{"id":392,"date":"2020-08-21T20:00:31","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T20:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edblogs.pugetsound.edu\/shirtwaistsandtenements\/?page_id=392"},"modified":"2020-09-02T09:39:10","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T09:39:10","slug":"becoming-american-pastimes-and-pleasures","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/edblogs.pugetsound.edu\/shirtwaistsandtenements\/?page_id=392","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Becoming\u2019 American – Pastimes and Pleasures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A WPA poster from 1938 advertising a Yiddish comedy. (Credit: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The better working conditions, shorter work weeks and higher pay gained from the Protocol of Peace allowed immigrants who before had little time outside of work to have more free time and money, allowing them  to go out and participate in aspects of American society such as going to the Yiddish theaters, baseball games or Coney Island. Going to the theater was a very popular leisure activity in the United States, and many Jewish immigrants too wanted to experience great dramas, tragedies and comedies. Yiddish theaters were established and became very popular as Jewish immigrants could understand the plays even if they didn’t know English, and could take the time to participate in this American pastime and enjoy entertainment. The newspaper, The Jewish Voice <\/em>reported on this popularity in an article on May 19, 1911, Madame Keny Lipzin, \u201cthe Greatest Yiddish actress and tragedienne\u2026 will appear in her latest success, the greatest play, which was the talk of the whole season…\u2018Cards.\u2019\u201d1<\/sup> The article continues on to tell of the various locations those wishing to see this popular play can reserve tickets. Jewish immigrants also participated in American society though purchasing ready-made clothes. Rose Cohan recounts her excitement about buying a new navy blue cashmere dress, it was \u201cnot home-made\u2026 and cost a week\u2019s wages\u2026 but it was worth it. It was so pretty and gave me a great deal of joy.\u201d2<\/sup> 
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In her autobiography Rose Cohan often talks about the beautiful dresses \u2018American\u2019 women wore, and clothes like her ready-made navy blue cashmere dress made her feel like she could look like them. She also says that \u201ca child that came into\u201d the United States \u201cand began to go to school had taken the first step into the New World.\u201d However, she had only \u201ccaught a glimpse\u201d of the United States. Through going to night school and learning how to read English she discovered the joys of reading, joined a library and said, \u201cI was reading and I was quickly learning the ways of this country.\u201d Through activities such as these, Jewish immigrants were able to join in the dominant culture in the United States, giving them more freedoms and opportunities. By gaining these privileges, White Americans began viewing Jewish immigrants as American and also as White. After \u2018becoming\u2019 American and White, Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe also began to contribute to Whiteness. Despite having once been Others themselves, White Jews in America now participate in Whiteness\u2019 violent nature of suppressing, silencing and physically harming the Other, both systematically and institutionally propagating White Supremacy and racism.   
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1.  \u201cYiddish Company At Olympic,\u201d The Jewish Voice<\/em>, May 19, 1911. http:\/\/jpress.org.il\/olive\/apa\/nli\/?href=TJEWVC%2F1911%2F05%2F19&page=7&entityId=Ar00709#panel=document<\/a>.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.\u00a0 Rose Cohan, Out of the Shadow: A Russian Jewish Girlhood on the Lower East Side<\/em>,\u00a0 Documents in American Social History (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1995), 129.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.  Ibid., 246. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.  Ibid., 256. 
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The better working conditions, shorter work weeks and higher pay gained from the Protocol of Peace allowed immigrants who before had little time outside of work to have more free time and money, allowing them  to go out and participate in aspects of American society such as going to the Yiddish theaters, baseball games or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1289,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-392","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edblogs.pugetsound.edu\/shirtwaistsandtenements\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edblogs.pugetsound.edu\/shirtwaistsandtenements\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edblogs.pugetsound.edu\/shirtwaistsandtenements\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edblogs.pugetsound.edu\/shirtwaistsandtenements\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1289"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edblogs.pugetsound.edu\/shirtwaistsandtenements\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=392"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/edblogs.pugetsound.edu\/shirtwaistsandtenements\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":657,"href":"https:\/\/edblogs.pugetsound.edu\/shirtwaistsandtenements\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/392\/revisions\/657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edblogs.pugetsound.edu\/shirtwaistsandtenements\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}