A recent Study proves what most Americans already know

A recent New York times article highlights a trend in American society, that I dare say is common knowledge. "New research linking millions of fathers and sons dating to the 1880s shows that children of poor immigrants in America have had greater success climbing the economic ladder than children of similarly poor fathers born in the United States." Meaning that all of the stories of strict immigrant parents pushing their children to excel is a matter of record now. It highlights something we have discussed in class on numerous occasions, the fact that often the parents are not immigrating for themselves but for the next generation. The study actually drew a very relevant comparison to our class discussions. The researchers looked at the economic data tied to children of  poor Irish and Scottish immigrants from one hundred years ago, and compared it with economic data tied to children of poor Mexican and Dominican immigrants. What they found was that both groups of first generation Americans found relative economic success when compared with poor native Americans. Showing that while there are many "partial truths" in American immigration history, some trends are undeniable.

The education of Spock/ The Final Wexler Oral History

Leonard Nimoy was one of the most famous people to walk the earth during the height of his career. He gained fame for playing the pointy eared Spock on the original iteration of the beloved show Star Trek. Nimoy was hailed as an American treasure, however Nimoy's origins are everything and anything but American. In his interview with the Wexler Oral History Project, Nimoy transitions between English and Yiddish seamlessly, a highlight was him reciting a quote from Hamlet, in Yiddish. This is because Nimoy was a first generation American, his parents were Jewish immigrants from Western Ukraine. Nimoy's parents had a rather intense immigration story, even for Jews escaping the "Pale of Settlement" a largely Jewish region in Russia/Ukraine. His father walked from Western Ukraine to the Polish border, while his mother and grandmother hid in the back of a merchants wagon underneath hay, all the way to the Polish Border . For all their efforts, they eventually made it to America and settled in Boston.

Leonard Nimoy was born in America, and his early life is a reflection of what we have read about urban Immigrant life during the 30's and 40's. He details how the floors of his childhood apartment building in the West End of Boston, were segregated between Jews and Italian immigrant families. "You could tell who was where from the smells that came through each door." He talks about how his childhood group of friends was had a unique and diverse ethnic background. Yiddish speaking Jews hailing from Ukrainian & Russia, both Northern and Southern Italians, all in one neighborhood. "The Italians spoke Yiddish, the Jews spoke Italian." In many ways, he speaks of a first hand experience of the "Gumbo" of America, a concept that I find to be more appropriate than the "melting pot." The Gumbo analogy fits because these unique groups retained their unique cultures or flavors, while these flavors all combined to create a fantastically diverse neighborhood.  Given that experience, it is perhaps apt that his defining role as Spock came in such a diverse show. Star Trek was a show that advocated for pluralism by featuring a literally multi racial crew from blacks, to Scots, to Russians, to yes, "Vulcans." Nimoy further remarked on how his life prepared him for a connection to the character, because "Spock is an alien wherever he is...and I knew what it meant to be a minority, in some cases an outcast minority." A point that many viewers could identify with, which is likely responsible for the characters enduring popularity.

Here is the video itself

A step before immigration, the DP Camps in post WW2 Europe/ Wexler Oral History Project Part 2.

Following the ghastly, appalling, and heinous events of the Holocaust, European Jews were not immediately given their freedom.  Instead, most were placed in Displaced Persons camps, set up by the Allies after the end of the war. The camps were not unlike the migrant camps of the modern world, and were initially likened to the concentration camps. This was rather factual, as many of the DP camps as they came to be known, were actually reused concentration camps. A cruel twist of fate that left survivors of the Holocaust still living behind barbed wire fences for many more years. Life in the early camps was hard, yet after what they endured, a sense of hope emerged. This quote found on the website of Yad Vashem (the premier Holocaust remembrance museum/ organization in the world.)

"The desire for life overcame everything - in spite of everything I am alive, and even living with intensity."-Survivor Eliezer Adler

Further, the Wexler Oral History Project interviewed Leo Weitzman about growing up in the DP camps. Weitzman who was featured in the previous blog. Gives a testimonial to the level of joy in being alive. He details how being one of the few children, he was constantly fawned over, given candy and how he could do no wrong. This was due to the fact that many adults had lost their own children, as those who could not provide hard labor were sent straight to death during the Holocaust. In truth, the camps were a rehabilitation center, of the communal variety. As Weitzman describes that life in the camps oddly resembled a adhoc "shtetl" or Jewish Village prior to the events of WW2 and the Holocaust.

In both articles, the core theme, is that while life in these refugee camps was hard. They also served as a way for Jews to be together again, experience joy again. To reclaim some of the humanity that had been stripped from them. Which is an immensely powerful thing.

The Wexler Oral History Project

The Wexler Oral History Project, is a part of the Yiddish book center in Amherst Massachusetts. There they have collected many books, pamphlets, passports, and many testimonials to create a better understanding of the immigration experience of American Jews. The website has many testimonials filmed by the Wexler project. One in particular caught my attention however, and that was the story of Leo Weitzman. Who came with his family in 1951, after surviving the Warsaw Ghetto "by just days" and years in the "Displaced Persons" camps that the Allies established. Weitzman describes not only a bewilderment with the sky scrapers of New York City, but the immediate culture clash he witnessed between the new Jewish immigrants, and the "Americanized Jews" of previous migratory waves. A phenomenon that the book and our class has briefly touched on.  I include a short part of his interview, the rest of which can be found on the website, and their youtube channel.