Laura Haynes
Immigrant Literature
Dr. Craig White
20 April 2001

Table of Contents

Part 1: Author Biography

Anzia Yezierska : An Immigrant's Story

Part 2: Article Reviews

1 . "Anzia Yezierska and the Popular Debate Over the Jews"

3. "The Ultimate Shaygets and the Fiction of Anzia Yezierska".

Part 3: Jewish History: The Immigration History to America

Part 4: My Family Heritage

Part 1: Author Biography

Anzia Yezierska : An Immigrant's Story

Anzia Yezierska also know as Hattie Mayer, the name given my American at Ellis Island because it was easier to pronounce, was a great Jewish author who wrote many novels with her life embedded in the stories of her fictional characters. She was born in 1885 (Her exact date is not known) to a family of seven children in Russian Polish village of Plotsk. She immigrated at ten with her family to America going through Ellis Island, America’s way of seeing who was good enough and who was not. Her sisters worked in sweatshops and Anzia sold newspapers. Her brothers were afforded an education because they were male and were able to support themselves. America was only profitable for someone who had an education. Her father Bernard Yesierska was a rabbi and the women worked hard to support him while he studied the Torah. This part of Anzia’s life is so much like the novel "Bread Givers" (autobiographical novel) which tells the same story with the exception, it did not mention the brothers.

Her father is what most non-Jewish families would consider rude and crude, but to Jewish families he was not out of the ordinary. He wanted to raise his family spiritually, with strict Jewish guidelines, and tried very hard for them not to wander to far from the Torah. Anzia was rebel and most like her father and this is why they clashed so much. They believed the same, but when it came to debating each other Anzia would rather leave than continue bickering with her stubborn father.

Anzia left on her own to find her way to assimilate into America full force. Many doors were shut to her and she worked low paying jobs to support herself. However she did break through all the red tape when she met some wealthy patrons who afforded her the opportunity to go to school. She graduated with a degree from the teachers College of Columbia University, but still was not reaching what she thought she wanted. In 1907 she won a scholarship to the American Academy.

This academy opened her eyes to many extremist views how her people were treated given low wages, and jobs that had no benefits or chance at better life. She was also against the treatment of women and took a feminist view on what and how women should live. She took one of her sister views and became a writer, she was angry at the way things were in America, and wrote it all out in her stories. She soon met her future husband Arnold Levitas, but rejected him at first and married his best friend Jacob Gordon. The marriage was annulled after six months and she married Arnold. Her marriage was never really recognized because of her Jewish beliefs. The ceremony was not a religious one, just legal. They were happy at first, but the wandering spirit inside Anzia wanted to move out west with her new husband and only child Louise. They were not happy and she could not be the housewife he demanded. She thought he was overbearing and soon left to take care of her ill sister. Some author’s hint that the same problems Anzia and Arnold had may have resembled the clashes Anzia and her father had. She did eventually go and get their daughter and they lived in California together. She tried very hard to support herself and her daughter with her writings, but was unsuccessful. Anzia would eventually give her daughter back to Arnold to raise and support. She fought her way into Columbia University where she met and studied with social scientist John Dewey. They did start a relationship, but it was based on their work and dwindled to nothing but a friendship. She continued to write and went from rags to riches very soon. Many had called her the "Sweatshop Cinderella." She was also often criticized because she was now the person she often criticized in her book. When the stock market crashed in October 1929 she went to nothing and it was back to riches. She often felt she deserved it since she diverted to such an extreme path away from her beliefs and roots. She was seventy when she wrote her last book, was nearly blind, but still continued to write until her death in 1970.

The process of acculturation and assimilation and the positive and negative effects of this process are on going story lines in Yezierska’s writings. Her work is particularly interesting in the picture portrayed in her novels of the immigrant Jewish woman striving for the American dream. Some historians say her work aided in the women’s movement in the twentieth century, may have been the reason for the sharp decline in her work, and why she was pushed back into poverty

Anzia Yezierska was a great author who gives us a good picture of the life of the young Jewish America, and gives us detailing events on Jewish immigration process and trials of assimilation for all who wanted a good life in America, the promise land.

Works Cited

Neidle, Cecyle S. America’s Immigrant Women. Hippocrene 1976.

Schoen, Carol B. Anzia Yezierska. Boston: Twayne, 1982.

Part 2: Article Reviews

Ebest tries very hard to get the overall picture of Yezierska’s work, how it relates to her own Jewish experience, and how American readers took it. Many said they just did not like it because it was to sappy, crybaby story about some poor immigrant. Those who sympathize with her work felt it was the greatest piece of literature. Ebest even notes that Yezierska’s own daughter said that readers could not take her mothers work as literally true, and even though the work was mostly autobiographical her mother was incapable of telling the plain truth about everything. Ebest does not want to answer whether her works were bad, but how a reader should approach her work. The reader needs to know which parts of her work or historically or which one have a politically agenda. In her first writing she was venting frustration of how her life was affected with immigration and her overbearing religious beliefs of her father and of society. She struggled and soon began to write from the heart. One critic said she dipped her pen in her heart before she wrote. Others say she wrote depending on the situation of her surrounding with a subliminal message in her work. Before you read her work you would need to know the time period, the struggles, political agenda to really know what was fact or fiction. Most of her works were real true-life experience of her life and the Jews around, but some was just writer’s own personal frustration.

Shapiro writes a very controversial article and is usually strongly denied by most of Jewish heritage. She claims that most Jewish immigrant do come to America with the dream to fully assimilate into society. She is convinced that most Jews come to America wanting to marry a gentile and dismiss their beliefs and marry one of their own ethnicity. She claims that Yezierska did this in her novel "Bread Givers" and also in her own life. She said that her relationship to Dewy made it clear that she wanted to taste the spirit of the gentile and ignore her heritage and spiritual beliefs. In her stories she has the Jewish immigrant wake up to reconnect to her past, find the one Jewish man she can be happy with, and be at home in her spirituality. This was not true for her own life she never went back to the Jewish man; in fact she was left with no one at the end. She was not sure if it was actually her full assimilation into Americans society that caused her all this pain, or her beliefs that were to stringent for anyone to live by.
By her approach in her article she is saying the Jewish faith is not as strong as it is believed and is fallible as with any religious sect.

Part 3:Jewish History: The Immigration History to America

Many Americans when they think of Jewish history they automatically think of the holocaust, but that was just topping of all their struggles. Jews have been coming to America since the 1600’s in fact one Jew actually was a key navigator when Christopher Columbus made his many voyages to America. The Jewish came to America for religious freedom, the ability to live a prosperous life with great hope they would make an honest living, and remain always a God fearing people. They thought it was of great importance that they continue to hold strong to their belief in the Torah." For most Jews the blood soaked soil of Germany was only a stopover on the way to Israel or the United States" (Brenner 4).

The exodus from Egypt brought immediate freedom; the end of slavery also meant the beginning of freedom. The difference between slavery and Egypt many Jews find the door to the promise land closed. Jews have general characteristics to most historians, as a people always on the move, and a type that will always have struggles, but their strength and survival comes from their ability to always hold strong in their religious beliefs. Every country Jews have traveled they have tried earnestly to resist strong assimilation and stand by the Torah of their faith.

They arrived in America and stayed in close-knit communities, depending on each other for their needs. The fact that they did not separate brought with it more ill fate among Jews. Everyone in America with the exception of Indians are immigrants, but they assimilated together and met in the middle on many issues. Jews refused this, and went by what they knew best and that was their religious affiliation. The persecution has always been hard and before Hitler’s escapade the Russians, Polish have been killing Jews for their strong beliefs.

Why then did Jews feel like America was the Promised Land? That question can be answered by what Jews afar felt America was. One example is during the post war of Nazi destruction of Jews. They were freed from death camps, but were not really free. They still endured German abuse and were not fed or taken care of. They had heard rumor of Americans nearby. Again they became a wandering people and came upon American territory. The story goes that they saw a plane surrounded by troops. They feared it was more Nazi troops ready to pounce on them, but their faith led them to the direction of the Americans. In was in fact Americans with evacuation planes, food, clothing, and medical attention. Jewish people have always let their faith guide them, but what happened to their strong faith in America?

You would think that after centuries of abuse and death some would drift away from the Torah thinking it was better to live among the people than separated. Well many did in fact did desert and attempted to assimilate among other Americans. One description of a generation drift away from the Torah was this given by Hebrew novelist S. J. Agnon. The grandfather loved the Torah, the son wrote about love and the Torah, and the grandson wrote only about love. Many can relate to this today with the way teenagers act compared to their grandparents they have went from Conservative to liberal to extreme liberal.

The bible talks of how Jews were wondering through the desert suffering from all the trials inflicted upon them and many were deserters of their faith and not much has changed. The strong Jews will always seem to survive no matter and the drifters are always trying to find their way back.

Many famous people like Einstein and Freud were strong Jews who came to America for the dreams, and a chance at a better life. Einstein once voiced that looking at Jews and myself I can't say I like it much, but after looking at others I would choose to be a Jew any day. He could not understand how others survived without strong beliefs in God. He is known for helping in developing the great destructive atom bomb, but he could not stand that the German killers were so close to doing the same, and wanted to protect his people and mankind from such evil. A strong belief among the Jews is to use whatever talents God has given and he was a great mind and theorist. Einstein, a great psychologist, was also a strong devout Jew. He felt that Jews have a path which they chose, but it is derived from what God has written in their souls and no decisions is based on mankind or the majority, and it pulls and is the strong force within each Jew.

So we have the assumed reasons why Jews came to America, but no one will really know what is written or what God has written on the soul of every Jew. Jews do feel there is a purpose for all their struggles, many feel they are stronger people because of it, God would not give them anything they could not handle, they should stay strong, and listen for their calling of the promise land.

When the world tries to knock down or ignore Jewish religion they get even stronger in their fight. After the Holocaust many Jewish schools were built to help in the education of Jews who had not been given their proper schooling of the Torah because of the death camps and separation. When they came to America synagogues were built in their community and private schools were built to help their faith survive. Many great leaders took a stand a wrote history down and shared with young Jews their struggles, stories, and give a example of success by their own accomplishment and show strong leaders will keep the Jewish people alive.

It cannot be ignored that the destruction of East European Jews meant not only the destruction of millions of people, but also the violent end of a venerable culture with its own language, religious traditions and broad spectrum of secular forms of expression in literature, music and art. Unlike German Jews, who were largely acculturated, the roughly eight million Jews of Poland, Romania, Hungary, Baltic States, and Soviet Union were the most part separated from non-Jews by language and culture.

Jews have always been wandering throughout the world and the highest population is now in America. Many travel back and forth experiencing their heritage, but it is not in one place, but in their soul. They came to America because it was the calling of God that led them here, because they did so and remained by the Torah they had resisted full assimilation and have established themselves as strong Jewish Americans. This is not to say some have not fallen away from their deep religious beliefs, but the majority still holds to their beliefs and what God has said from the beginning about his people. Many historians feel that from the cradle of their birth till their death Jews will always be a people governed by the Torah and strong tradition.

The character in the novel "Bread Givers" by Anzia Yezierska is a perfect picture of Jewish changes and the life set before them in America. The father was always in the Torah, always giving to others, and his family who obeyed him was a great example of Jewish strength and somewhat stubbornness. But the family always seemed to endure conflict after conflict, but always seemed to survive. With the exception of the youngest daughter who was set off for change in America, but even then stood firmly to her religious roots and tried to stay as close to the Jewish lifestyle that kept pulling her back into the fold of her heritage of beliefs and tradition. America may have tried to break down a strong people by the oppression and neglect of a new immigrant sect. That is one battle America lost, but America seems to have gained strength from the Jewish contribution of strong minds, inventors, writers, and will benefit from the stories of religious battle that are won despite struggles. Jewish Americans came here for this reason and it was that of religious freedom they have attained it, but will always suffer prejudices, but it mostly comes from ignorance and something that will always exist no matter where the next Jewish journey begins.

Works Cited

Rose, Peter I. The Ghetto and Beyond. New York: Random House, 1969.

Part 4: My Family Heritage

I guess my heritage is kind of confusing, but has been traced and the results were of the Heinz 57 version. My Great, Great grandfather on my dad’s side was an Irish preacher .His name was spelled Andrew Paul Hayes and has since changed to Haynes, no one is quite sure of when or why. My Aunt says she feels it was the lack of spelling on the part of her grandfather.

He immigrated to America by what most family members tell me as curiosity. He wanted to see what all of what God made and he felt he was responsible for saving the world by telling and sharing God’s word. Now my great grandmother was very quiet and kept to herself a lot, so not much is written about her. I do know she died of some type of fever after getting to America, my great grandpa grabbed him a squaw of the Cherokee tribe, and married a second time. I do hear stories about her, how she was so mean and always pinching to get her point across. I have also learned how she would cook the nastiest stuff alive, but that is purely hearsay. My great grandpa dies at 99 and my grandmother at 105 in Red River county in north Texas. I assume my grandpa must have had some really good times they did have ten kids in all and my grandpa was one of them named Orben Cleburne Haynes. Notice the "N" in the name now; well this is where they say it started.

My grandpa married Mary Etta Parker another poor farm girl I know her dad and mother came from England to look for better jobs but ran into some rough times in East Texas farming. They were married for 15 years and had 13 kids. He believed you had to have enough kids to keep the farm going and the odds of catching some kind of illness was a normal occurrence, he would say he would keep as many as he could, kids were always a good tool for the farm. Now as most children of extreme religious beliefs he wandered away from the faith that was taught him and was kind of a rebel of sorts. My grandpa only lost one son of pneumonia, which was good for them at this time when many were dying, the rest of the children were very healthy. They worked more than school, but the youngest got the most schooling. Which by the way was my uncle Tommy the only graduate in my family. The older boys had to drop out in order to get the harvest in. My grandpa up and left my grandma with all the kids, went into some state of depression, and killed himself, no one really knows why.

My dad became the one son that tried to take care of everyone. He was the third child, but was a whole lot more responsible. He tried to get back to my grandpas beliefs of a strong family. My grandma tried very hard to teach them all high morals, but many strayed and left mom, for outside bigger towns, military, and lived a life away from home as soon as they could. My dad soon went into the navy to help support his mom and spent 26 years until retirement as an electrician. He met my mom in a little town in south of Italy and this brings you to my mom’s side of the family.

My mom is Laura V. Celano, and was born and raised in Italy. Her mother and father is as far back as I can trace were born and raised in Italy. My grandmother and grandfather had15 kids in all and all but my mom remained in Italy. My mom has said once that is was so bad economically in the town they lived, when she met my dad, knew he was Mr. Right they got married, went back to the United States, and that is where I was born on a naval base in Norfolk, Virginia. I was born with Irish, English, Italian, and Indian in my blood and I am sure there is another ingredient I have not yet uncovered. I have lost contact with my mother apparently she did not know what and how the limit was in disciplining children and did not fully assimilate to America life. However she did manage to get her mother and father to the United States before they died. My grandpa spent his last years in prison I guess he did not fully assimilate either. My grandmother died of natural causes at the age of 89. My dad divorced her and moved to Texas to get us away from the abuse and back to his only true home, Texas. I can say that my family still has preaching in its blood along with some hot tempers, Military patriotism and a little pinching every now and then. I guess that sums me up I am an American with a little bit of everything mixed in my blood, and I am thankful to have the freedoms that I have.