set
up
to resolve family disputes.
Sons and daughters, at ages now thought too young to work, were forced
to do what they could to earn some money, even if it was just a few
cents per day.
All of
this anxiety and financial insecurity made the family unit pull
together. Often, all who could in the family were forced to find what
work they could, so that they could pool their money and have enough
to pay for rent and for food. Wives would take in work piece-meal.
Children would shine shoes, sell newspapers or sell from a pushcart.
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Artie
I had one job. I
got seven dollars a week delivering pocketbooks. They made them ---
pocketbooks. There were two partners. I made seven dollars and I made
more money than they did....I
worked for a hat place too. My
last job I made eighteen dollars a week working for Rae's, before I came
here to Washington, D.C.. And my friends and I each had pushcarts. We
bought fruit and vegetables, and we sold it off the pushcart we got from
Fortunoffs on Alabama Avenue, near Livonia. And the women would take
advantage of us too. You had to start off getting the best prices in the
beginning, because they’d pick out the best stuff.
We used to
go to the market on Osborne Street. I think that this is where we got
the most stuff. |
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The neighborhood worst hit by the Great Depression was the Lower
East Side of Manhattan. Once holding the majority of Jewish immigrants living in
New York City and being the center of its Jewish culture and activity,
it had now become the most disadvantaged and destitute due to
decreasing number of Jews living there. One of the sections of lower
Manhattan that reflected the depressed state of the economy and the
impoverishment of its people was known as the Bowery, an area that separates the Lower East Side from Little Italy and Chinatown. The
expression "Bowery bum" was borne there. The folks who were fortunate
and could afford to move away from Manhattan had already done so.
Those who didn’t, or couldn’t leave, were already the poorest of the
lot, and they only fared worse when the Great Depression struck.
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Fay
audio clip
We had a big, what do you call it
again, Depression in 1929. When Wall Street dropped. Wall
Street—people were throwing themselves out of the windows.
About her mother Ida (Chaika):
He said
he never saw a woman like Chaika. Her name was Chaika. Never. There’ll
never be a woman like her. She had good ways. She was very charitable,
very charitable. She would help a bum. She’d see a bum on the street
in the Bowery and she’d go over to him and say, “Why are you a bum?
Tell me why. You’re a young fella. What’s wrong with you?” So that’s
the kind of woman she was. And he would start telling her stories. And
she said, “Come. I’ll give you dinner. I’ll take you in for dinner.”
She’d go into saloons, my mother, to meet people. And when she gets a
hold of somebody that she thought she could do something (with), she'd
go ahead and she’d dress him up with a suit and coat, and tell him,
“Go get a job.” She was very charitable. If you could do that—not
today, but she did it years ago. I know.
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