World of our fathers - Irving Howe

Two million East European Jews emigrated to the United States at the end of the last century, settling in all the major cities, but especially in New York City?s Lower East Side. World of our Fathers tells the story of how they tried to keep their Yiddish culture while making their way in a new society.

Irving Howe describes every aspect of Jewish life: the old country village, the Atlantic crossing in steerage, the teeming life of the East Side, the Yiddish press and theatre, the settlement houses, the garment trades and unions, the associations of old country neighbours, the various socialist groups, the synagogue and Hebrew school, the sweatshops and such disasters as the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. Jewish immigrant families generated artistic and political movements that affected all Americans. They played prominent roles in the New Deal social reforms and in the theatre, cinema and literature. No impulse that stirred Jewish people is omitted, and in its epilogue the author wryly reflects on their future.