At the edge of a dream : the story of Jewish immigrants on New York's Lower East Side 1880-1920 / Lawrence J. Epstein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Epstein, Lawrence J. (Lawrence Jeffrey)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

National Book Committee.

Jews--New York (State)--New York--History.

Jews.

Ethnic relations.

Emigration and immigration.

History.

Jews, East European.

New York (State)--New York.

Jews--Migrations.

Jews, East European--New York (State)--New York--History.

New York (N.Y.)--Emigration and immigration--History.

New York (N.Y.).

Lower East Side (New York, N.Y.)--Ethnic relations.

Lower East Side (New York, N.Y.).

New York (State)--New York--Lower East Side.

Physical Description:

xv, 299 pages : illustrations, map ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

San Francisco : Jossey-Bass, [2007]

Summary:

This beautiful book tells the nostalgic tale of how millions of Jewish immigrants entered America through the portal of the Lower East Side. There in New York City they struggled and ultimately flourished in a neighborhood that was the center of Jewish work, family, and culture. For more than fifty years, the Lower East Side spawned newly-mined Americans, including entertainment icons like George Burns and Ira Gershwin, gangsters like Meyer Lansky, and an extraordinary array of people who would go on to transform American society.

Contents:

Escaping from the Old World

Landing at Ellis Island

Life in the tenements

Working on the Lower East Side

Life on these mean streets

Romance in the New World

Children and families

Politics and strife

The opponents of Jewish immigration

A helping hand

Religion and its rebels

Refuge on the Lower East Side

Yiddish theater

Yiddish journalism

Yiddish literature

The end of an era

The legacy of the Lower East Side.

Notes:

"An Arthur Kurzweil book."

"A Lower East Side Tenement Museum book."

Includes bibliographical references (pages 279-287) and index.

ISBN:

9780787986223

0787986224

OCLC:

82172759