![]() ![]() The author also touches on the ambiguous "Jewishness" that plagued many of these men after they became public figures.marrying non-Jews, converting to Christianity, balancing an identity between being an American and being Jewish, etc. Their successes were enormous and their influence historical. Since banking and finance were dominated by great Jewish families, their forte became entertainment through the medium of movies and radio. These were, to name only a few, Sam Goldwyn, David Sarnoff, Louis B. But there were some young men who were determined to be accepted and either by luck or hard work found their niche in American business. Many of these individuals were craftsmen but without resources were forced to work in sweatshops or sell their goods from a pushcart. The majority remained in NYC and developed their own ghetto, unwilling or unable to adapt to life in this new country. They were scorned by the established Jewish banking families who had come to America a generation before and were looked down upon by the Gentiles. It is the history of the second great migration of the Jewish people from Russia and Poland to the US.the true "huddled masses" who came without money or family connections to make their way in a land very foreign to them. When I found this book hiding on my bookshelves (I don't even remember buying it) I jumped right on it and discovered that it was equally as interesting. ![]() I had read Our Crowd: The Great Jewish Families of New York by Stephen Birmingham several years ago and enjoyed it immensely. ![]() From the author of “Our Crowd”, comes this treasure trove of fascinating tales and unforgettable “rags-to-riches” success stories that celebrates the indomitable spirit of a unique community. But the new arrivals were tough, passionate, and determined, and in no time they were moving up from the ghetto tenements of New York’s Lower East Side to make their marks and their fortunes across the country in a variety of fields, from media and popular music to fashion, motion pictures, and even organized crime.Īmong the unforgettable personages author Stephen Birmingham profiles are radio pioneer David Sarnoff, makeup mogul Helena Rubinstein, Hollywood tycoons Samuel Goldwyn and Harry Cohn, Broadway composer Irving Berlin, and mobster Meyer Lansky. These refugees from czarist Russia and the Polish shtetls who came to America to escape pogroms and persecution were considered barbaric, uneducated, and too steeped in the traditions of the “old country” to be accepted by the more refined and already well-established German-Jewish community. The wave of Eastern European Jewish immigrants who swept into New York in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by way of Ellis Island were not welcomed by the Jews who had arrived decades before. A remarkable history of the Jewish immigrants from Russia and Poland who altered the American landscape from New York to Hollywood ![]()
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