The Jewish quarter
of Philadelphia (1881) cannot be found on any map, but its
borders are marked out in contemporary writings of the period.
Stretching from Spruce Street on the north to Christian Street
on the south, and from South 2nd to South 6th Streets on the
east and west, the checkerboard quarter was the heart of
immigrant Jewish Philadelphia for two generations. These
borders, like all borders, changed as time passed; and, like all
Jewish borders, they changed faster than most.
This exhibition
offers a 'slice' of the history of the Jewish experience in
Philadelphia, as illustrated below....
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Eastern
European Immigration and Settlement of the Jewish Quarter of
Philadelphia
After the
assassination of Alexander II, the czar of Russia, on March
1, 1881, mysterious emissaries of Alexander III, the new
czar, appeared in the larger cities of southern Russia, and
plans were carefully laid for pogroms to occur during
Passover. Although the role played by Jews in the murder of
Alexander II was insignificant at most, Jews nevertheless
became the target of the new czar. The pogroms spread to
Odessa, Kiev and hundreds of other towns and villages.
Immediately Jews, especially the young, began to leave
Russia in numbers. By September, Russian Jews began arriving
at Castle Garden emigrant depot at the port of New York, and
the next month the Hebrew Emigrant Aid Society began
shipping them to Philadelphia. In early November 1881, one
hundred immigrants arrived in Philadelphia by train from New
York.
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Looking west on South St. from 4th, Philadelphia, PA |
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East European
Jewish immigrants exhausted most of what little money they had
on the long journey to America. Some ran out of funds at the
dock in Hamburg or Rotterdam and by the time they reached
Liverpool, they had to borrow money. It was not uncommon for
immigrants to arrive in Philadelphia with less than $25, all of
it borrowed from fellow passengers who planned to settle in the
City of Brotherly Love, most sought refuge with a relative.
Exhausted, the newly arrived immigrant was given a clean bed and
the host-relative slept on the floor. In the morning the new
arrival began to look for work.
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No matter how
difficult life was in the sweatshop, no matter how little the
family earned, money was found for the Yiddish theatre. The
language was mameloshn (mother tongue, i.e. Yiddish) and
life portrayed on the stage was followed with great intensity,
the action drawing audible responses and comments from the
audience as if they too were participants. The Philadelphia
correspondent of the American Hebrew put it this way,
describing the early Yiddish theatre in Philadelphia: "The
grocers complain that less eatables are sold on account of the
housewives and family being in a constant hurry and flutter to
get in some time to the theatre, cheating their stomachs with
dry cold lunches...."
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The Holocaust
In the Fall of 1939, the Germans invaded Poland. Soon, the Nazis
spread darkness and murder over the continent of Europe. At
Philadelphia's Congregation Kesher Israel, young men volunteered
or were drafted to serve their country. Meanwhile in Europe, the
annihilation of the Jewish people was taking place.
When the war was over, the older generation searched desperately
for information about family members in Europe.
Alter Blatt,
the sexton and Torah reader at Kesher Israel who lived at 429 Gaskill
Street, to the rear of the shul, searched for his large family. |
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