The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1895-02-23
"LITTLE JERUsALEM.,,

LII LIN
The New York Stats Zeitat1tg says that
the poorer Russian Jews of New York
are anxious to strengthen the loosened
bonds between themselves and their
former country. This is due to the strong
hope they entertain that Nicholas II. in
tends to inaugurate and maintain an era
of liberal government
Then in the name of all that is good
and hopeful may Nicholas hurry up, if
that will induce numerous of the deni-
zens of Little Jerusalem in the great
metropolis to return to Russia, and will
stop the incoming of others Of that order.
For it is no disparagement to citizens of
to say precisely as we say of Germans
and Italians, there are those of your peo-
pie who are not desirable as food for citi-
zen manufacturing processes, and of
these are the major portion of those Jews
of Poland and Russia who fill sweat
shops and live in squalor, displacing
workmen who would develop as we wish
American citizens to do.
The class of which we refer only now
and then gives US man who assimilates
wholly with our system, and becomes as
do so many others of his faith, more an
American than anything else. The
Stats Zeitung says of the inhabitants
of Little Jerusalem, their misery and
their desire to return to the land of the
bear:
The lot of the Russian Jews during the
reign OF Alexander was much better than
what they experience here. 4 walk through
the streets of Little Jerusalem" must con-
vince the observer that the emigrant who
escaped the ghetto has hardly exchanged IL
for something better. He has exchanged the
hut of the ghetto for a tenement house, which
looks well enough on the outside, but proves
to be much worse than the nut
The dlrtiness OF the inhabitants is, proba-
bly,, the same there as here, but one can at
least breathe in the Russian barrack; it is sit
uated, not IN a sea of houses, but in a little
village, surrounded by fields and gardens.
But the comparison should not end here, for,
with regard TO lodgings, the Russian Polish
Jew is hardly more pretentious than no
madic gypsy.
The other conditions of life under which we
find the emigrant are also such that they may
stand q com parIson with his existence in the
ghetto, but not with his life while he had a
recent strike of the cloakmakers has revealed
the present condition OF the Jewish laborer.
Whoever has seen the hungry. scantily clad
women and children, as they come to ask for
food OF the relief committee, will understand
that they sigh for the time when Russia was
y free country 10 them, where they knew
nothing of labor organizations or strikes
In Russia the Jews have kept away from Ia
Dor organizations The Jew wanted to pre-
serve his independence, in this matter as well
as others. The cloak-maker who here is forced
10 join an organization, worked for his own
reckoning in Russia, or. ii he was forced to
work for boss" he could fix his own price
AS carriers, small tenant-iarmers, and inn
keepers, the Jews were also very little inclined
10 join organizations, and thus they escaped
the misery OF strikes.
We Will be told that this very want of or
ganiZation caused lower rate OF wages in the
realm OF the Car, but during the time when
they could choose their domicile they were
certainly better off than they are to-day in
the Land of Dollars. In Russia the head of
the family could defend them from want; here
even the half-grown children must be har-
messed to enable the family to lead a hand-to-
mouth existence.
The dissatisfaction of the Jews with their
lie here is amply proved by the fact that q
comparatively large number have become So
cial!Sts. While the Israeiites in Russia keep
strictly away from such movements, they
seem TO become willing tools for the revolu-
tlonary propaganda here-which is hardly a
sign OF well-being in a person who formerly
kept socialism at a distance.
Nicholas II. has given indications that he
faVors liberal views; the numerous Jews who
have sworn fealty TO him undoubtedly wish
to exchange the Land of Dollars for that OF
the Bear. If the Gar will grant them freedom
TO choose their domicile.
1t will be seen, therefore, that in wish
ing this class of Jews speedy and safe re-
turn to their old homes the expression
operates in harmony with their own de-
sire, and is in line with their highest
good. Very few, indeed, of these people
come to US at an age when there is any
reason to hope that they may become en-
tirely satisfied with this country, and
the social life to which they are here
relegated. Even the children born to
them in the United States are of neces-
sity kept in such environment that there
is small likelihood of their becoming
independent, spirited and thoroughgoing
Americans and additions of value to our
citiZenshin