NEW YORK'S GHETTO.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12776, 21 October 1919, Page 10

NEW YORK'S GHETTO.

PICTURESQUE FOREIGN QUARTER.

WHERE HUMANITY RUNS RIOT.

(By. PAUL MORRIS! in t% “New York Herald. ) New York has the largest Ghetto in the world. The famous Ghettos of Warsaw, Vienna and London are insignificant in comparison with the great seething mass of humanity that .struggles for existence east of the Lowery,

There is no foreign quarter in America so. picturesque, so interesting and so different as thia quarter of New York. It is dirty— so dirty that in some streets one has' to hold one’s breath to avoid the odours of decayed fruits and vegetables and of thousands of unwashed men, women and children. But there are phases of life to be found nowherp else, and there are customs and habits of living that are amazing to the, rest of the world. Where else will you find two families with perhaps a boarder or two, of all ages and sexes, living in one room? V/here else, will you find sweat-shops where women and children work, eat and sleep day after day without any change or let-up in their daily grind?

SORDIDNESS STRIKES EYE FIRST.

I am giving a very sordid picture at the start, which is not altogether fair, for there are brighter aspects to the Ghetto, but to the casual observer it is the sordidnes« that strikes the eye first. Imagine ft quarter of a million, persons living in a, square mile. Not far from Seward Park there is such a square mile. It is impossible to live in a sanitary manner under such congested circumstances. It is popularly thought that tho Ghetto is the Jewish district. It might more properly be called the Yiddish district. While thousands of Jewish families have outgrown the lower east side districts and moved uptown to Riverside Drive or even, to the fashionable Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue section, there are thousands of others who have never known the squalor and the hubbub of the poorer quarter. New York’s Jewish population numbers over a million, but this includes all classes. The crowded districts arc, of course, more conspicuously Jewish, and hold to ninny old customs, while the uptown Jew is very much Americanised. Often, however, the second generation keeps a slight Yiddish accent , and uptown New York lias its Yiddish,,hut down east of the Bowery it seems to he the native language. THE GHETTO'S HOMELINESS. - Take a walk from the. .Bowery east, at Grand Street, or at any street, u that vicinity. The crowds are far greater than those that see tlfp white lights at night and the uproar is tenfold greater. But you will find that, there is a certain domestic spirit in

the atmosphere. Everyone seem* to be near homo, near his friends, and in the midst of friendly surroundings I1?j is very different on Broadway, where everyone holds himself aloof from the rest of the world, where everyone i» a stranger, where crowds .jostle with cold indifference. Everybody hurries, everything is heartless. Rut in the Ghetto a homeless people is trying to make a hon*? for itself. 'Exiles from Russia, Poland and a dozen other countries have come together They need friendship. They love their religion, their language and their cuttoms. Ro they huddle in together where they can enjoy a life of social and religious freedom without fear or interference. The most conspicuous street noire is the sound of haggling voices—the wrangling of buyers and sellers. They have a mania for bargaining. It is not merely that the buyer wants to got the lowest price nr that the dealer of merchandise desires to make ns much profit as possible. They enjoy the conflict. THE PUSHCART WORGD. Storekeeping in the Ghetto is a comparatively simple matter. There are, of course, store buildings. Rut far more picturesque are the pushcarts. Rent is cheap—a few cents a dnv for a cart and storage overnight. And it is entirely unnecessary to carry a large stock. You oan_ buy almost 'anything under the sun right out in thie'open? ■Women inspect the lingerie sales orl street corners, wrangle over prices an 1 .make their purchases as throngs pu-fi their way along the sidewalk. A | vendor displays his wares from a'p-Jsh-

cart and Ills customers try them on seated on a curbstone or a nearby doorstep. Cheap jewellery is displayed in all of its gaslight splendour to attract the eyes of passing girls or of the escorts of those who are lucky enough to have any. Silk stockings—generally they are near silk —attract pretty dark eyes. Hats and underwear are idled high up on crowded carts and' between them can be found cooking utensils and leather goods- Perhaps there is a woman testing a pair of garters and another looking enviously at a fancy bathing suit. And all out in the open. There is little privacy in the Ghetto. But in spite of the great variety of pushcart ’ trade, the principal part of the street business has to do with foodstuffs. Fruits and vegetables in great quantities are displayed. Great slices of watermelon are sold- Uptown formalities might prevent one from walking along the sidewalk withsone’s face buried in a watermelon rind. But Hester street does not worry about formalities verv much.

THE GHETTO’S SELFSUFFICIENCY. There is about the Ghetto a, certain self-sufficiency.ln many European cities, particularly in Russia, Jews were prohibited from leaving their particnlar quarter except on special occasions or by obtaining special governmental permission. And now that they have come to a new country thov have brought with them everything that they require and placed it all within easy reach, j There are Yiddish newspapers, and some of them have enormous circulations. There are Yiddish theatres, several of them, these are restaurants where Jewish customs are observed and special slaughter houses lor the preparation of Kosher meat, which those who observe the religious doctrines strictly must eat. Entertainments, dance halls, schools, libraries, bookstores, synagogues, Russian tea rooms and all manner of community uplift organisations are to be found. Of course, a good many American entertainments are to be found also. The younger generation demands them. AT THE 1 MOVIES.” One of the most amusing places in tho whole Ghetto is a motion picture theatre where the new and the old world meet, where old men and 4 omen tied down by old world customs, speaking no language, but Yiddish, or, as is generally the rule, speaking English but unable to read it, sit side by side with their children who have been educated in American schools. In a conspicuous place will be found a large sign“ Pleaso remove your hats.” But in spite of this here and there, an old Jewi-h man will be seen with his high hat obstructing the view, for the Hebrews are not accustomed to removing their hats in the -synagogues, and see no reason why they should take them off at a mere entertainment. Then a man will appear on tho stage near the screen, like a lecturer at a travelogue. He is there to explain the text of the pictures, the little printed explanatory notes that are interpolated iicie and there- Many m the audience cannot road English and must have these phrases translated into Yiddish. r THE STAGE INTERPRETER-. He speaks half in English, half in Yiddish, and ho docs not confine his remarks to the printed explanations, om interprets the picture all the way through. “.lli;.- is the hero/’ he says. “And here comes the heroine.” “ Ah. wateh them kiss,” lie adds, smacking his lips. An uptown visitor would lind in this only a hilarious comedy. But the fa tliers of I he Ghetto follow the pictures amt the story with tense gaze, drinking m every thrill that the screen presents. And the young people sit silently, seriously, holding hands, perhaps-. And when the heroine and hero are seen with lip touching lip they, too, snatch the opportunity to sip a little of life’s nectar. And the speaker shouts his ingenuous explanations all but unheeded. WHAT THE GHETTO EATS. There are not many strictly Kosher cafes now as the proprietors must cater to the young as well.as the aged, the new Jew as well its the old. And the young are breaking away from old habits of eating. In a strictly Kosber restaurant milk is not served when there is meat on the nor is but*

ter or any of the foods derived from milk permitted. You must drink your coffee without milk or cream and eat your bread unleaven and without butter. But there will be fish, roa-st fowl, thick soup with halls of unleavened dough, thick pasty puddings, sauerkraut and many pickled' vegetables and veal or lamb. Most of the food is thick and heavy, but yery nourishing, which accounts perhaps for the fact that nearly all of the , women of the Ghetto are fat. What is more, thev don’t try to conceal their corpulent figures *by tip-fit, fitting clothes.

And with strict regulations of the ■I cwish religion regarding food, manyother forms and aged customs are being discarded. As long as the Jews were pel eccutcd and confined to restricted areas they observed their religious doctrines rigidly. But now they are free to do as they like they are con forming to manv of the habits of those about them. Saturday is no longer a workloss day. Tt still is their Sabbath and those who can observe- it. But the majority of businesses which employ Jewish labour operate on Saturdays, and tlie Jews work the same as the Gentiles. Nowhere have so many uplift movements been started as in New York’s lower ca-st side. As yet bathtubs are all hut unknown in the tenement districts and most of the refinements of life are lacking in the homes, but there are dozens of community buildings and educational and cultural institutions where the uneducated are taught some o? the things wk?ch make life more beautiful and worth while.