Page:The Rise of the Russian Jew.djvu/1

 

THE GHETTO BOY AND HIS FIRST TRAINING — HOW HE BECOMES AMERICANIZED — HIS NAME AT LAST AMONG THOSE MILES OF BROADWAY SIGNS WHERE THERE IS HARDLY AN ENGLISH NAME — THE RICH BANKER OF ANOTHER CLASS.

BY

HUTCHINS HAPGOOD

HE shrewd-faced boy with the melancholy eyes that one sees everywhere in the streets of New York's Ghetto, or in the Ghetto of any other American city, occupies a peculiar position in our society. If we could penetrate into his soul, we should see a mixture of almost unprecedented hope and of excitement on the one hand, and of doubt, confusion, and self-distrust on the other hand. Led in many contrary directions, the fact that he does not grow to be an intellectual anarchist is due to his serious racial characteristics.

Three groups of influences are at work on him, — the orthodox Jewish, the American, and the Socialist; and he experiences them in this order. He has either been born in America of Russian, Austrian, or Roumanian Jewish parents, or has immigrated with them as avery young child. The first of the three forces at work on his character is religious and moral; the second is practical, diversified, non-religious; and the third is reactionary from the other two and hostile to them.

If he was born in this country or in Russia, — most east-side Jews came from Russia, — the earliest years of the son of orthodox parents are passed in a family atmosphere where the whole duty of man is to observe the religious law. He learns to say his prayers every morning and evening, either at home or at the synagogue. At the age of five, he is taken to the Hebrew private school, the "chaider," where, in Russia, he spends most of his time from early morning till late at night. The ceremony accompanying his first appearance in "chaider" is significant of his whole orthodox life. Wrapped in a "talith," or praying shawl, he is carried by his father to the school and received there by the "melamed," or teacher, who holds out before him the Hebrew alphabet on a large chart. Before beginning to learn the first letter of the alphabet he is given a taste of honey, and when he declares it to be sweet, he is told that the study of the Holy Law, upon which he is about to enter, is sweeter than honey. Shortly afterwards a coin falls from the ceiling, and the boy is told that an angel dropped it from heaven as a reward for learning the first lesson.

In the Russian "chaider" the boy proceeds with a further study of the alphabet, then