New York’s shtetl

It's not easy to find your way if you are lost in New York without a map or GPS. Don't count on a passerby. They usually answer: I'm not from here. I don't speak English. New York is a city of immigrants who come to the States searching for job, adventure, and inspiration. One can learn their stories at the Tenement Museum located in the heart of Lower East Side. In the 19th century it was one of the most crowded places in the world, with a density of 7,000/sq mi. The neighborhood was inhabited mainly by Italians and Jews from Eastern Europe living in tenement buildings.

The Tenement Museum is located in one of these 100-year old buildings. Despite of the flaky plasterwork, some marks of the old decorations can still be seen. The tourists climb the narrow wooden stairs to reach the first floor and are invited to the apartment inhabited once by a Jewish tailor and his family. First three rooms aren't renovated. They remain in the condition in which the whole apartment was before a partial renovation of the building. The walls are decorated with faded wallpaper, a little blackened near a stove. In two other rooms there is a sweatshop from the early twentieth century. A small sewing machine. An oil lamp. Gowns. Mannequins. Charcoal iron boxes.

There were the living conditions of the Levin family who came to New York from Plock (nowadays Poland) at the end of 19th cent. Why did the tailor and his wife decide to emigrate? If they didn’t like Plock, they might have settled in quickly developing manufacturing city such as Lodz, Zyrardow or Warszawa. However, in a country occupied by tsarist Russia they would always be second-class citizens. The United States offered an equality of all civilians, though it didn’t provide a carefree life.

The tailor had to work very hard. He arranged a small sweatshop in his apartment. He hired two women and started sewing dresses. They worked on a chord. The sweatshop’s owner had an agreement with a purchaser. He guessed how many clothes he would sew every week. If he didn’t complete the order, he didn’t obtain any money. Therefore, the tailor was always under pressure. One can imagine how often Levin was sitting near the kerosene lamp stapling the last pieces of the textile. At the same time, his wife had to take care of four children, their house and kosher kitchen. Did they miss Plock? Although they moved from a shtetl to the big city, they still lived their old life. Their neighbors were Yiddish-speaking Jews, and there were many Jewish stores, workshops and praying houses. Since they barely knew English, the Levins didn’t leave the Lower East Side very often. They resided in New York, but they still lived in the shtetl.

However, the Rogashevsky family, which moved to the former Levins’ apartment in the second decade of the 20th cent., was forced to leave the shtetl. Their children used to go to public schools and to work in huge factories together with descendents of other immigrants. New generation quickly integrated with a new world, showing it also to their parents.

In old apartment of Levins and Rogashevskys one may listen to the interviews conducted with recent immigrants. They stress that is pretty difficult to live in a foreign country. They say they work hard for a better future of their children. Maybe I met one of them on a New York street…

At Milwaukee

There is a stone church near the busy crossroad of Milwaukee and Chicago streets. It is equipped with only one tower around which two of them were planned. High above the entrance one may see the coat of arms of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1860s. It displays the Eagle, the Knight and the Archangel, which were the emblems of Polish, Lithuanian, and Ukrainian nations. In the middle of the shield there is also a figure of Virgin Mary with a Child. Under the shield there is a motto ‘God save Poland’, since the church was built by Polish emigrants in late 19th cent. At that time the area of Milwaukee and Chicago Streets was known as ‘Expatriate Poland’. The emigrants were political refugees persecuted by the Russian tsar and German Kaiser as well as subjects of the Austro-Hungarian emperor who were expelled from impoverished Galicia. The church was the center of Polish social and cultural life, so quickly, near the St. John Cantius parish, 20 new parishes were established.

However, in 1950s, Poles moved to another neighborhoods due to highway construction and the increase of the community. That’s why the oldest Polish district in Chicago is now inhabited mostly by Latin Americans.

However, the Polish museum, created in late 1930s, still recalls the history of the neighborhood. After the outbreak of WWII it was given the pieces displayed in the Polish section during New York World’s Fair 1939. One can admire Polish folk art and work by the most famous pre-war Polish painters like Stryjenska, Rosen, Kossak and Kramsztyk. The monumental stained glass showing the rebirth of Poland also inspires admiration. These works had an impact on the concept of the museum, which presents the history of Poland and Polish art rather than the history of local Polish community. It is only the Paderewski Room with an exhibition dedicated to this famous composer, statesman and emigrant, which reminds us of the history of Poles in the United States.

What do the baseball and chewing gum have in common?

Wrigley Field is not just a stadium. It’s a monument dedicated to the history of baseball. The field (created at the beginning of the 20th cent.) was bought in 1920s by William Wrigley, a producer of a chewing gum, and now it’s named after him. Here they started the tradition of singing the anthem before the game. Here they allowed a fan to keep the ball he caught, for the first time. Here there’s still a hand-turned score board. During the game the scoreboard is manually operated by three or five strong men. The Cubs, who play at Wrigley, never liked technical novelties. That’s why the lights were installed only in the late 1980s. The team didn’t want to play after dark. However, when the officials forbade Wrigley to host any post-season games organized in the evenings without the lights, the Cubs had to accept new rules, and the lights were finally set up. Interesting are the tribunes located outside of the field, at the roofs of nearby houses. The ticket for this tribune is more expensive, but a drink is included. And the view of the entire Wrigley Field is priceless!

High-heeled shoes and bagels - the Quincy Market in Boston

The old market hall from the 19th century is full of life in the morning. Salesmen open their stands offering bagels, bacon and eggs, sweets and coffee to go. Gentlemen in suits and ladies with handbags by Louis Vuitton sit near wooden tables and eat their breakfast at rest (sometimes in a hurry). It’s the middle of November, but Christmas decorations have already been hung in the windows. It is crowded, loud and cozy. At five to nine everybody suddenly disappears. Ladies and gentleman hasten to their offices. Only the sleepy tourists stay at the tables. They must have their flight at noon and don’t know where to go with their luggage for the next couple of hours. So they slowly sip their coffee reading newspapers…

Occupy NY

Occupy Wall Street is reported every day on the first pages of the newspapers. I was near Zuccotti Park on November 12. Young people were waving their banners. Old ladies dressed in colorful clothes were singing songs about freedom and peace. The salesmen were offering some souvenir T-shirts to the tourists. They protest against greed capitalism, but one must earn their bagel. In Manhattan, there was an atmosphere of cheerful festival. In addition, the weather favored the protesters. If someone hoped that November wind would blow down the protesters’ tents, they were mistaken. The temperature was 60 F and the sun was shining. Near the monument of George Washington, who proudly looks at New York stock market, a guy dressed like a clown posed for photographs holding an artificial cake with the word OCCU-PIE. Demonstration or performance?

Newspapers complained that the Occupy movement didn’t have clear postulates. Maybe the opposition to the plutocracy is not enough? The Bostonians hadn’t already written the American Constitution when they threw the tea to the ocean either.      

*Occupy Wall Street camp in Zucotti Park was demolished on November 15. There were approx. 200 arrests.

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My friend lives at the apartment building at the corner of Park Avenue and 96th Street. She moved there in the 70s, when the whole area north of 96th Street was considered a bad neighborhood. It was Harlem. There were blacks. My friend remembers a jazz concert at which she and her husband were the only whites. But now they live next to NY financial elites. Bankers and brokers have apartments with a view of Central Park and doormen in uniforms. Here they rest after a weary day at Wall Street. Here the protesters do not make noise.