Bubbe's Place: Stories

Hard to be Orthodox

There were modern Orthodox Jews who also practiced the strict rules of halacha that their parents had lived by in Europe. They prayed daily. They kept kosher and never skipped or shortened the synagogue prayers. Men and women did not sit together in the synagogue. The study and observance of Jewish laws was very intense. But they did not separate themselves from their co-religionists or from the world.

It was very hard for new immigrants to be Orthodox. To begin with an Orthodox Jew needs time to pray. New immigrants worked 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week. They worked on Saturdays. If they were lucky, they graduated from the sweatshops to the Mom and Pop stores, (laundries, groceries, delis, candy stores, sandwich shops etc.). Stores were open from 6 a.m. until 12 p.m. People had no time for synagogues or even for prayers at home. Then too synagogues were expensive. To the poor immigrant the large Orthodox or Conservative synagogue seemed like a palace. It was expensive to build and maintain these synagogues. It took money to hire a rabbi and a cantor. Money was something the new immigrants did not have. Synagogues expected people to buy tickets to cover their costs. When people were kept out on High Holidays because they couldn't afford a ticket, they were angry and they never forgave the people or the synagogues that refused them admission.