Bubbe's Place: Stories

Landsman

The newspapers kept them aware of what was happening in the world. They printed stories about the old life and the new life. In serial form, they printed the new novels by Singer and Asch and others. The Bintel brief (short letter) was the Dear Abby of the Yiddish Press. The Yiddish press was very modern and appealed to the secularist. Still within its pages there were articles on Jewish Holidays and how to celebrate them. There were even passages about the weekly Torah portion.

At this time the American government did not have relief or welfare programs for new immigrants. There was no such thing as food stamps or free milk for young children. Instead the Jewish community helped the new Jewish immigrants. At first the established German Jewish community helped the immigrants from Eastern Europe. Soon the new immigrants began to help each other. They organized landsman shafts. These were lodges made up of people from the same European town or district. They kept old memories alive and extended helping hands. They were social clubs and burial societies. They helped new immigrants find places to work and to live. Soon other larger groups formed. The Farband (federation), the Workman's Circle (a socialist group), the Bund (communists), the Chevra (brotherhood), all helped the greenhorns (new immigrants). They helped them to get jobs, buy homes, and businesses. They established cemeteries and burial societies. Banks charged more and were reluctant to lend money to new immigrants who had little collateral. The new immigrants went to their own organizations. There were free loan societies to help the new immigrants start little businesses. Soon they had their own credit unions where they could save money and borrow money too.